Posted on 03/02/2007 7:24:46 PM PST by FairOpinion
John McCain's presidential campaign picked up support Friday from a prominent California Republican with ties to the White House - Gerald Parsky, who chaired President Bush's campaigns in the state in 2000 and 2004.
Parsky, a Los Angeles financier and fundraiser, will serve as an economic policy adviser for the Arizona senator's campaign.
McCain's political team already includes an array of politically influential figures, including Donald Bren, chairman of The Irvine Co., Univision chief A. Jerrold Perenchio, and Orange County investor George Argyros, a former ambassador to Spain appointed by Bush.
John Chambers, the chairman and chief executive of technology giant Cisco Systems Inc., will serve as the national co-chair and economic and technology adviser.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Money talks and look at the people lining up behind McCain.
I'am a voter and I don't line up behind McNut.
Personally, I'm getting more of a kick out of who your account team lines up behind. ;-)
Actually Parsky lives in the wealtiest zip code in the U.S.
Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego co.
He sunk a lot of conservitives in CA
Parsky has done such a bang-up job representing folks as a UC Regent and Chairman of the UC Board of Regents, not to mention his bang-up work assisting in the dismantlement of the Ca GOP. I wish him as much success with McCain.
Iceberg ahead..!!!
His enterprises are run out of the Cayman Islands if I'm not mistaken.
Parsky was the guy behind Richard Riordan and Arnold Schwartzenneger.
He was also responsible for Bill Simon's losing the race to Brown.
The guy is a pure money man, a Country Clubber of the worst kind. He and McCain deserve each other.
I wouldn't doubt it :)
Here's a National Review piece from January 2003, may help shed a little more light on his special staus in the party.
Golden Possibilities
California is winnable for Republicans.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-steel011503.asp
an excerpt follows
--
The defeat of the statewide ticket here was largely man-made. No one worked harder or had a better message than Bill Simon. Merely citing Bill Simon's inexperience and his chaotic, mistake-prone campaign staff only goes so far. Attention needs to be paid to the man-behind-the-curtains: Gerald L. Parsky.
Parsky is a liberal, ultra-wealthy Los Angeles investor. He's also President Bush's self-appointed man in California, a sort of White House California viceroy. He holds no formal title or party office and few Republicans know his name, but he is unarguably the single-most-powerful Republican in the state. He has the last word in federal judicial appointments in California, and harbors aspirations to be treasury secretary.
Seeds of the Election Day disaster were planted a year ago, when Parsky muscled through a restructuring of the state party that transferred executive authority from the elected chairman to an unelected operations committee controlled by himself — effectively severing ultimate control of the party from grassroots activists and giving it to a small oligarchy.
As party chairman, I voluntarily assented to the experiment on the strength of promises by Parsky that he would, in exchange, leverage his close relationship with the White House to raise at least $10 million for the party's political plan. Lacking a Republican governor or U.S. senator, California Republicans desperately need the help of a Republican White House to raise the huge sums necessary to be competitive in the fall election.
Thus began a string of broken promises and blockheaded decisions that significantly contributed to our losses this November. Parsky bestirred himself to raise only $3.5 million of the $10 million he originally pledged. The relative ease with which he accomplished that — that money was raised with just three fundraising events — left many party leaders wondering why he chose not to raise the additional millions that would have made the difference in some close races.
The promised stream of Cabinet officers and other high administration officials to raise funds proved to be less than a trickle. While Parsky did bring in Vice President Dick Cheney to headline two of his three fundraising events, and Karl Rove and Jack Oliver touched down for brief donor tour, Parsky was curiously unable to include a single fundraising opportunity on the itineraries of more than 100 visits to California by Cabinet officials during the last year.
At the same time, Parsky — who controlled party finances and expenditures — starved state-party operations, hoarding revenues in separate campaign accounts and refusing to fund vital campaign efforts until very late — too late — in the game.
This indifference and mismanagement bled into the Simon campaign. Parsky threatened to block funds for Simon's candidacy unless his campaign was put in the hands of Rob Lapsley — a long-time operative who had been in charge of Secretary of State Bill Jones's abysmal gubernatorial primary campaign.
Didn't Bush spend about 5 days total here in California? I was disgusted with his NO-show here; just what did this guy do?? Not a whole lot, if I remember. Sounds like he's no great shakes and he's joining no great shakes.
Is this something like the Kiss of Death?
Ah, yes, I worked ONE DAY at the local precinct Hdqtrs. "He severed ties with the grassroots" is exactly what happened. The Party regulars, headed by a feisty, no-nonsense woman with many years' experience, were so disheartened. No one worked at Headquarters except one whiz-bang young Party guy from Sacto. I bet Parsky was behind this.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1649881/posts
What's Gerry Parsky Doing In Caribbean?
Bush was always dynamite in California. (sarcasm)
That article sure explains a lot.
Am glad he is not on my guy's team.
LOL. Parsky & McCain. They deserve each other.
Look at the bright side. Parsky has mastered the art of the Roveian Paradox:
To his credit, Parsky is quite a bit more obnoxious than Karl Rove and hasn't anywhere near the I.Q. Yes, politics makes strange bedfellows, but not this time.
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE "RHINESTONE HERO"
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: THE ULTIMATE "RHINESTONE HERO" Part II
U.S. Sen. John McCain is no War Hero
John McCain: The Manchurian Candidat
McCain Is Booed by Labor Activists
McCain Rides to Kerry's Rescue: "John Kerry is Not Weak on Defense" (Today Show alert)
John McCain SCREAMS AT 9/11 FSA MEMBERS FOR OPPOSING HIS BILL TO GIVE AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS
A number of articles on McCain. (some the same as above)
McCain/Soros by Rabbi Areyh Spero
Soros' "Reform" (an article about Soros‘ instrumental hand in McCain/Feingold)
Not Child‘s Play [McCain/Schumer bill could effect FR?]
McCain's Letter (McCain aligns with Global Enviro activists)
The Turning Point on Global Warming (McCain and Lieberman Op-Ed Alert)
Climate bill sets stage for debate (Sens. McCain, Obama, and Lieberman join forces)
McCain Looked into Caucusing with Democrats
McCain Still Disliked by Fiscal Conservatives (Club For Growth)
John McCain Goes Left for Money
Sens. Snowe, Collins to head Maine exploratory committee for McCain
Double Talk Express. McCain in his own words. VIDEO
More YOUTUBE - McCain On Abortion (UH OH! YouTube Has a Video of Him in 1999)
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