Although I have a soft spot for Campbell (was his early runs for Congress that got me to switch forever from Dem to GOP) and would vote for him IF he got the nomination,
after the last 20 years of life’s experiences, I’d be hard-pressed to vote-in-the-primary for anyone other than a McClintock type, someone who I KNOW is not going to “grow in office.” Schwarzenegger SAID all the right things (remember the radio ad decrying being “tax, tax, tax”ed?), but how many has he DONE?
It’s difficult for ANY Republican to win statewide office nowadays in liberal California, be he “RINO” (Fong, Wilson) or conservative (McClintock, Simon, Lungren).
McClintock ran a good Lt. Gov. campaign, and is a great guy with all the right qualifications. My PAC gave to him. However, having an R by your name anywhere is a problem these days, esp. in CA. Not sure that moderates could do any better, but maybe that’s the most we can hope for.
CA does not have representative government, for the most part.
And I’m not so sure of Simon’s and certainly not Lungren’s conservatism anymore...