Cox ain’t no liberal. I don’t know a ton about Allen but I’d have guessed Cox was to his right. Cox was the most conservative of the candidates when he ran for Senate from IL in 2002.
I didn’t know Cox was a never Trumper though.
Weird.
Allen certainly seems to be a stronger candidate.
One of them needs to drop out to have a decent chance of making the runoff.
I would dispute that. I voted for Jim Durkin in 2002. George Ryan was hellbent on ending capital punishment at the time and Cox was one of those anti-death penalty conservatives. While I understand the "all life is sacred no matter what" position, Cox would say bizarre stuff like he thinks life in prison would be a "worse punishment" but he would allow the death penalty for terrorists. So wait... he wants to give terrorists the "lesser penalty" according to his own internal logic? He actually believes that? Huh?
>> I didn’t know Cox was a never Trumper though. Weird. <<
He means well, but he's a clueless campaigner and his shtick is to always go around claiming "I'm the only true conservative in the race" regardless of who else files for the job. Another FReeper pointed out the main difference between John Cox and Jim Oberweis losing every time they seek a major office is at least Jim Oberweis runs a competitive campaign and puts up a respectful showing, usually coming in a close second. Cox does awful and wins about 20% of the vote, then goes around telling everyone he's popular and a proven vote getter.
>> Allen certainly seems to be a stronger candidate. <<
I certainly agree. The problem is, its California, so any Republican will have a huge uphill battle. But I'll take a 5% chance of winning with Allen over a 0% chance of winning with Cox. Of course, $100 says that Cox and his supporters will go around claiming "we woulda WON if conservatives had gotten behind COX!!" in the event Allen makes the runoff and then loses to a RAT.
>> One of them needs to drop out to have a decent chance of making the runoff. <<
California's jungle primary is a disaster and keeps resulting in RAT vs. RAT matchups. That being said, Cox's egotistical run actually appears to not be that damaging, since the second place RAT in the race is polling a very DISTANT fourth so it doesn't matter if Cox and Allen duke it out for runner up. Still, it baffles me why any conservative who is an informed voter and reads up on Cox's past campaign history would want to vote for him. The only IL conservative I know who DOESN'T have buyers remorse over backing Cox is probably Phil Collins, and I bet even Phil agrees that Allen would be the stronger candidate for California Governor. Cox will be taken seriously when he stops running for the highest office in the land and sets his sights on something he can actually win.