Posted on 02/05/2002 10:29:12 AM PST by Gophack
Gray Davis is attempting to deceive Republican primary voters by running commercials depicting Riordan as pro-life. In his commercials, he calls Riordan an "anti-choice extremist" and quotes Riordan saying that "abortion is murder."
Richard Riordan has said over and over that he is pro-choice, that he is "personally opposed" to abortion, but defends "a woman's right to choose abortion" and that poor women should receive taxpayer funded abortions so that they have a "real choice". He has said that if Republicans don't remove the pro-life plank in our platform, our party will become extinct.
Why would Gray Davis do this? Because he knows that Republican primary voters are pro-life, and that we will jump to the defense of anyone who is depicted as "anti-choice". Why? Because Davis wants to run against Richard Riordan! Riordan has flip-flopped on every major issue to come to him: abortion, gay marriage, taxes. He opposed Prop. 22!!!!! He said going door-to-door to confiscate guns is a good idea!!!!!
If Davis REALLY wanted Riordan to lose the Republican primary, he would tell the Republican voters that he opposed Prop. 22 and supports homosexual unions. THAT would definitely keep Republicans from supporting him!
Unfortunately, Davis has a lot of money to get out his lies and deception. He is playing in the Republican Party so that he gets another four years in office to tax us out of our homes. He knows that if Riordan wins on March 5th, Gray Davis will have another four years as governor.
This really came home to me when I received an email this morning from a friend in Los Angeles. He said that he was listening to Christian radio and they started talking about the Governor's race, and their people were very confused by the Davis advertising against Riordan. They went so far as to ask listeners to pray for Richard Riordan who is being persecuted for his Christian beliefs on the abortion issue!
DON'T BE DECEIVED! Richard Riordan is NOT PRO-LIFE and he has said that he fully supports ABORTION ON DEMAND and wants YOU TO PAY FOR IT.
Freepers, we need to fight Gray Davis and make sure he doesn't deceive Republicans into voting for Richard Riordan. ANYTIME you are listening to radio, particularly Christian radio, call up and tell the listeners that Riordan is pro-abortion, that he wants contraceptives to be distributed to minors, and that he wants you to pay for abortions. This is all true and his quotes in newspaper articles have been posted on FR in the past few months.
We only have 4 weeks. We can't be complacent. We need to defeat Gray Davis, but first we need to defeat Richard Riordan.
Bill Simon is the only true pro-life candidate running for the Republican nomination, and he's gaining ground on Riordan. Simon has been endorsed by the California ProLife Council. Simon opposes government funding of abortion. We need to make sure that Bill Simon is our Republican nominee ... and the next Governor of California.
Thank you and God bless!
Davis is trying to box in Riordan. If Riordan responds and says 'Although I supported pro-Life positions in the past, I now am pro-choice', he will lose conservative votes in the primary. If he responds 'I'm proud of supporting pro-life positions', he will lose liberal votes in the general election. Attacks like this show how desperate Davis is. I have to admit, cynically, it is a pretty good strategy.
I think you missed my point. The point is, Davis WANTS Riordan to win the primary. Republican primary voters are, by and large, pro-life. Confusing us as to who the pro-life candidate is gives the election to Riordan because he has the greater name ID.
If Davis WANTED Riordan to lose, he would tell the voters that he supports gay marriage and opposed Prop. 22. Davis wants to run against Riordan because Riordan has so much baggage that he will be easy to defeat.
Lungren lost NOT because he was pro-life, but because he was a gun-grabber AND he spoke like he was arguing with you, even when you agreed with him. He had a hard edge, a rough edge, that voters didn't like. THAT's why he lost. Gray Davis seemed reasonable and fair and nice; Lungren mean and vicious. It had nothing to do with abortion. In fact, all the exit polls showed that being pro-life gave Lungren a 1% edge.
Simon isn't Lungren (thank God!). Simon is pro-life and conservative on all the other issues, but he is also a reasoned speaker, sounds "kindler and gentler" (forgive me for invoking those words!) and has common sense solutions to the real problems facing California. If Davis wanted Simon to win, he would be running commercial calling Riordan pro-choice, or calling Simon anti-choice.
Davis does NOT want to run against Riordin. Since Calif. has open primaries, democrats can vote for a republican in the primary. (Davis doesn't really care about their votes since he is unopposed for all practical purposes) Since the democrats may vote for Riordin, Davis is trying to scare them away. If he succeeds, the liberals won't vote for Riordin and the conservatives may elect Simon or Jones as the Republican candidate. With all the liberals in California, Davis feels that he can beat a conservative easier than he can beat a clone who happens to have an (R) behind his name.
The California Supreme Court through out the open primary law. Democrats can not vote in the Republican primary.
The only people that can vote in somebody else's primary are those who "decline to state" party affiliation. When an "unaffiliated" voter goes to the polling place, he can only get the primary ballot of that party or a non-partisan ballot.
The parties that allow this crossover in California are the Republicans, the Democrats, the American Independent Party, and the Natural Law Party.
Source: Page 32 of the California Primary Election pamphlet put out by Secretary of State Bill Jones.
Lungren lost simply because he ran a horrible campaign. He popped off too much about irrelevant social issues and he didn't seem to have a grip on the fiscal issues. Lungren would have lost no matter who ran against him. Don't compare Simon to Lungren...there is no comparison. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Simon is in this race to win...he's got the fiscal issues down but he seems to be running a stealth campaign. Nevertheless, I'm glad Davis is running his stupid abortion ads against DICK...maybe they'll help Simon...then again, time is running out. Then we'll be stuck with a choice between 2 lousy candidates. Go Simon!
Simon Bump!
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