Posted on 08/15/2003 3:59:49 PM PDT by John Jorsett
If Team Davis is running their early campaign against Arnold Schwarzenegger by attacking Pete Wilson, Friday marked the beginning of recall proponents' campaign against Cruz Bustamante.
Political Pulse has learned that Bustamante is preparing for a Capitol press conference next week in which he will lay out his plan for fixing the state's budget. "He's going to have big ideas," says Bustamante campaign consulant Richie Ross. "It will start Tuesday morning. He will unveil what I think will be the most detailed propsal to address the whole defecit."
Sources in the Bustamante camp later said the press conference may be moved to Wednesday.
When he announced his candidacy, Bustamante announced a plan to reverse the car tax increase and replace it with higher cigarette, alcohol and income taxes on the wealthiest Californians. Now, he is preparing a more complete economic vision for California. And all of this has the effect of making the guy he wants to replace, Gov. Davis, seem increasingly irrelevent.
Davis got more bad news Friday in a Field Poll that showed increasing support for the effort to remove him from office. That means its getting to be gut-check time for Democrats who must decide whether to embrace Bustamante, or spend their energy trying to fight for Davis.
"The party has to make that decision," Ross says. "Obviously, we made it clear to people that Cruz does not win this election unless his candidacy is embraced by the rest of the Democratic family. Whether or not they do that is their decision."
In the meantime, Rescue California, the pro-recall group funded by Rep. Darrell Issa, launched their assault on Bustamante, a clear sign that the lieutenant governor has become the biggest perceived obstacle standing between the GOP and the statehouse.
In a statement Friday, Rescue California flogged the failed policies of the "Davis-Bustamante Administration" in an effort to link the largely unknown lieutenant governor to the widely unpopular governor.
"Replacing Gray Davis with his No. 2 man, Cruz Bustamante, won’t change California’s direction or fix California’s problems," said Rescue California spokesman Dave Gilliard . “Bustamante is Davis with the same big spending, higher tax policies, but a better personality. That’s not what we need and not what 1.7 million voters signed recall petitions to accomplish.”
So the race to define Cruz Bustamante is on, and it feels even more like Gov. What's-His-Name is becoming an afterthought in all of this.
Well, no, outside of making it easier for illegals to get here and stay here.
Exactly. If I were interviewing him, the first question he'd get would be, "How would your policies differ from Davis'?" That'd be pretty tough to answer, since saying there'd be no difference would scare the hell out of voters fed up with Davis, and the opposite would essentially be criticizing the guy who's job you're ostensibly trying to save.
calgov2002:
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How novel.
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