Posted on 09/25/2003 2:54:50 PM PDT by ambrose
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| from the September 26, 2003 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0926/p01s03-uspo.html
California recall: Does one man hold key?Tom McClintock, top GOP conservative, could tilt race for or against Arnold Schwarzenegger.By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BURBANK, CALIF. - Republican candidate Tom McClintock laughs from deep in the belly when asked if he will be the "spoiler" in the great populist revolution/experiment/circus of California's gubernatorial recall election.
"My opponents say I'm the Ross Perot of this campaign, possibly siphoning off enough votes to hand the election to Democrats," he says, settling onto a shady park bench for an interview. "I say, 'Wait a minute.... Ross Perot was an idle millionaire, with no public-policy experience who one day on a whim entered the presidential race.' That sounds like another candidate in this race ... not me," he says, referring to muscleman/millionaire Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Once a mere asterisk in the con- fused calculus of California's 135-candidate recall election, Mr. McClintock has gradually emerged as the strong, third-place vote getter in polls - rising (at 14-to-18 points) while the two leaders - fellow Republican Schwarzenegger (26 points) and Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (28 points) - tread water.
As the race enters its final stretch, McClintock's motives and acts are becoming paramount for two reasons. One, splitting the Republican vote, he could cost the party its best chance in a decade of high, statewide office. Two, his candidacy could drag down the success of the recall itself by forcing Republican partisans to reconsider driving Gov. Gray Davis from office because of fear that they could hand the office to a more liberal Democrat, Mr. Bustamante.
Ever since McClintock leaped from 4 percent voter support to double-digits about three weeks ago, the pressure has risen for him to stop offering himself as an alternative to Arnold Schwarzen-egger that could hand the election to Democrats. But as more voters get to know him, his poll numbers have continued to rise, while Schwarzenegger's are flat.
More conservative than Schwarzenegger on social issues - abortion, gay marriage, gun control - he is also far more experienced in fiscal matters, with California's sagging economy the No. 1 issue.
"He is by far the most studied and experienced of all the candidates in fiscal issues and how to implement public policy," says Jack Pitney, political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. "If the election were a college SAT test, McClintock would be the next governor hands down."
Even though he is widely acknowledged as the more knowledgeable, the more articulate, and the more detailed idea-man, 25-year government veteran McClintock does not have the millions of dollars of his chief Republican rival, nor his name recognition. Therein lies one of the chief ironies of the recall: Does he/should he/will he step aside to allow the neophyte challenger - and the Republican party - to gain its best chance of victory?
"He is a man who stands on his word and his principles while claiming time and again that he is in this to the last," says Doug Jeffe, a longtime California political consultant. "If he did get out, it would be totally uncharacteristic of him."
Now, with Schwarzenegger and Bustamante in a near dead heat, one leading Republican, Darrell Issa, the millionaire who bankrolled the signature gathering to oust Davis, has said that if Schwarzenegger or McClintock don't back off, Republicans should vote "no" on the recall. Polls show that if Arnold backed out, McClintock could not win.
But McClintock rejects a widespread analysis that conservative candidates have brought Republican fortunes to their low ebb. He feels the current crisis is the perfect storm for their historic comeback.
"Great parties are built on great principles," says McClintock, referring to the pillars of conservative policy: holding down taxes, cutting waste, standing up for the unborn, and resisting government approval of gay unions. "This is not a time to change our principles."
While such comments win kudos from some for adherence to principle, they strike others as bullheaded.
"McClintock's constant megaphoning of conservative social agendas is presenting a real problem for Republicans who really like him for his fiscal experience," says William Schneider, a pollster and political analyst. "They know Tom has the smarts to get this state out of economic problems and they worry about Arnold's lack of experience and specificity. But they don't think Tom can win and can't resist the fact that Arnold could."
As a child, McClintock campaigned for Barry Goldwater at age 8. In high school he organized classmates into a statewide GOP group. A political-science graduate of UCLA, he became a syndicated columnist railing about former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, lauding the character of John Wayne. Hired by a former L.A. police chief-cum-state senator (Ed Davis), McClintock began a 25-year career in Sacramento, marked by opposition to Republican governors George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson over tax hikes and spending waste.
Despite his conservative stances, he was the top GOP vote-getter in the state, running for controller, in the 2002 election.
"I got very little from the state GOP and was outspent by my opponent by 5 to 1," says McClintock. "Despite all that, I lost by less than 1 percent of the vote."
A man who often quotes Reagan and Shakespeare, McClintock is considered a legislative loner with few legislative friends for his near two-decade pursuit of shrinking the state payroll.
In his favorite stump speech he tells why cutting is so important. As a child, he came home from school to find his mother crying over an unexpectedly high tax bill. The moment has lived in his imagination ever since that government takes too much from citizens and delivers too little.
Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2003 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
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No twisting going on here. I think that is very...odd, don't you think? Heck yeah they are supporting Davis, but The Talking Point is "No on the Recall, Yes on Bustamante" so why aren't the Clintons being good Democrates?
They ARE the Democrates, in case you haven't realized about them yet, pay no attention to their words, just their actions.
Additionally, your map is pretty but also irrelevant. I don't recall folks saying that Arnold will deliver California to Bush
LOL! Yeah, maybe once they said that...in passing, in FReepmail.
To show any meaning between the two, you need to show states with RINO governors that went to Bush.
Tam, that is the point. Zero. Goose ego, Nada. OK, West Virginia, I take that back, that being R-Cecil Underwood, but lost his own reelection in the same election to the sleaze Bob Wise!
The graphic gets a bit cluttered if all the info is in there (I would have liked it in there too though, FYI) here is the RINO breakdown courtesy of your good buddy fieldmarshalldj;
CT-Rowland; IL-Ryan; MA-Cellucci; NJ-Whitman; NM-Johnson (he wasn't a RINO in the sense of moving towards the 'Rats per se, but really a Libertarian. Good with some issues, but on drugs, absolutely nutty); NY-Pataki; RI-Almond. Some might also include these 3, but that's a bit controversial: MI-Engler (who got a bit skittish on some issues at the end, notably school vouchers); PA-Ridge (abortion); WI-Thompson (I'm forgetting the specific claims against him, probably with regard to state spending, and left a shockingly unprepared Lieutenant who had served with him for 14 years in charge of the candy store when he left for DC, and lost the office to the AG whose people bribed retarded citizens with soft drinks to vote for him). Point being, this map needs a "legend" but if you know what the colors represent, its pretty damaging.
I NEVER Report Abuse...but then I love the Lincoln/ Confederacy threads...this is mild....I’m one stiff neck Yankee
Did it remind you of Norma Desmond in the closing scenes of "Sunset Blvd". You know, the one with the crazy look in her eyes?
you owe me on that one! LOL
Ann's column is syndicated and published by many different outlets. This is not the first time that one of them has changed the title of one of her columns. I don't think she has a say in that. Check her actual website if you're not sure of the original title. Just because one website chose to change the title does not mean that Ann Coulter has endorsed Schwarzenkennedy. And if you would actually read the article, you would see that Ann is mocking you because, of course, Arnold is not Gray Davis.
I agree about Reagan creating landslides, but you must understand that it is a clear Platform that creates landslides. Not a Triangulation, in fact, I can't think of any Republican that ever ran left that has ever won a landslide. Usually the opposite happens. Its not like people magically change year to year when the candidates are issues-lite. Bush only won barely because it was Bush's fault for not making enough of a distinction from Gore, its just that simple. Thanks to 9/11, the distinction between the parties is CLEAR.
I'm not saying its Pataki's "fault" he lost NY, but I am saying that Pataki's failure as a leader hurt the GOP in that state. That will reflect at the ballot box to be sure. OK, I guess I am saying its Pataki's fault Bush lost NY in 00, but its not like he could have tried harder campaigning. Its fundamentals which he doesn't have and never will. Like (R)nold.
There is a reason California isn't embracing the most famous actor to ever run for political office, and has him at 43% negative in the last Field Poll. Its not that they didn't like his movies...
Same reason President Bush takes money from the tribes...because they are Americans who want to give it to help him forward his campaign.
They are free to do that, you know.
Why is Arnold taking money and advice from Warren Buffett, who has given money to Hillary and who is Planned Barrenhood's biggest benefactor?
What?! Indians aren't allowed to donate to Republicans? There was a story posted here on FR about the traditional Republican support some tribes have offered. And that donating to Republicans in California isn't new. I don't know why people continue to bludgeon Tom with this. Maybe I missed something.
They are, dear, it somehow escaped your notice.
Weren't you paying attention when Clinton was campaigning for Davis? How he kept insisting that folks vote against the recall? Remember him in the black church quoting from the Bible and telling folks they were casting stones by voting for the recall and "Let he among you without sin cast the first stone."
and this one was telling... "Gray Davis and I have been friends for a long time. I don't want this happening to him ‘.‘.‘. but this is way bigger than him," Clinton told a crowd of several hundred at the mostly black church.
The Clintons are seriously stumping for the DNC in California. Do you think the Clintons are happy to see McClintock staying in the race and splitting the GOP vote, yes or no?
"Do you think you can do a better job than Tom McClintock?"
If it's no, then why is he standing in the way of the best Republican for California when he says he wants what is best for the State?
If it's yes, then he's got some explaining to do.
The Morongo tribe just made another $850,000 ad buy for McClintock.
Say, here's an idea! How about pressuring Cruz to pull out?!
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