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.
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www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2003 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
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Wow... says it all :-)
Perhaps you have not read the same hatred-filled spew directed at McClintock and his supporters that I have. The establishment Reps are sliming this guy -- a good and decent man who has devoted his long career to fighting the good Republican fight -- every which way. This witch hunt should be watched carefully by every true conservative across the country to see what happens when you buck the country clubbers who have hijacked the party. I, for one, will not walk in fear.
Frankly, I find McClintock's courage under this kind of fire quite laudible. He seems willing to sacrifice his future career for principle, and he does not seem willing to abandon those who desperately seek an alternative to having to vote for socialist baby killers.
Vote for Ahnold? To paraphrase a true Hollywood conservative, you'll have to punch the ballot with my cold, dead hands.
In fact, here comes some of the 'posse' now...
Ann Coulter
“ There are even a few serious candidates like Tom McClintock and Bill Simon who do have plans that actually would save the Golden State.”
and you can add these too.
Thomas Sowell
“It may be too close to call but I will vote for Arnold and hope for the best.”
Milton Friedman
“My impression is that he is fundamentally a small- government libertarian, although that is belied to some extent by the proposition he got through last year [providing tax dollars for after-school programs]. ”
Jarvis Foundation
“ State Senator Tom McClintock has a record on tax issues second to none in Sacramento."
David Drier
“Tom McClintock is a very fine person and has served CA well for the past two decades."
Dave Cox
“ There is no one in state government more focused on the financial problems facing California, nor more committed to finding fiscally sound solutions, " said Cox. "Tom McClintock possesses that all-too-rare combination of integrity, competence and focus that it takes to make effective change in government. "
Rush Limbaugh
“ Probably the most serious candidate on the Republican side, if you want to know the truth (and you do, or you wouldn’t be here) is State Senator Tom McClintock. ”
Joe Farah
“ I have known McClintock for more than a decade. He is as honest and committed as any man I have ever known in politics. He cannot be corrupted. He will not compromise with evil. He is a man of real principle.”
Pat Buchanan
“ But by calling on Republicans to vote for Arnold, not the men of principle Bill Simon or Tom McClintock, who were the conservatives endorsing? A sybarite who backs abortion on demand, homosexual unions and gun control, and thought the impeachment of Clinton a GOP atrocity. ”
A man "great in spirit" does not bend to political fashion and expediency when great principles are at stake.
Matthew 7:13
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it."
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