For the GOP, it's More than a Recall

There is no argument about the serious condition of our once golden state. Our debt is greater than all the other states combined, we are but a few million dollars away from bankruptcy. Our tax burden and over regulations are driving business out of the state at an unprecedented rate.

We are at a crucial point in our state’s history. The people themselves; Democrat, Republican and Independents, without the approval or help from any party have called for an election to recall this governor and replace him with another, one who will hopefully lead us out of this mess.

There appears to be a wide agreement on the first question; should we recall Governor Davis. The second part, choosing a new governor, will not be difficult for most Democrats: theirs is a party line vote with only one candidate, Lt. Gov. Bustamante. And even though he said he will raise taxes and further regulate and tax business, forcing more of them to leave, they will vote for him.

For Republicans however this election is about more than which Republican we should vote for. This election is more about the party itself; will we continue to be a party of principle, directed by the philosophy of Lincoln and Reagan or have we laid our principles aside? Do we want to win so badly that it doesn’t matter how or who, just so the next governor has an R behind his name?

The GOP has two candidates: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a celebrity of worldwide fame, with popularity and fame as the Terminator and recognized as a super star among movie idols. He is a good man. His celebrity status alone will attract a huge number of votes for the GOP from Independents, Democrats and especially young voters. Among the 18 to 30 year olds, he is Britney Spears with muscles. They wow over him. Most moderate Republicans and many regular Republicans, those who desperately want a Republican to win, will vote for him. They are prepared to look beyond his political beliefs and character; they just want to win.

Sen. McClintock, on the other hand, is an icon among Republicans. Since the first day he was elected to office, nearly twenty years ago, he has led the fight against the very forces and policies that have now badly tarnished this once golden state. He fought Governor Wilson’s huge tax increase, just as hard as he fought Willie Brown and Gray Davis. His credentials, as well as his character as a conservative Republican, are impeccable.

He has been our party’s leader and severest critic of fraud, corruption and waste in state government. From the very beginning of his career until today, he has warned that unless spending was brought under control, California would end up as it has today.

The knock on McClintock is that he can’t raise the money and so, can’t win this election. The knock on Schwarzenegger is that he is not a true Republican and carries a lot of baggage that the Democrats will probably throw at him just before the election.

Actually, Arnold is no higher in the polls than he was when he started, whereas McClintock has risen from an asterisk to double digits.

In the last election, McClintock was outspent 30 to 1, yet he received more votes than any other other Republican on election day. Had those moderates claiming Tom can’t win today contributed to his election, or given him his fair share of the money donated by the national party, he would have won. McClintock lost the Controller’s race by the slimmest margin in history. Had he been helped by the moderates controlling our state party, California would not now be in the awful mess in which we find ourselves today.

The moderates of the party and most of the GOP congressmen are just where they were prior to the last Governor’s race. On orders from the White House and Karl Rove, many "conservative" congressman support Schwarzenegger, just as they endorsed the moderate Richard Riordan.

The moderates in our party, including the New Majority and those in the Lincoln Club, are intensely interested in electing Schwarzenegger, a moderate. They believe the party’s future, especially in California, is to adopt the Karl Rove/Parsky plan; we must forgo the values of the liberals and accept the invasion of illegals, adopt the big tent, tax and spend and big government philosophy of the Democrats.

Conservatives know that our party’s losses in California, all during the past decade, are due to millions of illegals who have entered California, and – the continued split in our party between the moderate, "Country Club" Republicans and the conservatives.

While Arnold has a high rating in the polls, it has never risen above where it started. McClintock on the other hand has been continually rising, from as asterisk to double digits. There is a cry from moderate Republicans and "concern" from the media that McClintock should withdraw in favor of Arnold, else the GOP might not win and the dreadful Bustamante will become governor.

This dilemma among the GOP might not be so tragic or apocryphal if the contest was between two conservatives, say Simon and McClintock, one would drop out when just before the election the other was ahead. The same can be said if the two Republicans were Arnold and some equally famous, moderate movie star, but it isn’t.

It’s between our brightest Republican star, a conservative icon and a dazzling celebrity. Conservatives at the core of the party are incredulous at those moderates who don’t share those core values, yet are asking the conservative standard bearer to drop out. Conservatives want to win but they know that a win that asks us to repudiate our principles is not a victory, it’s a harbinger of the end.

Lieutenant Colonel Gil Ferguson, USMC (Ret.), served in the California State Assembly from 1984 to 1994.

Expediency vs. principle
If Supreme Court puts recall back on track, a crucial choice looms Oct. 7
By DOUG GAMBLE
The former writer for President Reagan lives in Carmel.

Assuming the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and puts the California recall election back on track, and state Sen. Tom McClintock stays in the race, Republicans will have to choose between expediency and principle Oct. 7. At the moment, expediency is leading in the polls.

If this were a primary, the conservative bent of state Republicans would probably mean a McClintock victory over Arnold Schwarzenegger. But since the candidate receiving the most votes becomes governor if Gray Davis is recalled, conservatives are tempted to give Schwarzenegger a free pass on ideology just to have a Republican as chief executive.

Even if it means postponing a GOP governorship until January 2007 - and I believe a conservative running a smart campaign can win statewide office in this state - I hope California Republicans will match McClintock's principled stand on the issues with principles of their own and vote for him over a watered-down Republican whose unofficial campaign slogan seems to be, "Details, schmetails." If he were Arnold Schwarzenegger, insurance agent, instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor, his campaign would be a joke and unworthy of coverage.

The fact is his support is built entirely on a foundation of celebrity. How else to explain the all- news channels breaking away from regular programming to cover live the actor's every utterance before a microphone? It is only a movie star's fame that makes him more media-worthy than McClintock.

When Schwarzenegger is greeted at campaign events by throngs of squealing teen-age girls and crowds pressing forward for handshakes and autographs, it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with fame. The actor's calculation, probably correct, is that in our celebrity-obsessed culture, star appeal trumps substance.

Those who vote for Schwarzenegger will do so without really knowing what they'll be getting. He still speaks in vague generalities and has not spelled out the particulars of achieving stated goals. According to TV ads that contain more fluff than the lint filter of an overused clothes dryer, his entire solution to the budget deficit is to "open the books."

He has said nothing about what programs he'll cut, and, although he insists he won't raise taxes, I don't believe him.

Particularly irksome is his decision to duck all but one of the scheduled debates. What other than political cowardice and contempt for the voters would cause a candidate to pass up opportunities to make his case before a statewide TV audience, a viewership made all the larger by interest in the recall? And what credible candidate would refuse to hold a news conference at a party's state convention as Schwarzenegger did last weekend?

Yet even such solid Republicans as Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and conservative spitfire Ann Coulter seem to have fallen under the Schwarzenegger celebrity spell, backing a candidate who is pro-abortion, favors gun control and gay adoptions and is to the left of Sen. Dianne Feinstein on school vouchers.

Schwarzenegger is compared to Ronald Reagan, but the real Reagan Republican in this race is McClintock, a courageous fighter against big government and higher taxes for over two decades. Also, it is McClintock who has seen a recent surge in poll numbers while Schwarzenegger's have remained relatively stagnant. But apparently no good work goes unpunished as the California GOP sees it, so it's the genuine Republican the party wants to boot to the sidelines.

If enough Republicans vote for Schwarzenegger, he may become governor, but at what cost to the party's soul? Their votes will decide if conservative principles are worth fighting for or whether most California Republicans are just star-struck groupies.

Orange County Register 9/16/2003

"I am the only candidate at this table who has signed a no-tax pledge. I am the only candidate at this table who supports Proposition 54 to stop the government from racially classifying every one of us. I'm the only candidate at this table that opposes the bill that gives driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. I'm the only candidate at this table who's pro-life. I'm the only candidate who supports the entire Bill of Rights, including our Second Amendment. And I'm the only candidate who for 20 years in the public arena has proposed and fought for precisely those fiscal forms that are desperately needed to straighten out this state's finances."

"People tell me all the time that 'you care more about your principles than you care about winning'. First of all, I believe that if you stick to your principles, you will win. And secondly, if you don't stick to your principles, what is the point of winning?"

"When I entered this race, I made a promise to stay in right to the finish line. I keep my promises."

Tom McClintock
September 24, 2003

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