Threat of spoiler's role doesn't faze McClintock
 STATE SEN. TOM MCCLINTOCK, a conservative Republican, stands with his wife, Lori, amid a forest of campaign signs during a rally in La Canada Flintridge. Although polls rank him third in the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall, he refuses to step aside in the name of party unity. Photo: Associated Press |
SAN FRANCISCO - With little more than a week left in California's recall race, Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to make his victory seem inevitable. But his Republican rival isn't going away.
Conservative state Sen. Tom McClintock has stuck firmly - obstinately, some say - to his pledge to race to the end, even at the risk of splitting the GOP vote and allowing Demo-crats to stay in power if Gov. Gray Davis is recalled.
"I have never been popular in the country club wing of the Republican party," McClintock said in interview Sunday before another full day of campaigning. "I've always drawn my strength from grassroots voters, and I'm quite content with that."
The pressure on McClintock to drop out and throw his votes to Schwarzenegger - a political rookie whose moderate views are shared by many Democrats - has been intense. Most high-level GOP endorsements have gone to Schwarzenegger, who has led McClintock in every poll, including the latest one Sunday, and Republican strategists warn darkly that his career could suffer if he stays in.
But McClintock, a 47-year old career politician who has proven his hardline conservative credentials during almost 17 years in the state legislature, refuses to bow to critics who call him the Ralph Nader of the Republican party.
In the game of political metaphors, he prefers to think of himself as Seabiscuit - the scrappy California race horse who outran the establishment. The recall election has catapulted McClintock into prominence and given him a platform to articulate his anti-tax, anti-abortion, pro-gun philosophy to millions of voters he believes will be receptive to his message.
"I believe in the final days of the campaign we'll see a lot of voters who prefer me but doubt I can win coming back in droves," McClintock said. "The crowds have been phenomenal. They say, 'Don't you dare drop out. We need someone to believe in.' "
Allan Hoffenblum, a GOP strategist and publisher of the authoritative Target Book guide to state elections, warns that McClintock has let the rush of publicity fool him into believing his chances are far better than they are.
"It's called candidate-itis, and it's a severe disease," Hoffenblum said. "What he badly misreads is how much Republicans want this win, and how Tom appears at times to be in the way."
Through wide exposure on television and radio interviews and a strong performance in two major debates, McClintock had emerged until Sunday as a solid third in most polls, with Schwarzenegger and Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante running about even. But a Gallup poll released Sunday showed Schwarzenegger way ahead of the rest of the field.
In the coming days, it will be even harder for McClintock to catch up. He badly trails Davis, Schwarzenegger and Bustamante in campaign cash, and the din of paid advertising by the three could easily drown out McClintock's. McClintock has one television advertisement running statewide, but his "buy" has been dwarfed by the other candidates.
McClintock has benefited from his growing status as a national conservative icon. On Saturday, he was a headliner at a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a national conservative activist organization. The event, held in Colorado Springs, drew conservative heavyweights including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, former Reagan energy secretary Donald Hodel, and Richard Viguerie, founder of the Moral Majority. A fund raising reception at the meeting netted over $100,000 for his campaign, McClintock said.
"When I was walking through the airport in Colorado Springs, people were coming up to me and saying, 'You're Tom McClintock!' and I would say to them, 'What part of California are you from?' " McClintock recounted. "They'd tell me they were from places like Texas and Tennessee. I don't know what it is about this race that has the whole nation watching."
The Schwarzenegger campaign has hinted broadly in recent days that McClintock should exit the race. Schwarzenegger himself said, "I think McClintock should think about it seriously," after a town hall meeting last week in Sacramento.
But in the closing days of the campaign, Schwarzenegger' aides insist McClintock won't distract them.
"Whether he stays or goes doesn't change the way we campaign," said Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Sean Walsh. "Our goal is to conclude this election with all Californians saying Arnold is the right choice to replace Gray Davis."
Hoffenblum warned that McClintock will face serious consequences if Schwarzenegger loses and McClintock is blamed, particularly among the moderate GOP voters who make up the majority of his Ventura County state Senate district.
"I believe there would be a significant number of Republicans in his district who would sit on their hands when he's up for re-election," Hoffenblum said. "They're not going to want him to be their state senator, is the bottom line."
McClintock shrugs off these kinds of predictions as "terrorist threats" from people who've never liked him anyway, and repeats his vow to race to the finish.
"I've always found wisdom in the motto on Davy Crocket's pocketwatch that was found in the debris of the Alamo," McClintock said, "'Be sure you're right, and go ahead."'