Huge Blow to McClintock. California GOP to Formally Endorse Arnold Schwarzenegger 2pm PST Today

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

FOX NEWS:

The California GOP will announce today that it will endorse Arnold Schwarzenegger for their candidate for the governor of California.

The official announcement will come at 2pm Pacific time today.

This announcement comes as a big blow to Tom McClintock.

[DoughtyOne]

You're not telling me anything I don't already know. If the election were between Schwarzenegger and Bustamante the McClintock folks would proudly stay home. I'm aware of that. And I expect some of them to do just that, another sad off-shoot of this whole McClintock fiasco.

[VRWC_minion]

Bottom line, there is everything to gain and nothing to lose by McC withdrawing NOW!

I disagree. McClintock supporters seem to be so upset there boy is losing, they could stay home and make the over all recall vote harder to win. They are not going to vote for Arnold no matter what but they at least need to show up and vote for the recall.

[Lazamataz]

A lot of good (R)nold will be as a governor. LOOK, A BEAR IS ABOUT TO MAUL HIS HEAD!!!

[jmc813]

That is why there is such an argument over Arnold--he is an economic conservative, but not much of a moral/social conservative.

He's nowhere near being a Jeffer5sonian conservative either.

[zbigreddogz]

AMEN!!!

It seems that the McClintiacs are blind to this.

[EternalVigilance]

Your number 124 can't be repeated too many times:


Reagan Strategist Ken Khachigian: Instead of Trying to Oust McClintock, State GOP Should Target Bustamante

In the last few weeks, discerning Republicans have come to realize that a formula for ensuring victory in the recall election is at hand. With Tom McClintock and Arnold Schwarzenegger, they have two men — with albeit different qualities — who clearly can lead California. So instead of wasting precious energy on the nonsensical death dance of trying to force McClintock out of the race, the GOP should be concentrating on a single goal: creating a win-win proposition by targeting enough firepower on Cruz Bustamante to shove him into third place.

Last week's debate exposed the lieutenant governor as the listless officeholder that he is. Like Barbara Boxer, Bustamante slipped into office as a lightweight with lucky timing — someone who could never have won statewide office absent a perfect alignment of the political stars with the political calendar.

>From his initial entry into the race, Bustamante has provided Republicans with an easy target. He has proposed $8 billion in tax increases, refused to repudiate a racist slogan, given us the laughable watchwords of "tough love" and cynically (and illegally) manipulated campaign finance laws. His nondescript demeanor and persona — which helped sell him to his colleagues as a nonthreatening Assembly speaker — hardly meet Central Casting's standards for governor, as was painfully apparent in the debate.

But the internecine bickering in the GOP — underscored by staged endorsements and hand-wringing over possible split votes — leaves many activists worried that the principal message is not being delivered: yes on recall and no on Bustamante.

Putting the recall on the back burner during the debate and in our campaigning gave the governor's operatives all the running room they needed. So it's no surprise that Gray Davis' campaign manager now gloats: "We're going to win we're on the threshold, and we're going to walk through the door."

Well, there's plenty of time to shut that door. We should:

• Remind voters of Davis' failed leadership. Schwarzenegger's campaign has taken a good first step by airing a commercial that does this, but still, that ad is nowhere nearly strong enough — a probable result of Schwarzenegger's imprudent declaration that he would "stay positive."

• Make the case against Bustamante. Belatedly coming off the bench, the Republican Governors Assn. has paid for television ads that do this. Party stalwarts here in California ought to replicate that effort in key cable markets and on radio to generate maximum negatives for Bustamante. A steady drip-drip through Oct. 6 that plays off Bustamante's feeble debate showing can still save the day.

• In this final sprint, Schwarzenegger and McClintock should stay out of San Francisco and get out of Los Angeles. They need to drive the vote in high-margin areas — those places where Davis and Bustamante are the weakest. In 1996, I coined the term California's "political fishhook," taken from the shape of the demographics that run from Chico/Redding and Sacramento south through the Great Valley, out to the Inland Empire, down through San Diego and back up through the conservative ring around Los Angeles in Orange and Ventura counties. In most of these key California counties, Bill Simon defeated Davis last fall by margins ranging from 9% to 31%.

It is in the fishhook where disenchantment with Davis is the highest. Because of intense media coverage, this is one time when old-fashioned stumping can make a difference in triggering motivation and intensity in the heart of moderate-to-conservative California.

Finally, the Republicans need to be prepared for the typical Democratic eleventh-hour spitballs — the kind fired at Bruce Herschensohn in 1992 (for the sin of taking a date to strip club), Mike Huffington in 1994 (for hiring an undocumented nanny) and Darrell Issa in 1998 (for allegedly misrepresenting his military record). Just because Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer this summer railed against the "puke politics" of Gray Davis doesn't mean that Davis and his assorted thugs will abjure their traditional tactics.


Keep the State GOP Focused on Yes on the Recall, No on Bustamante!

We wholeheartedly agree that the Republican Party's focus must be on voter turnout to deliver a YES on the Recall question and to oppose Cruz Bustamante's tax-and-spend ideas. The state executive board should NOT divide our party by opposing one of their own Republican candidates, especially when that candidate is still well positioned to win on Election Day!

An “emergency” meeting of the executive board has been called for later today. Please contact the following members of Republican Party Executive Board, and let them know how important it is to you that they stay neutral and focus their efforts on fighting the liberal Democrats who have given us the failed leadership, record budget deficits and uncontrolled spending.

YES on the recall and NO on Bustamante: That is the party’s job!



124 posted on 09/29/2003 3:08 PM EDT by RGSpincich

[CheneyChick]

Feel better? Anything else you'd like to get off your chest?

[Robert_Paulson2]

I will do all I can within the confines of the party to see that he is NOT the candidate to oppose Barbara Boxer for Senate. He is from this point on, unelectable in ANY capacity, including the job he currently has.

[PhiKapMom]

I am to the stage after the 2000 election, 2002 election here in OK (for Governor/4th District seat), and now the CA Recall, if I see the word "principled" before the word conservative, I am voting for the other candidate in the primary! The far right has gone too far with this Recall with their lies, etc. There are plenty of good conservatives supporting Arnold as the best person to get things back in shape for California. An all or nothing person is not the best person for the job!

Being accussed of being something less than human for belonging to a country club is a low blow -- Republicans are not supposed to be successful? That's right better to be a career politician, take donations from the Indians, then be a businessman who is successful and just might happen to be a member of a Country Club.

What is wrong with Country Club's? Conservatives cannot join them? Guess I really am a member of the RINO's -- still belong to one in Texas! That means my opinion means nothing? At least I am good company with the rest of the RINO's.

I thought the RATs were the ones into class warfare -- guess I was wrong about that too!

[B Knotts]

California needs a new Republican Party. The one it has is pretty much a wing of the Democrat Party.

[CheneyChick]

YES on the recall and NO on Bustamante

That was my tagline when this all started...

[zacyak]

This is starting to be typical of Mr. S's supporters, they can't go far attacking Tom on issues or qualifications, so they resort to character assassination. Speaks a lot of you folks.

Ain't that the truth. I'm somewhat neutral on who to support, but it does sicken me when I see my fellow Republicans trash McC.

[EternalVigilance]

McClintock supporters seem to be so upset there boy is losing, they could stay home and make the over all recall vote harder to win. They are not going to vote for Arnold no matter what but they at least need to show up and vote for the recall.

What do you expect when you see the kind of vitriol that has been directed at them for weeks by the AS slime machine??

Y'all ever hear of cause and effect?

I've been warning of this very thing for weeks, and all it has gotten me is more nasty attacks directed at me.

[StoneColdGOP]

I hate mid-day road construction.

That about does it...

[zbigreddogz]

I always support non-egomaniacs who have the interest of the district/state/country at hand as opposed to egomaniacs who are self absorbed and who care about nothing but themselves.

[RogerWilko]

That poll was of REPUBLICAN voters only

They need to ask this question to the dems: "If your only choice is Busty or McC, would you still vote for the recall?"

Then you'd find out whether he stood a chance or not. I think a WHOLE LOAD of those dems would keep Dufus in if those were the choices. However, I could be wrong.

[evilsmoker]

Sorry, you're wrong. The poll included ALL (Dem, Rep, Indep, Grn) Probable Voters and was taken Sept. 25-27. Check out the Drudge Report, he posted the link. They don't even break it down by party. But the most recent LA Times poll showed Tom had TWICE the number of Independents that Arnold had:
McClintock 28%
Arnold 14%
Bustamante 24%

[bootless]

I think it was the Board of Directors of the CA GOP ... I heard that on KNEW this morning.

[Aquinasfan]

Good news.

If you're an abortionist.

[finnman69]

The new poll shows a REAL conservative can win this election and we don't have to get stuck with the lesser of two evil liberals. Or do you always support the most liberal Republicans?

NONSENSE

The so called "REAL CONSERVATIVE" has been a cellar dweller in the polls from day one. He nver broke the 20% mark in the polls and never really took on Arnold the way he should have if he seriously wanted to challenge him. McClintock has had his 15 minutes of fame and I wish him well with his future in such widely supported parties like the Reform Party or the Constitution Party which got approxiamtely 1/10th of the Green parties total in 2000. If Tom can't be a team player, bon voyage.