Bush steps up to plate for Simon

Editor's note: In collaboration with the hard-hitting Washington, D.C., newsweekly Human Events, WorldNetDaily brings you this special report every Monday. Readers can subscribe to Human Events through WND's online store.

In the first few weeks after conservative William Simon Jr. captured the California Republican gubernatorial nomination, Golden State conservatives were asking, "How much will the White House help?"

Last week they got their answer when President Bush showed up in the state for two days of enthusiastic campaigning. Bush has now placed a big bet on California in this mid-term election.

It was no secret that Bush and White House political director Karl Rove would have preferred former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan to win the California gubernatorial primary. After Simon demolished Riordan in the March 5 voting, ugly rumors circulated that the White House would "write off" California – a state that Democrats have carried by more than a million votes in four of the last five statewide contests.

During his two-day swing through California, the President appeared at two Simon fund-raising events and strongly boosted the Republican nominee against Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

At a sold-out Simon dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, Bush hailed the conservative leader as "an entrepreneur with a generous heart" and someone who "is willing to lead, doesn't need a poll or a focus group to tell him what to think, a man who will stand on principle, and a man who has the courage to do what is right for the people of California."

Likening criticism of first-time office seeker Simon to criticisms made of him in his winning race against Democratic Gov. Ann Richards of Texas in 1994, Bush drew laughter when he said: "Democrats are saying this is a fellow who's never held elective office. Heck, he is a successful businessman. What can he possibly know about running an organization? Sounds familiar. Sounds like Ann Richards is advising the campaign!"

The Simon camp and state Republican headquarters originally hoped that Bush's trip would net the gubernatorial candidate $3 million in contributions. In the end, the president actually raised more than $4.5 million.

The funding boost could not have come at a better time. While most polls show Simon in a neck-and-neck race with Davis, the Los Angeles lawyer-businessman is badly trailing the Democratic incumbent in fund raising. Between the March primary and Bush's arrival, Simon had raised only $486,900 (one third of it from his three sisters), while Davis had taken in a whopping $1,287,624.

State GOP Chairman Shawn Steel and Simon campaign quarterback Sal Russo now confirm that Bush has promised additional fund-raising visits to California and that several Cabinet members and other administration officials will make campaign swings for Simon later in the year.

The aggressive pro-Simon, pro-California stance by Bush may be designed in part to make it up to California Republicans for the short-changing many in the state believe they received from his father. After carrying the nation's largest state over Michael Dukakis in 1988, the elder Bush visited California infrequently. When he sought re-election in 1992, he all but conceded the state's 54 electoral votes to Bill Clinton. Accordingly, the Democratic nominee rolled up nearly half the state's votes in a three-way race.

Many California Republicans believed that Bush's non-existent 1992 California campaign contributed to Republican Bruce Herschensohn's narrow loss of a Senate seat to Democrat Barbara Boxer and to the defeat of Republican candidates in several close House races.

Noting that the elder Bush's attitude toward California has long been remembered by Republican operatives, Chairman Steel told Human Events, "That is now put behind us by the performance of this president for our party and our candidate."

But even though they now know what the White House will do, California Republicans still wonder, "What will Gerry do?"

"Gerry" is Los Angeles investment banker Gerald Parsky, the president's closest political friend in California. Thanks to a controversial plan that bears his name and limits the power of the state GOP chairman in favor of a special five-member operations committee, the 59-year-old Parsky is also the most powerful figure in the California GOP.

Yet despite Parsky's boasts that his plan would help bring in more money for the party and its candidates, this has not happened, causing much grass-roots criticism, especially in regard to the Simon campaign. As one veteran Republican political consultant said: "In a state where there are no limits on donations to statewide races, it would be easy for Parsky to call 20 of his business friends on Bill's behalf, and then he could match Davis dollar-for-dollar. But so far, he's not doing it."

Others have suggested that the 50-year-old Simon – whose namesake-father, the late secretary of the Treasury, was a business partner of Parsky before the pair had an acrimonious, much-publicized fallout – reach out to Parsky and make him finance chairman, or at least co-chairman, of his campaign.

Doubts about Parsky on the right reached a high point two days after the gubernatorial primary, when the New York Times' Richard Berke quoted Parsky as saying that "he was hoping, but not convinced, that Mr. Simon would run enough of a broadly-based campaign" to defeat Davis.

"'A lot will depend on how the campaign is run," Parsky was quoted as saying. "If you are an extreme conservative, you cannot win in California."

Simon will win, the Times reported Parsky as predicting, only "if he is prepared to adopt the formula I describe."

For his part, Parsky insisted his remarks were misquoted and out of context. "I saw [Berke] only once and for about a minute and a half, at the unity breakfast in Los Angeles on the morning after the primary," he told Human Events several days after the Times story ran, "and I was not talking at all about Bill Simon but about the Republican Party itself and how it must avoid the perception of extremism. And that's something I have been saying for more than a year. I certainly didn't intend for people to take it the way they did."

Parsky went on to say that, differences with the candidate's late father notwithstanding, "Bill Simon Jr. and I are friends" and that he supports him. When asked whether he would go all-out to raise money for Simon, Parsky was noncommittal.

Some conservatives were offended by Parsky's remarks to the Times. Former California GOP Chairman John McGraw, an early Simon backer, told Human Events, "If an extremist is defined as someone who is pro-life and pro-Second Amendment, I am guilty as charged. But so is the president, the one Parsky is supposed to represent. If we want the party cleaned up, maybe Mr. Parsky should start at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

But one former state GOP official who is a conservative and no friend of Parsky insisted that a gubernatorial campaign year was no time for internecine warfare in the party. "No quotes on Parsky," he said. "We have an election to win."

A recent poll with registered voters in Kali showed that GW would now beat Goron if the 2000 election was held today.

So when GW backs Simon, it is not just an empty gesture!

END WHOREACLE GATES/ABORT DAVIS!

I also saw another poll where over 50% disapprove of Davis's performance. When asked of only registered voters the number jumps to close to 60%! This guy shouldn't stand a chance in November. GO SIMON GO!

I wish I still lived in CA so I could work for this campaign. I spoke with my parents last night and they said Simon isn't really doing much yet. I told them to be patient. The election is still 6 months away. Simon's out raising money right now so he can hit it hard come September when it really counts!

Although a meeting between Simon and Parksy may pay dividends, I really think a highly placed White House official needs to read the riot act to Mr. Parsky. Either support the party candidate fully, or step down. No gray area (no pun intended).

Agreed. Looks like Parsky's ego is a dangerous thing. I hope he comes around, indeed, play ball and he'll have a GOP governor and the commensurate rise in his all important power...

Thanks for the ping!

New York Times' is stirring up the internals of the California Republican Party it seems to me!

"New York Times' is stirring up the internals of the California Republican Party it seems to me!"

Now why would the Clymers want to do that? ;^)

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