Davis begins TV ad campaign

Sac Bee ^ | 6/6/02 | Amy Chance

[NormsRevenge]

Seeking to shore up voter views of his performance in office, Gov. Gray Davis on Wednesday began airing television ads in which he discusses his record on guns, health care, the environment and abortion.

The Democratic governor, bidding for a second term in November against GOP businessman Bill Simon, speaks directly into the camera in an ad his campaign calls "Vigilant."

[daviddennis]

I thought Simon's response to the Davis ads was first-rate. And who on earth is going to buy the message of Davis' experience when his primary experience is in messing things up? Captain Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez has experience, but I don't think anyone wants him to pilot a supertanker.

If he has experience money can't buy, I wouldn't think he'd need the grief:

"If it comes down to taking the money and taking the grief vs. not taking the money and not taking the grief, I'll take the former any day of the week."

In other words, we'll antagonize the voters if we can get a few thousand more campaign dollars by doing it.

Hardly a principled stand, no? And an insult to our intelligence, to boot.

Who the heck is going to vote for this man?

D

[d14truth]

WATCHING his state go 'down the tubes'

California governor's definition of vigilence?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Who the heck is going to vote for this man?

Same ones that voted for him before!
Well, he may have some not vote for him,
but they would have to have a conversion experience
to vote for any one with money. /Sad!

[Dan from Michigan]

14 point lead...so what. John Engler got 38% in OCTOBER in 1990 against a 2 term incumbent...what happened? Engler won.

[skeeter]

Californians need to ask themselves: Is the state better off today than it was four years ago?

This quote from Ronaldus Magnus couldn't be more effective than it is in Davis' case.

Simon need say nothing more from here 'till November.

[goldstategop]

Hummnnnnnnnnnn...... if Gray Davis has to run commercials to shore up his base in the summer, he's in BIG TROUBLE. That's something the last Field poll and the state's liberal media completely missed! I mean this is an incumbent Governor who had no major opposition in his party's primary, who has got millions sitting in the bank, and who has the support of the media up and down the state. So by all worlds, he should be coasting to reelection right now! The fact he has to run commercials to pitch to the base at a time when NO ONE is paying any attention tells Davis isn't even sure he's going to be re-elected. He shouldn't have to run any commercials whatsoever if Bill Simon wasn't a threat. It says something that in an overwhelmingly Rat and liberal state like California the sitting Rat Governor won't even release a poll confirming what the Field Poll supposedly said in April. Thus as it looks right now the only conclusion one can draw is the wheels are coming off the Davis' campaign in slow motion and moreover it looks like one heck of a long, hot summer.

[Gophack]

Gray-Out has been getting a pass on the energy "crisis" lately, but if this turns out to be a long, hot summer, he may have screwed the pooch!

We have plenty of power at inflated prices. Basically, Davis' theory is: spending as much money as necessary to prevent blackouts. When we don't need the power, sell it back (at pennies on the dollar). Just no blackouts!

We have spents BILLIONS of dollars on power purchases, locked California into $43 billion in long-term, over-priced energy contracts, and basically indebted our children with this gross mismanagement.

Davis thinks that Enron and Arthur Andersen executives should be in prison for allegedly manipulating the power market. What DAVIS did to us is far worse than anything those companies did!

Dump Davis!

[Liz]

.....graydavis'll be sorry he ever uttered the word "vigilance"........

[scottiewottie]

South said the fact that politicians accept campaign contributions "is not an earthshaking story to the typical voter."

"There are a lot of advantages to having resources in the bank in a state this big with an electorate that's not particularly politically attuned most of the time," he said. "If it comes down to taking the money and taking the grief vs. not taking the money and not taking the grief, I'll take the former any day of the week."

In other words, we have PT Barnum selling cheap knock off of Ralf Loren. It works because stupid people vote.

[daviddennis]

I went to the Davis website and read the two new commercials. (Since I run Linux here at work, I don't have the capability to view web video, and unfortunately the new commercials are in RM format only, which isn't MacOS X compatible :-( ).

Take Vigilant. It tries to touch on every hot-button issue, which makes the message just a shade incoherent. I doubt that it will change anyone's mind.

Interesting that Search Out was made just for the Central Valley. If you look at the backup on the page I linked to, you will see one of the most hated (by me) fallancies of government: The confusion of inputs with outputs. He brags about how he's increased funding, but doesn't talk about what that funding did. And of course the Sherrifs will endorse you if you send enough money their way! Now, maybe he's helped and maybe he hasn't. I'm inclined to believe the latter, simply because he doesn't present any concrete results.

D

[d14truth]

"Above all, I'll keep working hard to do what's right for California."

'Vigilant' correction--"Above all, I'll keep working hard to do what's right LEFT for California."

[d14truth]

The 'vigilant' one--Unplugged!

'You are 'powerless' without me.'

[Chili Girl]

Silly - not that kind of chili!

The little red and green fiery types that grow on bushes and spice up any food rather nicely. The name came from the 30 or so plants I grow every year, just to keep the family in good health.

[ElkGroveDan]

I think we have our lions crossed here. I have no idea what you are talking abouot.

[NormsRevenge]

he had experience money can't buy .. That's A GOOD One !!!

DUMP DAVI$

[heleny]

If you repeat something often enough, some people will believe it.
Davis hopes people will believe that he's working in their best interests if he just repeats it frequently. Most people won't go out of their way to verify the (misleading) claims.

I sort of hope one of the debates will be soon, and that Simon will stick to the important issues and make Davis defensive, but I also worry about the format of the debates.

The 3rd Republican debate with Simon, Jones, and Riordan was very boring. The panel of interviewers (from LATimes, KNX radio from LA, some TV station from LA, etc.) kept steering away from real issues, perhaps to help Riordan by constantly bringing up abortion; it backfired, and he sounded very patronizing toward women.

If Simon has to debate against Davis on abortion because of stacked questions, he could occasionally bring up partial birth abortions to show Davis as the extremist he is. (Simon should still say what he believes the governor can and can't do about the issue.) Then the questions might go back to real issues.