Daniel Weintraub: Simon hopes campaign (and voters) will move on

Sac Bee ^ | 7/25/02 | Daniel Weintraub

[NormsRevenge]

After staring into more tax schedules, statements and attachments than an H&R Block preparer sees on April 14, I was left with one big question about Bill Simon's tax returns: What took him so long to disclose them?

The Republican candidate for governor, under unrelenting pressure from Gov. Gray Davis and a good deal of sniping from members of his own party, rented the Santa Barbara Room at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento, made a tidy sum for a local copying store and turned over two fat books of returns to any reporter curious enough to want to see them.

[NormsRevenge]

But to most voters, I imagine, the story of Simon's taxes is just about over. He's a wealthy guy who has paid a lot. Most of us can't fathom having that amount of income, or paying that much in taxes. While I'm interested in more details as part of a study in Simon's character, I doubt most voters will care.

Yeah, what he said. :-)
DUMP DAVI$ & the Den of Socialists

GO SIMON

[NormsRevenge]

PING

[Jagdgewehr]

Mulholland is right. To the extent that this race is about Davis and his record as governor, the incumbent is in deep trouble. Voters are none too pleased with his performance on education, energy, the budget and other matters.

But if Davis can turn the campaign into a debate on Simon's finances or his record as a businessman, the governor wins. So far, with a little help from Simon, he seems to be succeeding in doing just that.

The constant in this equation is Davis' poor performance as a govenor. If Simon just blitzes the airwaves with reminders of Davis' failings as govenor, the finance issue would be deminshed or entirely rendered inconsequential.

Simon needs to push Davis back on his heels. That is, get Davis on the defensive and defend his record as govenor.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping!

Geez even Weintraub is acting like a dork , has the mindset of the rest of the journalistic crowd!

That lowers my opinion of him!

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[Political Junkie Too]

Why else would a candidate for governor put himself through such hell trying to keep private something that his opponent, past governors and even the president of the United States have routinely released?

I bet that Simon, being inexperienced in politics, simply figured that he'd be tarred as being in the "wealthiest one percent" and didn't want to give ammunition to the likes of Davis and Mulholland. If his charitable deductions tend toward Catholic charities, I wouldn't put it past Davis to try to claim that Simon isn't incluuuuuuuusive, or that he's a religious extreeeeeeeemist.

-PJ

[ElkGroveDan]

I bet that Simon, being inexperienced in politics

Bill Simon is not as "new" or inexperienced to politics as the press make him out to be. His father was Treasury Secretary in the Nixon Administration. Bill Simon has been on the board of the Heritage Foundation for several years. He certainly has as much or more political experience as those of us who get our politics from the news, FR and Rush.

The cheap stunt that the rat hacks inside the IRS pulled with KPMG isn't something you plan for. All in all it looks like Simon made the right decision

[Political Junkie Too]

The cheap stunt that the rat hacks inside the IRS pulled...

It's just like the cheap stunt the hacks inside the Pentagon pulled on Linda Tripp.

-PJ

[tubebender]

"Geez even Weintraub is acting like a dork , has the mindset of the rest of the journalistic crowd!"

Weintraub can't be that bad...Bob Mulholland is his friend. (sarcasm off)

[goldstategop]

Bill Simon should just never have released the returns to begin with. I believe in the importance of financial privacy and neither public nor my political opponent deserves to know about this area of my life. There are so many more things to know about a candidate than his bottom line. And what did we learn about Simon in the process? We learned he was telling the truth all along. Rest assured the truth doesn't matter to the media and GrayDown and even now they're doing their best to discredit Simon. Let's take a leaf from the liberals' playbook during the impeachment of the presidential felon and apply it to a more legitimate and non-controversial set of circumstances: there's nothing to see here and its time to move on!!!