MYTH OF THE MIDDLING NON-PARTICIPANT

Fiedor Report On the News #290 ^ | 10-6-02 | Scott Jordan

[forest]

Don't run for the middle.

Simon is a photogenic and accomplished outsider with sterling GOP genes and a bracing primary-season message of limited government and individual liberty.

Davis has pay-to-play corruption, fiscal deficit, unemployment and failing schools. Assaulted by the Greens and beset by clamoring Democrat dependency groups, Davis is busily shoring up his left bank, hawking abortion and Marxist nostrums like a carny, signing spectacularly ill-advised legislation like last week's paid-leave abomination, and in general doling out favors like a Seventh Avenue whore.

Simon won a crushing victory, holding the Democrat-Lite opponent anointed by the GOP hierarchy to a single county in the vast and supposedly leftist state. California remains the State of Reagan, who slaughtered a powerful incumbent Democrat as an outsider running with a positive, limited-government message of liberty and constitutional fidelity.

Simon is likely to win. Davis is damaged goods and everybody knows it.

Simon won't do dirty tricks.

The answer: It's the base, stupid.

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[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"It's the base, stupid"

Got that right.

Fire us up, Bill Simon!

[Doug Fiedor]

I hope all Freepers get behind him and PUSH.

He can win, that way.

[ffrancone]

SOB, WHINE, WHIMPER, SOB, WHINE, WHIMPER.
THE REPUBLICANS TOOK BACK THE SENATE.

HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN! GO TO:

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A resource for conservatives who want a Republican majority in the Senate

[aaaDOC]

Scott has it right.

I hope Simon gets this message.

And, YES, we can win the governorship in California!

"How?" you ask, "With the Dems outnumbering us?"

Easy.

The Dems (meaning registered Democrats) in California don't like Davis.

If they have a low turnout, and the Republicans are energized and vote, victory will be ours (meaning everyone in California).

So, all you California Freepers, get out and vote, and get every other person you know to vote for Simon.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping!

calgov2002:

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[NormsRevenge]

HaPPY FReePin' ... WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!! Hitlary iS in town LA !! ;-)
DUMP DAVI$ & the Den of Socialists



GO SIMON

[tubebender]

Great post...why can't they let him run as a conservative. That BS with the "gays" cost him plenty and gained nothing.

[forest]

If they will just listen to the truth here, they will join up and push us over the top.

[forest]

The call to unite reminds me of an old hippie cartoon that is applicable to the Democrats:

Drop out

Join up

Tune in

Turn on

[Jim Robinson]

Go Simon!!

[185JHP]

The base plus enough of the middle to get a plurality - easy say, somewhat harder do...

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"The base plus enough of the middle to get a plurality - easy say, somewhat harder do...

Depends on what the meaning of "middle" is. By even using the phrase, you're buying-into the notion that the turned-off non-voters are someplace between Davis and Simon. As the article suggests, Simon's terrific primary performance against a backdrop of electoral malaise suggests that there are a lot of folks who would agree with (and vote for) Simon if the press would focus fairly on the issues and the candidates' stances. California is still the state of Reagan and Proposition 13 (and 187, for that matter-- and home of Free Republic too!). It is not the monolithic leftist encampment the LA Times and SF Chronicle would have us believe.

Go Bill Go!

[Doug Fiedor]

Okay, the Goal is identified. Many California citizens want Simon to win. That's step one.

Next step: Who is leading the charge to get people involved? Are any citizen's groups involved in insuring voters get out and actually vote for Simon?

Many of us hope Simon beats Davis badly. But, most of us do not count -- we are not there and cannot vote. Therefore, what we are hoping to see is a grassroots movement get active with letters to the editor, op-eds and other publications to inform their friends and neighbors about Simon.

Where's the action ?

It's time, you know. It's now or never. . . . .

[heleny]

the group of voters who have either opted out of the major parties or out of registering altogether has grown almost three times as fast as the eligible population. ...
Why is the Silent Majority turned off by the major parties and even voting itself?

Part of the reason people register with no party, besides disenchantment with the two major parties, is that it affords more choice. Decline-to-state voters in California can vote in the primaries of one of most of the parties, and can vote for everything except party leaders (and perhaps the Presidential nominee). Essentially, one can change his party affiliation at each primary, up to the day of the election, without re-registering.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"...one can change his party affiliation at each primary, up to the day of the election, without re-registering."

If this was a factor for Simon's primary win, it argues even more strongly for him to amplify his pro-individual, pro-liberty, small-government, upbeat message from the primary season!

[heleny]

If this was a factor for Simon's primary win, it argues even more strongly for him to amplify his pro-individual, pro-liberty, small-government, upbeat message from the primary season!

I hope so! Go Simon!

Who knows whether the decline to state (DTS) voters who requested a Republican ballot voted for Simon or for one of the other Republicans. More of the DTS voters probably chose Republican ballots than democrat ballots, because the Republican gubernatorial candidate selection was more interesting, but they might not have been motivated to request partisan ballots at all, and many might not have even known about the new law (even though it was printed prominently on the voter guide and sample ballots).

Supposedly, these DTS voters are all moderate, and they were all going to vote for the "moderate" Riordan, who was supposedly a viable candidate according to the media. Riordan lost by such a huge margin to Simon, so this group probably had little influence. I hope they are more conservative than the media think.

I don't recall any news reports of exit polls categorized by party affiliation. (Then again, I don't recall any exit polls last March....) The Statement of Vote issued by the Secretary of State did not have information about how many DTS voters requested partisan ballots.

[185JHP]

If you posit that 30% were reliable "R" voters, and 30% were reliable "D" voters, than Reagan's accomplishment was slicing off 30% of the middle 40%. IMO the Reagan landslide had to do with two things: credible and obvious personal decency, and having a great act to campaign against - the hapless, feckless (and at the same time mean and petty) Jimmah. That said - are there a lot more bums, deviates, moochers and spongers for the "Ds" to woo than there were in the 70s/80s?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

The Reagan race referred-to in this article was his gubernatorial victory over Pat Brown. The parallels are plentiful: Reagan was truly an outsider with no governmental experience--an actor and union president--running against a lifelong big-government politician known for strategic largesse and backroom backscratching. Like Simon, Reagan offed the "establishment" GOP candidate in a sweeping upset and went on as an underdog to beat Brown handily. The rest--including his trouncing of Jimmah--is history.

One thing that is not a parallel is that people liked Brown-- a jolly backslapper type and a great guy to have a beer with, by all accounts. By comparison, Davis is a brooding Queeg given to grandiose visions of power, especially his own ("The job of the Legislature is to implement my vision" "Singapore is a model for California's police.") He's a singularly unlikeable and even vaguely scary dude, one who lets occasional fascist stripes peek through his public plumage.

Another non-parallel is that Brown's term as governor was generally regarded as reasonably successful, whereas everyone acknowledges that Davis is an unvarnished disaster.

Go Bill Go!