Posted on 11/04/2002 7:54:01 AM PST by bonesmccoy
Folks...watch the bold faced punch lines at the end from Garry South...
With the end of an expensive, aggressive California governor's race finally on the horizon, Democratic incumbent Gray Davis flew around the state Sunday exuding a feeling of smooth skies ahead.
"It's all over," said Garry South, the governor's senior adviser, with a Cheshire cat smile aboard Davis' chartered 727 airplane. "All over but the shoutin'."
The cautious Davis, wrapping up an eight-month general election campaign, was slightly more circumspect with two days until Tuesday's election.
"It's over when the secretary of state says you won," he said Sunday. "(But) I feel very positive. . . . I can see victory at the end of the tunnel."
Davis skipped across California the past weekend on a six-city, two-day trip aimed at energizing his party's voters. The events reflected an upbeat, confident governor and his campaign staff who have seen in the past week giving him a lead of 7 to 10 percentage points over his Republican challenger, Bill Simon.
Speaking to reporters Sunday, the governor began referring to the grueling 2002 election as a thing of the past -- comparing it with his 1998 gubernatorial campaign against GOP candidate Dan Lungren, which Davis won in a landslide.
"In a way, this (election) is more gratifying because we worked through some very serious challenges -- a national recession, an energy crisis of biblical proportions," he said. "This is more gratifying, because we had to work hard and fight through all the nonsense to get to where we are."
Davis traveled Sunday with his wife, Sharon, and most of the Democratic candidates for statewide office.
At the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles' Crenshaw district, Davis swayed to gospel music and told hundreds of African American worshipers, "With your help, and God's blessing, we'll continue to make progress."
In San Diego, revving up a crowd of 150 campaign volunteers with the help of a mariachi band, Davis gamely broke into a chant of "Four more years!" in Spanish.
And, in a departure, his stump speeches began openly rejoicing at what Democrats of the past could only dream about -- domination of all statewide constitutional offices.
"We're going to surprise the pundits," Davis said in San Diego. "We're going to vote for a Democratic sweep!"
Independent polls released last week showed all seven statewide Democratic candidates holding slim to substantial leads in the campaigns for constitutional offices.
Democratic organizers said they expect to increase that gap with a coordinated $5 million get-out-the-vote campaign involving phone bank volunteers in 22 regional state offices.
And the Davis campaign committee -- still flush with cash after raising more than $65 million for the governor's re-election bid -- said it would spend $4.8 million on television ads and $4 million on phone banks and mailers in the final days to reach 600,000 state voters.
That means that by Tuesday, about 8 million recorded and live calls will go out to newly registered or regular Democratic voters, who will hear reminders to vote from people including former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and actor Martin Sheen.
While Simon's campaign insisted the race was closing, Davis and South said the Republicans can't compete in manpower or in grassroots appeal.
"They've been lying about their polling, lying about their money, lying about their media," South said. From the start of the campaign, "this crew was not ready for prime time. . . . They're running a novice candidate who doesn't have a clue what he's doing."
Analyzing the race for reporters, South predicted Davis would win by 8 to 12 points, but acknowledged it was an unusually tough and costly campaign.
"You have a sitting governor whose job ratings tanked a year and a half ago and never recovered," due to the energy crisis, South said. "And you have roughly half of the people of the state who think (California) is going in the wrong direction.
"Those two things combined are usually a death knell" for an incumbent governor, he said. "But we're going to win in spite of that. That's what our money got us."
We're not having any of that! I think Simon is very, very close and no matter what, the race is going to be within 1-2 points -- not the 8-12 South is talking about! And, I think Simon is going to be on top!
Unless, of course, the election is so close that the standard voter fraud puts Republicans on the losing side. Everyone, be diligent at your polls ... watch what's going on ... head on over to the Registrar of Voters if you can and watch the ballots come in ... keep your eyes and ears open ... we must be diligent!
Go Simon!
They had to bus in several busloads of people to have an audiencem! Independent observers counted about 50-60 people in the Davis audience, and I only saw a few cars entering the relatively empty parking lot. Nobody arriving was particularly enthusiastic, and some were asleep. Maybe the news media count as "campaign volunteers?"
In contrast, dalereed estimated 700-800 at the Simon rally just three hours earlier in San Diego. I didn't try to count when I was there, but it was easily far more than 500 enthusiastic people. The rally was reported as "small, but lively." Simon is soaring, but the media are afraid to say so!
Go Simon!
In comparison, GW Bush raised and spent 70 million in 2000, to campaign all around the country during the primary season. 65 million for a single state is an obscene amount of money.
How could it matter which one wins. Both candidates were selected by the Demorats.
Giving big money to candidates is a business expense. People give big bucks to sure winners. They don't even return phone calls to sure losers.
Bush did not collect more in 2000 because he was not the sure winner in the presidential race that Gray Davis is in this Governors election.
Gray Davis is the first candidate in Democratic history to pick his Republican opponent. That will make the coin box jingle.
the Simon-Davis race is neck-and-neck. Really. We can't let the Democrats defeat us with their attitude today, we have an excellent chance. Simon is the underdog, he had an uphill battle the entire way, was outspent 7-to-1, and the CRP did little to help him -- and did a lot behind the scenes to hurt him. Yet, we're within a couple points, and the election is tomorrow. We can do it. GO SIMON!
I believe FIRMLY that your intentions are good with this announcement to the Dem's who visit this site. What I don't appreciate is your stooping down to their level by lying. We're better than that.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7 is the REAL voting day. I apologize to any guests we have here....
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