He's had more than a few victories too, winning Assembly races in 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 96, 98 and then winning Senate races in 2000 and 2004.
God bless him for his dedication to public service. 80% of the other people who want to run for office are out to tax you into perpetual servitude. Only a handful are willing to take the lousy pay and thankless job of serving in the minority in order to make life better for the rest of us.
Tom McClintock is one of the last true American Statesmen. If he had been born 230 years earlier he would have been one of the founding fathers.
Yes, from all that I know of McClintock, he is a genuine statesman. My friends in California, however, old me of how the California GOP tried to run him out of the gubernatorial recall. One talk radio commentator even went so far as to call McClintock a "communist."
I agree -- but he has one problem -- he looks wierd on camera. That may not have been a problem 230 years ago, but it is now. He can't seem to focus and his eyes look like the pod people from Dark Crystal.
This may seem mean and shallow, but it is true and it is what is holding him back.
ps: I love Tom and agree he is a true statesman. On radio he is a world beater.