Another New Poll Shows Conservative Bill Simon's Support Exploding in California

Bill Simon for Governor ^ | 01/27/02 | Simon for Governor Campaign

[Lancey Howard]

I'm not claiming Pete was perfect... I had to hold my nose with him often enough... But he was no Dick Riordan, prancing around in Gay Day parades or kissing illegals.

....Or sending money to 'Boxer for Senate' headquarters. Flippin' unbelievable.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Huffington's undergoing a sex change operation! Why is seems like just yesterday he was coming out of the closet. No wonder Arianna's so screwed up. And their kids.....one can only shudder to think.

[Sabertooth]

he created the climate where people like Riordan, and before Riordan, Tom Campbell and Michael Huffington (who, if I recall correctly, is currently undergoing a sex-change operation), are able to secure the nomination of the party that brought Reagan into politics.

Dunno if I can take it that far...

Pete was way tougher than those milquetoasts. The people that have hurt CA Repubs are mostly out of state, national party RINO cowards... Kemp and Bennett are always on my list.

At least under Wilson, temporary tax increases were actually temporary.

[Impeach98]

Sorry to hear that you haven't seen Simon on TV. I live in Sacramento and I have seen two different ads that have Giuliani in them. One of them has Rudy at a desk talking about how much he respects Bill the whole way through. In the other it flashes back to Bill and Rudy working together as federal prosecutors and then goes to Bill working as a businessman and then Bill being a leader in California's charity scene. The one where Rudy talks into the camera the whole way through gives me goosebumps - seriously it is really powerful!

[doug from upland]

Simon has an incredible amount of dollars to spend from his own personal fortune. As he gears up the advertising, his numbers will continue to rise.

[Vigilanteman]

The old adage to "Vote your conscience" is never bad advice. In this case, Tricky Dick is no clear improvement over Gray Davis. It is like comparing 30% conservative Lincoln Chaffee to 25% conservative Kent Conrad. If Tricky Dick was even a 60% conservative like Arlan Spechter, there would be some cause for pause. As it is, there is none.

With the Gualini endorsement, Simon could actually pull an upset and win. If he even runs a good race in the People's Republic of California, he will be back.

[Cold Heat]

Just watched the Repub. Gov. debate on C-span. I am not very familiar with Cal. politics but I did come away with the impression that Riordan is a classic RINO and has supported democrats very faithfully. I was not all that impressed with Simon. I thought his inexperiance showed. He seems pretty young as well. Jones, on the other hand, did what seemed to me to be the best job. He was poised and confident. This was a replay from tuesday I believe.

[Vigilanteman]

Hope you're right. If it is Riordan and Davis, I'm voting Libertarian. That's not a threat, that's a promise.

[TheAngryClam]

Jones and Simon are almost the same age. The ages 50 and 52 stick out, and I want to make Simon the elder of the two, but I can't back it up. They're very close together though.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I believe Jones is about a year older than Simon.

[Cold Heat]

I guess I'm unable to tell age anymore. His lack of any political office expperiance though, is a killer. Why are Jones's numbers so low? And why would any republican vote for Riordan?

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I'm much further south of you. Hope Simon hasn't given up on us as being only Jones country.

[TheAngryClam]

Well, Simon was very overcoached. Jones numbers are low for several reasons. One, what should be his biggest assest, the state party leadership, has told him to, essentially, sit and spin because they're pulling for Riordan. Two, Gray Davis, our governor, is brutal. He's warned all the agricultural interests who would otherwise be big Jones donors that people who support his opponents would be shut out of the administration, so they're hesitant. Three, Jones is a boring guy. Let's face it- he's the Republican Al Gore. He's stiff, not always very photogenic, and rather hard to understand most of the time. Simon, in person, is a lively and personable speaker, and Riordan, though he's grandpa, still seems to be a crowd pleaser. Jones' numbers are low because his campaign is broke, he has no real support network, and he's not a "personality" that would get a lot of free media publicity.

[Cold Heat]

Thanks, that puts the missing pieces in order.

[Cold Heat]

BTW! Now I see why Califorians are so ticked a the republican party there. They apparently have low testosterone levels.

[Cold Heat]

a=at .............going to bed now.

[irishjuggler]

These ads amount to a nice, "free" push for Riordan, don't you think?

I think you're on the right track. Davis is so cynical that he might actually be running these pro-abortion ads in order to persuade conservatives to vote for Riordan in the primary.

[SierraWasp]

"They apparently have low testosterone levels."

After the 1998 debacle, they haven't got anything to make testosterone levels with!!!

Bill Jones is the only state-wide elected official the Repellican have in office in CA!

Bill Simon doesn't have the chrisma or the name recognition that Ronauldus Magnus had, but he has Sal Russo who was Ronnie's prime political consultant who even help Boris pull out a tough one over in Russia!

I'm keeping my fingers, toes and legs crossed and prayin for Bill to Simonize CA!!! Hope he puts a "shiner" on Riordan, then Davis!!!

[lewislynn]

Deregulation was a bipartisan failure to be sure,

Yea it was bipartisan because it was everything the liberals dreamed of but don't fool yourself the deregulation bill was authored by (R) Assembly Speaker Jim Brulte and it was written to comply with Wilsons CPUC.

As to the power plants, how many plants were built in the 16 consecutive years of Republican Governors prior to Gray Davis?...

certain follow-up legislation was supposed to have been enacted after Wilson left office

What specific items in AB1890 were to be inacted...besides price controls? Which BTW, according to the law we're supposed to be getting another rate cut this year.......

"Blame, hell," said Pete Wilson. "I take credit for having been the driving force to launch deregulation."

-------------

In an interview with the Times last week, Wilson admitted to some major mistakes in the 1996 deregulation that the legislature passed in a unanimous vote, and which some have labeled the worst policy miscalculation in California history.

Among them:

Installing a cap on retail electricity rates that backfired on the private utilities, drowning them, and ultimately the state, in billions of dollars in bills as wholesale energy costs soared.

Forcing the utilities to sell off their power plants while prohibiting them from locking in favorable long-term rates with the suppliers who bought the plants.
Not among them: deregulation itself, says Wilson.

"I will not pretend to you that (the legislation) was a perfect, free-market mechanism. It wasn't. I knew that at the time. I signed it knowing that," said Wilson. "I thought whatever flaws would emerge ... they would be addressed by our successors."

"I thought whatever flaws would emerge ... they would be addressed by our successors."

Is that what you mean by "enacted after Wilson left office"?....Enacted, or passed off on?

From the same article:

Back then, the regulated power industry found itself with a 30 percent power surplus, yet with prices far higher than most other states, partly due to bad investments that the utilities passed on to consumers.

Officials from dozens of other states had launched an aggressive raid on California. Competition would bring lower prices and smooth the economic recovery.

The concern: how to manage oversupply and help PG&E recover its government-imposed investments in a free market. If anyone suggested a future power shortage, it sounded like a bleat.

How much sense does that make?...on the one hand they claim the utilities had "bad investments that the utilities passed on to consumers." Then on the other hand they clarify the "bad investments" as "government-imposed" (by 16 yrs of Republican Governors, I might add) and then wonder how they can do exactly what was being done before their phony deregulation scam, which was "help PG&E recover its government-imposed investments in a free market"...by passing them on to the consumer.(and still have [free market?] price controls)

Did Gray Davis mishandle it?..YES. BUT Sorry, California deregulation was and is a disaster and it was all Pete Wilson.