GO SIMON
Tom McClintock for CA State Controller
Posted on 10/09/2002 12:43:30 PM PDT by RCW2001
ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 9, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/10/09/politics1507EDT0690.DTL
(10-09) 12:07 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Republican candidate Bill Simon on Wednesday conceded that his allegation that Gov. Gray Davis illegally accepted a campaign check inside the state Capitol "is now in question," and Davis called on him to drop out of the governor's race.
Simon still defended himself for making the claim, which was based on now-discredited photographs released by a law enforcement group that is a key Simon ally and a complaint the group made to a state watchdog agency.
"I had no reason to question the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs' good faith belief in their charge against the governor," Simon said in a statement.
"They were reporting the charge directly to the government enforcement agency, and they claimed that they had documented proof of their charge," he said.
Simon made the accusation Monday after the first gubernatorial debate and said he had evidence.
The evidence turned out to be two photos COPS released Tuesday that the group claimed showed then-Lt. Gov. Davis accepting a check in his Capitol office during his first run for governor in 1998. It's a violation of state law to give or receive campaign contributions in state buildings.
Reporters and the Davis campaign determined the photos were not taken in Davis' office.
Simon did not back completely off his allegation.
"The location where the governor received this campaign contribution is now in question," his statement said. "However, even if the specific claims made by the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs are not sustained, this outcome should not deter the Fair Political Practices Commission, other law enforcement agencies and the media from investigating Gray Davis' aggressive and shady fund-raising practices."
Davis, meanwhile, called on Simon to withdraw from the race for making the allegation.
"This whole sorry episode has backfired in Mr. Simon's face ... as a former prosecutor, he should certainly be embarrassed, and if he had any sense of honor, he would drop out of the race," the governor said on KGO-AM. "You have to check your facts in this business."
Davis said his campaign would consider suing COPS.
The photos show Davis standing in an office next to Al Angele, then executive director of COPS. Both men are smiling and holding a corner of a $10,000 check COPS gave Davis.
Monty Holden, current executive director of COPS, which broke bitterly with Davis to back Simon, told reporters Tuesday that Angele and Davis were in the lieutenant governor's office.
However, the office pictured in the photographs bore no resemblance to the lieutenant governor's office. Angele said he'd never set foot in Davis' office, and Davis said he was not even in Sacramento when the photos were purportedly taken.
Simon acknowledged his campaign, which has donated over $200,000 to COPS to appear on its slate mailer, had not sought to verify the authenticity of the photos.
It remained unclear Wednesday where the photos were taken. Davis said he wasn't sure but it may have been at a private office where COPS took a picture to use in their newsletter.
The episode is the latest embarrassment for Simon, a first-time candidate who lags behind Davis in polls and has suffered a series of setbacks, including a civil fraud verdict against his family investment firm that was later thrown out by a judge.
©2002 Associated Press
That's not an effective way to run a campaign especially when you have your own questionable baggage. Politics 101.
Needs saying in big font alright!
Unfortunately he no longer owns the house he says was the site of this event so we shan't be seeing the intrepid reporters gathering en masse to "inspect" the home to verify this claim as they did in the case of the one office.
Oh, if they would always act the part of bloodhound, but evidently only when instructed by the dems do they engage in such field work.
Well, Pete Wilson was a moderate Republican when he first ran for Governor. When he decided to run for the 1996 Presidential nomination, he changed... which was one of his problems.
Put up or shut up, Johnny One-Note.
Well, according to post 133 above, it was a private home.
Still in all, these are democrats. And their lips are moving. So they're probably lying.
The Clinton Legacy strikes again.
But it was a long way to the end! ...I'll go to the corner now!
Oh, no!
I wasn't chastising you!
Any attitude in my reply was due to my disdain for the dems and the media.
I trust you still have some of that disdain reserved for the inept Simon campaign.
Not as much as for the dems/media.
You are right, they should have vetted the picture. If there is something to it (which I don't think has been cleared away), they should have had the facts before aligning themselves with it.
That being said, I do not think it the huge disaster some do. And for Davis to call on Simon to step down is absurd.
#1 on Amazon.com......
How Not To Run a Political Campaign.....by Bill Simon
I voted for him. He was a darn good mayor and a good senator.
People like yourself are the reason the GOP is in such trouble in California. California Republican's have forgotten Reagan's 11th Commandmandent. Because Wilson was progressive on social issues, when he first ran, doesn't mean that he was 'worse' than the Democrat alternative. Kathleen Brown? Who would you rather see run the state?
After all, isn't the supposed core of the GOP a limited government?
Isn't even the most RINO of candidates going to do more to promote a limited government than the most conservative Democrat?
This demonstrates the problem the GOP has in California. Lundgren was wrong; the people are not more conservative than they think. As long as the GOP primary voters continue to elect hard line candidates, they will lose.
Furthermore, Davis has given any Democrat who cares to run the platform to run upon. Davis is so strong on crime that Simon has to give $200k to some tiny organization that pretends to represent cops to get any law enforcement support. Then the organization pulls this latest crap.
Simon can't get to the right of Davis on crime. There isn't any room.
Californian's care about that issue.
Simon can get to the right of Davis on abortion, environmental laws, etc.
To the extent that Californian's care about these issues, getting to the right isn't what they want.
Simon could make some hay on taxes, but so far as I am aware, all he has is platitudes, which Davis, being a consummate politician, can easily defeat.
Simon simply has run one of the worst campaigns in history.
Perhaps the only thing funnier is the earlier post blaming Parsky, who worked hard to get Dick nominated.
If Dick were on the ballot, Davis would be history.
This is what you need to realize, Simon trails by maybe 5 percentage points. This is no time to reconsider. The Dems ride a candidate even if they were caught smoking crack, driving drunk, while molesting a school boy. Grow a pair of balls and keep backing Simon.
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