LOL! At least you weren't driving it while dressed in your hooker garb. LOL!Take a closer look into the driver's window of that DUMP TRUCK photo...
In OTHER news, from www.NationalReview.com:
October 21, 2002, 9:00 a.m.
Simon Can Still Win
Seriously.By Bill Whalen
orget what you've read. Forget what you've heard.
The governor's race in California isn't over.
That's not the trendy thing to say here on the West Coast. For weeks now, reporters and pundits have built a funeral pyre for Bill Simon Jr., declaring his candidacy dead in the water, and waiting only for Election Night results before a final, fiery sendoff for the Republican challenger.
And apparently there's not much love for Mr. Simon on the East Coast. Witness last week's comment by Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee: "I don't think there's a worse-run race in the country than the governor's race in California for the Republicans. I mean, this was a belt-high, medium fastball and we just seem to have booted it."
Mixed metaphors aside (you "whiff" on a missed pitch, congressman, you "boot" a ball hit at you), there are perfectly valid reasons for Republicans to be less-than-jazzed about California.
For one, consider the money involved. Between them, Simon and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis will have raised and spent about $90 million by Election Day. If little more than five million Californians head to the polls on Nov. 5, as is presently estimated, that means the two parties will have spent about $18 a vote to produce a record-poor turnout. Seems like a waste, doesn't it? $18 can buy you a lot of fun, unless you happen to be taking a date to see Madonna in Swept Away. Of course, that train wreck lasts a little over an hour and a half; Simon and Davis have been going at it for 30 weeks and counting.
And there's the tone of the campaign, which has vacillated from negative, to personally insulting, back to negative. Team Davis has inferred that Simon is a corrupt businessman and a policy know-nothing. Team Simon contends that Davis is a policy do-nothing — that is, when the governor's not selling out policy decisions to the highest donor.
Unfortunately, both candidates have succeeded . . . at convincing Californians that neither is a likable option. As the Sacramento Bee assessed in Sunday's edition: "You don't like the choices. We don't like the choices. If only there were an even vaguely plausible third-party candidate — but there isn't. . . What a choice: A Republican challenger without a clue and a Democratic incumbent without a conscience."
Pretty it's not. In the year of the all-California World Series, California's governor's race ain't exactly the World Series of politics, the pinnacle of 2002 campaigns. Rather, the Davis-Simon match-up is more like a showdown between a couple of last-place teams, with little buzz in the stands and 50,000 fans disguised as empty seats.
Except that there could be a surprise as the game goes into its final inning. Simon could still defy the odds and the experts and pull this thing out. Here's how:
First, since this is California, never underestimate the power of television to sway a race.
During the first two games of the World Series, Team Simon ran a 30-second ad (title: "The Whole Thing Stinks") linking a $55,000 donation to Davis's campaign to a decision by the state to allow a California oil company to dump dioxin into San Francisco Bay. It's repeating a story that ran at great length earlier this year in the San Jose Mercury News. But with one important difference: A TV image of a pipeline spewing chemical sludge is far more compelling to voters than print allegations of a governor for sale.
For months, Simon has hammered away at the image of Davis as a "pay to play" governor — you give him $100,000 and doors open. California newspapers have chronicled example after example of benefits for big donors. But in terms of making voters angry enough to turn on Davis, it probably requires more than in-depth newspaper stories. Maybe the dioxin ad, as well as other Simon ads with a clever tag line ("Had Enough? Fire Gray Davis"), have a bigger impact on the electorate than is estimated.
The second unknown that could work to Simon's benefit: voter turnout — or a lack thereof.
In 2002, the California electorate is internally conflicted. According to a survey by the Progressive Policy Institute of California, eight out of ten likely voters say they're paying close attention to the governor's race, but more than 55 percent don't like the Simon-Davis match-up. Here's the big news for Simon: Three out of ten voters say they'll skip the race altogether, or vote for a third-party candidate.
Think of Simon-Davis as a seesaw: The lower the turnout, in a state with more Democratic voters, the better Simon's chances for an upset climb (well, that, and a big rainstorm in San Francisco and Los Angeles on Election Day wouldn't hurt either).
Finally, a third variable: the great unknown — namely, what we still don't know about Gray Davis.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared way for the release of two letters, sealed by a federal judge, claiming that Davis was involved in a bribery scandal back when he was California's state controller. The allegations, by a Beverly Hills executive (at the time on his way to federal prison), are that Davis participated in a scheme to exchange campaign donations for political favors.
Perhaps that allegation turns out to be a bombshell. Or maybe it's dud (having worked on the Bush-Quayle '92 campaign, when we kept waiting for that picture of a naked Bill Clinton at a '60s protest, I can assure you these things seldom work out). But at the very least, its emergence in the news cycle could force Davis to spend the campaign's remaining days on the defensive over his fundraising. And that's problematic for Davis, as his intent is to ride out the last two weeks sticking to the California Democratic mantra of abortion, the environment, and guns. The last thing any unpopular politician like Davis can afford is an unpalatable story right as voters are getting ready to pull the lever.
So there you have it: three reasons why Bill Simon just might end up surprising us all — (1) he has good ads in a state where TV is crucial; (2) voter turnout may work to his advantage; and (3) his opponent could be more ethically-challenged than imagined.
With the Giants and Angels going at it, it's been the year of the wild card in California. In that vein, maybe Simon turns out to be the unlikeliest of winners.
And to think: He may not need a "rally monkey" to pull it off.
—Bill Whalen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.
