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Hi kellynla! I'm back in beautiful Ventura County. Thank you so much for getting the daily post up on the forum. Today our local paper, Ventura Star, had a nice front page article on Tom. It points out that Arnie is starting to go on radio - probably as a reaction to Tom's success on radio. Last couple of paragraphs are very telling on why Tom isn't planning on dropping out.

McClintock gains edge in Simon's withdrawal
Race's truest conservative apparently gaining ground

By Timm Herdt, herdt@insidevc.com
August 26, 2003

SACRAMENTO -- First thing Monday morning, Joe Giardiello, the Southern California point man for Sen. Tom McClintock's campaign for governor, got a call from a Republican activist in Imperial County who had been a devoted supporter of businessman Bill Simon.

He wanted to know one thing: "What can I do to help?"

It was just one example of the shot in the arm that Simon's sudden departure as a replacement candidate for governor has given McClintock's campaign. Simon's decision leaves the Thousand Oaks senator as the only true-blue conservative left in the race and also ends a distractive debate among conservatives over which of the two should drop out.

"The person who benefits the most is Tom McClintock. No question about it," said Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark. "I think you'll see a bump in McClintock's polling and people will see that he's the candidate that's surging. ... Some Republicans might wake up and see that Arnold Schwarzenegger might not be the best candidate to run against Cruz Bustamante."

The sudden opening for McClintock was not lost on Schwarzenegger's campaign team. For the first time, the actor on Monday accepted invitations to appear on two conservative talk radio shows -- a staple of conservative candidates statewide and a favorite medium of McClintock's.

Simon's announcement on Saturday was followed by more good news for McClintock on Sunday: A poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times showed McClintock at 12 percent, behind Bustamante's 35 percent and Schwarzenegger's 22 percent.

"The timing of Simon's decision could not have been better for us," John Stoos, McClintock's longtime political aide, said Monday. "Our radio ads went on the air today, and our television ads begin Friday."

Stoos said the Times poll showed McClintock to be "the only candidate with momentum." Schwarzenegger's standing in various polls has remained in the mid-20 percent range despite what Stoos called "two or three weeks of the best press coverage I've ever seen in politics."

While some GOP leaders continued to exert pressure through the press in an attempt to persuade McClintock and former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth to also drop out, both camps insisted on Monday that they were in the campaign to stay.

"We're certainly in this to the finish line," Stoos said. "Tom's been absolutely unequivocal about that."

Ueberroth also reiterated his intent to campaign aggressively, saying he believes that as the Oct. 7 election day approaches, increasing numbers of California voters will focus on the serious nature of the election and be attracted by his appeal to elect someone with an independent, problem-solving approach.

A number of other Republicans, however, stepped up their warnings that unless one or more of the GOP candidates drops out it will hand the election to Lt. Gov. Bustamante, the only major Democrat whose name will appear on the replacement ballot.

The winner will take office only if a majority of voters decides that Gov. Gray Davis should be removed.

"The fewer candidates, the better," said Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge. "With three Republicans and one Democrat, the numbers just don't add up."

Senate GOP leader Jim Brulte was more blunt in an assessment he gave to members of the Big Bear Valley Republican Club: "Four weeks from now, if there are three Republicans running for governor, Cruz Bustamante is going to be the governor."

Those close to McClintock say party leaders who want him to defer to Schwarzenegger are wasting their breath.

He has always been a maverick whose relationship with the party establishment is strained. Last fall, as McClintock was engaged in a neck-and-neck campaign for state controller against Democrat Steve Westly, the California Republican Party spurned McClintock but gave more than $1 million to Gary Mendoza, the GOP candidate for insurance commissioner, and nearly $350,000 to Sen. Bruce McPherson, the candidate for lieutenant governor.

Mendoza lost by 350,000 votes, McPherson by 550,000. McClintock came within 17,000 votes of Westly, faring better than any Republican candidate on the statewide ballot.

Given that record, the party establishment has little to offer McClintock now as an inducement to persuade him to defer to Schwarzenegger.

"What are they going to do?" asked a McClintock supporter. "Tell him they won't support him next time he runs for statewide office? They didn't support him the last time he ran."

Other longtime associates point out that there is something else in McClintock's political background that will maintain his resolve to stay in the race. In 1986 McClintock, then an assemblyman, had announced his intent to run for Congress. But when Tony Hope, son of the late comedian Bob Hope, entered the race, McClintock dropped out in the belief that Hope could not be beaten.

He was wrong.

Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly won that contest and has served in Congress ever since.