The campaign for the GOP Gubernatorial Primary is becoming strange.
Last week, it was Meg Whitman distancing herself from our City Councilman, instantly giving that story new legs.
This week, it’s Steve Poizner (the guy most SCV conservatives seem to support) cracking his nut and alleging criminal wrongdoing on behalf of the Whitman campaign after Whitman staffer Mike Murphy tried to encourage Poizner to drop out for the good of the party. George Skelton:
The screwy thing is that this awkward attempt at a deal only looked amateur. It was handled by a seasoned pro, Whitman political consultant Mike Murphy. He mistakenly put the offer to Poizner in an e-mail, the technological trap these days for many who lull themselves into treating cyberspace as a private communication channel and have forgotten how to dial a telephone.
…
With e-mail in hand, Poizner called a news conference Monday to announce he’d asked law enforcement to “investigate improper conduct” that “threatens the integrity of the electoral process.” He also called it “a crystal-clear threat” to himself.
Investigators probably just rolled their eyes.
As Skelton points out, Poizner has been the more open and accessible of the two GOP Gubernatorial candidates. Whitman, in contrast, has avoided the media and forgets to vote. But if Poizner is crazy who’s left to vote for?
Moving on to the GOP race to field a candidate who will take on Barbara Boxer this fall, the other former tech CEO Carly Fiorina has released this really bizarre and unintentionally hilarious ad against Tom Campbell (who was running for Governor but is now running for Senator):
Wow! I knew purity in fiscal conservatism-ness was important but I had no idea it translated so well into a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing metaphor.
As for the Dems- well, no movement is good movement I suppose. Although last night I received what suspiciously felt like a biased poll in favor of a candidate I’ve never heard of: Sunne McPeak. The poll started off with several questions about what I had heard about the gubernatorial campaign. By the end, the pollster was testing negative phrases about Jerry Brown on me and asked three times whether I’d vote for Jerry Brown or Sunne McPeak.
This is going to be a fun year.
Loading ...
Primaries are great because they are so vicious! You can’t be this vicious in a general election because you alienate independent voters.
“Steve Poizner (the guy most SCV conservatives seem to support)”
Ummm…no…not really. All you have to do to discredit that misconception is look at the local turnout Whitman received when visiting SCV….it was massive.
Wait Whitman appeared at Larry Rasmussen’s place right? That was massive?
Where did Poizner appear again?
I thought the endorsements were relatively split among our local elected officials.
Jeff:
When measuring “massive” you need to note that most repubs are white middle aged males and they have been telling their wives, well, you know….
Whitman appeared at TPC and Poizner was at the Chamber office
Devon: Most of the “massives” were republicans. Not conservatives. Actual conservatives are for Poizer.
and Jeff – that sheep thing completely MADE my day. But I have to think that was not unintentionally funny. They HAD to know that was hilarious. You couldn’t pay attention to the message because the imagery was fall off the couch funny.
The guy who had the “crawl around the ground in a sheep costume” was not paid enough.
SCVFan so you think they really want voters to take this seriously?
Or it’s designed to make Tom Campbell a laughingstock I guess?
I think they wanted it to be funny but they ended up making them look stupid not Campbell.
I’m a conservative but I already forwarded it around making fun.
Stupid is just stupid.
I’ll agree with you about the guy who got to crawl around. Comedy gold!
For those too young to remember, back in the late 1970′s there was a woman who led the anti-busing campaign in the San Fernando Valley. Riding her fame and popularity into public office, she became an elected official. Later on, in seeking even higher office, her campaign manager/boyfriend made a generous offer to one of her competitors, asking them to drop out of the election. That offer became public and it was curtains for the woman politician and her boyfriend.
Apparently, there is actually a law in California stating that one may not offer compensation to a candidate to induce them to drop out of an electoral race.
Coastal Sage:
Good information. There was definintely an implied offer of monetary support for a future Senate campaign. Blagoyavich, anyone?
On the Senate race:
Fiorina/Cambell – haven’t begun to make up my mind yet.
What is more important is that Boxer is now considered vulnerable, a thought that would never have occured pre-Massachussetts. I’m really looking forward to Boxer getting her come-uppance. What she, her campaign manager Bill Press, and the LA Times did at the end of the campaign when she was first elected was unconscionable. They all slandered Bruce Hershenson at the last minute for his allegedly going to a strip club. This was a BS issue and there was no time for Hershenson to recover and he lost by a small margin.
Fiorina is polling behind Boxer by only 3 points. Let’s hope that Boxer looses to whichever GOP candidate she is up against come November. Even a small margin will be sweet.
It is clear who the better choice is for governor and I have faith in the Santa Clarita Valley that many see who that is, Meg Whitman.
She isn’t like most leaders who want to do it all in one term. She has broken it up into three parts; Create Jobs, Cut Spending, and Fix Education. Any other issue we have after those are fixed will easily fall into one of those three issue. The biggest thing I wish political leaders would learn is that you don’t make a pie by throwing everything in at once and Meg gets that. She wants to BUILD a better California, not just throw some things together and hope it works out.