Bill Simon drops out of recall race

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Well, the official Arnold thread turned into a big-ass abortion debate, so I'll make a new thread for this, I guess.

 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n...1234EDT0050.DTL

 

Republican Bill Simon dropped out of the California recall race on Saturday, boosting the position of GOP front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger amid calls from party leaders to consolidate behind fewer candidates.

 

"I strongly believe that the desire of Californians must come before the aspirations of any single candidate. There are too many Republicans in this race and the people of this state simply cannot risk a continuation of the Gray Davis legacy," Simon said in a statement the campaign was releasing at 11 a.m.

 

Spokesman K.B. Forbes denied the move by Simon, who lost to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2002, came in response to pressure from the party.

 

"There was absolutely no pressure, no phone calls -- this was a decision made by Bill Simon based on rational conclusions," Forbes said.

 

The move by Simon leaves three leading Republicans among the 135 candidates on the ballot to replace Davis Oct. 7: Schwarzenegger, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks.

 

Many Republicans believe Schwarzenegger should be the party's choice, but McClintock and Ueberroth have said they are in the race to stay.

 

Democrats, meanwhile, are increasingly united behind Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and his "No on recall, yes on Bustamante" strategy.

 

McClintock campaign spokesman Joe Giardiello repeated Saturday that McClintock would stay in the race and took a fresh shot at Schwarzenegger, saying the recall is now "a race between Gray Davis' right-hand man, an untested candidate who may or may or may not raise taxes, and McClintock, who has been fighting for fiscal reforms that we need for 20 years."

 

Ueberroth's campaign consultant did not immediately return a call for comment and there was no immediate statement from the Schwarzenegger camp.

 

A Davis spokesman dismissed the news as "irrelevant."

 

"We're still focused on defeating question one on the ballot," said Gabriel Sanchez, spokesman for Davis' campaign committee. "Question two has become a sideshow with one less clown."

 

Simon, the son of former U.S. Treasury secretary William E. Simon Sr., is a social conservative who was a political unknown before his surprise win in the Republican primary last year. He ran a stumbling campaign and lost to Davis by five percentage points in November.

 

The Los Angeles businessman entered the recall election with support from a band of loyalists, but he was not getting the contributions or endorsements he needed. As recently as this week, though, Simon insisted he would stay in the race and spend his own money to win.

 

Although he is dropping out, it is too late to remove his name from the Oct. 7 ballot so it will still appear there.

 

Forbes said Simon would not be available for interviews.

 

Ah, Bill Simon.... A tale, for those of you who don't live here. Bill Simon's last campaign was actually quite humorous.

 

Simon was the more social Conservative who beat L.A. mayor Richard Riordan in the GOP primaries out of blind luck in 2002 and got burned in the November election.

 

It started innocently enough. A letter from the Simon campaign to the Log Cabin Republicans, a group for gay conservatives, stated that he'd endorse gay marriage. Word got out and some of the fundamentalists donators raised a stink, and Simon then claimed he never signed or agreed to any such thing in the first place, and his position on the issue was to simply not repeal any current gay rights laws. His campaign advisor Sal Russo (who now works on someone else's campaign) took full responsibility for the mishap, but the Log Cabin group still felt betrayed.

 

Simon went on about his business record and how the state ought to be run like a business until an investigation into his own business practices in the middle of the whole corporate crime bust turned up that a big business partner of his was well-documented as one of the state's largest drug-dealers. This came RIGHT after he campaigned about being tough on drugs, of course. Simon claimed he had no clue of his partner's dealings and the judge eventually threw the case out and said Simon did no wrongdoing.

 

Simon brought in ads of Rudy Giulianni kissing ass and talking about what a great governor Bill would be, blah blah blah. Rudy was supposed to come here and stump for Simon as well (he came last year but the two were not even seen together, the visit was mostly to advertise "Leadership," his book) and that's quite sad really as I rather like Rudy and it's political russian roulette to associate with a guy like this. Oh well.

 

Simon then stated that he had a picture of Davis taking a campaign contribution in the Governor's office, which is illegal. After some research it turned out the picture wasn't taken there at all and the guy who made the contribution was more than a little upset that he had been unjustly claimed of breaking the law.

 

Simon started running ads where he claimed "I'm not perfect" and told the viewer that he's at least not as bad as Davis is. Seriously. Being the lesser of two evils became the focus of his campaign.

 

As you could imagine, the competition between those two resulted in one of the lowest turnouts in California history.

 

 

Go, Arnold, go!

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Ahh, Simon, the guy that couldn't beat a recalled guv...

[Guest Crazy Dan]

This was Simon's basic campaign approach:

 

"I'm Bill Simon. I am a extreme Conservative that represents conservative values. I am not Gray Davis, so you should all vote for me. I offer no real solutions to the mess were in, but hey, I am not Gray Davis. All I can really do is say what is wrong with the state, but not have any real idea how to fix the problems. Sure I really have no idea what I am doing, but I am not Gray Davis. Have I mentioned I am not Gray Davis? If you take a look at us side by side, you will see that I do not resemble him one bit. So vote for me."

 

 

His campaign for govoner ranked about a 95 on the Unintentional Comedy Scale. If any of you had the pleasure of followin git, you will all no what I mean.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

For some reason I bet Simon did REALLY bad in San Fran...

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

This was Simon's basic campaign approach:

 

"I'm Bill Simon. I am a extreme Conservative that represents conservative values. I am not Gray Davis, so you should all vote for me. I offer no real solutions to the mess were in, but hey, I am not Gray Davis. All I can really do is say what is wrong with the state, but not have any real idea how to fix the problems. Sure I really have no idea what I am doing, but I am not Gray Davis. Have I mentioned I am not Gray Davis? If you take a look at us side by side, you will see that I do not resemble him one bit. So vote for me."

 

 

His campaign for govoner ranked about a 95 on the Unintentional Comedy Scale. If any of you had the pleasure of followin git, you will all no what I mean.

Just a small revision:

 

"Bill Simon is Bill Simon. Bill Simon is an extreme Conservative that represents conservative values. Bill Simon is not Gray Davis, so you should all vote for Bill Simon. Bill Simon offers no real solutions to the mess were in, but hey, Bill Simon is not Gray Davis. All Bill Simon can really do is say what is wrong with the state, but not have any real idea how to fix the problems. Sure Bill Simon really has no idea what Bill Simon is doing, but Bill Simon is not Gray Davis. Has Bill Simon mentioned Bill Simon is not Gray Davis? If you take a look at us side by side, you will see that Bill Simon does not resemble him one bit. So vote for Bill Simon."

[Vyce 0]

All Arnold needs is for McClintock to step his ass out, and he should be good to go.