The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 2 of 2)

SIMON UPBEAT br> California Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon has called his state party's bluff and cut a check for $4 million to his own campaign to underwrite big media buys up and down the state. /p>

Simon decided to pump his own money into the campaign, staffers say, after seeing polling numbers that show he still has a reasonable window of opportunity to catch Gov. Gray Davis in the polls over the next seven weeks. "We're still big double digits back, but the undecided vote is still large, and we have had only good news the past couple of weeks. Davis's numbers still suck, though, which is why we're optimistic," says a Simon adviser in Sacramento. The best good news Simon had was an appeal court's reversal of the $78 million judgment against the Simon family's investment firm.

The Republican candidate is also hopeful that his personal investment in the campaign will force the state party to give him money he believed the party was going to give him all along. "The state GOP owes us at least $2 million. That could go a long way to helping us well into October," says the adviser. "At the very least, the state party could go to the national party on our behalf. It's why they are here."

Another reason for Simon's new upbeat thinking is an in-state poll that shows President Bush with unprecedented support in the Golden State. He has an approval rating of almost 60 percent, and if a Bush-Gore rematch were to be held today, the Field Poll shows that Bush would beat Gore by better than 12 percent -- the same number by which Gore beat Bush in California two years ago.

Interestingly, the New York Times yesterday concurred that Bush "maintains high approval ratings here," but otherwise noted that Simon "remains a long shot." The story, by John Broder, said the California GOP is all but dead. It said "even party loyalists acknowledge fundamental problems," and for buttressing immediately quoted failed gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan -- neglecting to note Riordan was such a party loyalist that he ran for the GOP nomination ashamed ever to call himself Republican. It quoted a few other state Republican figures -- but never once mentioned Gerald Parsky, who happens to rule over the California GOP with White House backing and generally is regarded as the man who has kept the state party from providing serious support to Bill Simon.

topics:
Nancy Pelosi, NATO