— California voters legalized medicinal use of marijuana a few years ago, and nowadays many people take it for a variety of ailments ranging from glaucoma to stress. Patrick Ruffini appears to be a beneficiary of nature’s pharmacopoeia:
Primary voters have a finely tuned sense of which candidates can and can’t carry their party to victory in the fall. The likely result of the California primary is evidence that the political marketplace works, and that voters aren’t being irrational when they choose someone who appears less likely to win. If a candidate is riding high in the polls, but lacks the passion and grit of his opponent, voters will factor that in and consider that candidate less likely to endure the rigors of a general election. If you can’t win a primary, you probably can’t win the general either.
This has to be the most inane, naive, and bizarre theory about California politics ever posted outside the Free Republic web site. California’s Republican voters are notorious for nominating un-electable candidates, which is why there is only 1 Republican holding statewide office, Sec’y of State Bill Jones (the Spam King,) and why Reeps hold only about a third of State Assembly and State Senate seats.
Does anybody remember Dan Lungren, the anti-abortion drug warrior who raided the Cannabis Buyer’s Club during the Democratic Convention? How about Bruce Hershenson, the right-wing talk radio host Cal Reeps chose over Tom Campbell to run against Boxer. How is it that people like Boxer, Feinstein, Burton, and Pelosi manage to get elected and re-elected year after year in the state that passed an anti-affirmative action measure on a statewide popular vote, and also voted to ban Gay Marriage?
The politics of self-destruction practiced by the faithful who make up the core of the Republican Party is the only answer that makes any sense.
I confess the 1998 GOP primary might have been an exception. Dennis Perron, no stranger to reefer himself, would have just TROUNCED Gray Davis! Thanks for alerting me to this gross oversight.
It didn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference when Tom Campbell ran for Senate last year, did it? Or Michael Huffington? Honestly, California Republicans have lost with all sorts.
No Republican candidate for governor has lost as badly as Dan Lungren in 1998. While it’s fun to pretend we’re still living in 1966 when Reagan won, Bill Simon is simply a replay of Lungren. The party faithful love him, but the normal people who don’t live and breath ideological purity won’t get behind him, and they’re already chuckling at the knuckle-head Reeps who did exactly what Gray Davis wanted them to do.
But, few senatorial candidates have gotten crushed like Tom Campbell did last year, sadly. You still don’t address that prominent moderates nominated recently have also been whipped solidly.