— Davis and Simon hit the campaign trail big-time yesterday: Simon toured schools across the state and Davis talked to editorial boards. The San Diego Union-Trib ripped him for pitching a hissy fit at some of the tough questions they asked him about the power crisis, eliciting this piece of wonderment:
Surprisingly, Davis offered a pat on the back to Enron, the bankrupt Houston power trader accused of fraud. “Enron was the best of the lot,” he said. “They dealt with us more honestly.”
I suppose he means Enron gave him more money than the others.
The U-T was alone among dailies in not mentioning a demonstration that met Simon in Burlingame, where a group of students carried signs slamming him for his stands on guns and abortion:
A clump of student protesters confronted him in the hallway bearing signs that said, “Pro-Child, Pro-Choice,” “Guns Kill” and “Vouchers Are Not the Solution.”
“We’re going to go back to coat hangers,” said Sara McNamara, 17.
Other papers numbered the “clump” at about 11. Burlingame is the place where the Dr. Mom mentioned below performed a post-natal abortion on her son recently.
Simon faced tough questions from an 11-year-old:
A fifth-grade boy in Sacramento asked Simon what he had ever done in public office before running for governor, a potentially devastating question from an 11-year old to a candidate who has never run for office and rarely even voted.
Unfazed and soft-spoken, Simon explained that he worked for Giuliani. “I put bad people in jail,” he said, explaining his three years as a junior federal prosecutor in the New York area. “Anybody know Rudy Giuliani? He’s the mayor of New York who was there on September 11.” The class nodded in recognition.
Simon can win if he can keep the race focussed on personalities and not policies. In this state, that shouldn’t be too hard.
Incidentally, the 31% turnout for the primary was the lowest in state history. Dan Walters says not to make too many dire extrapolations since this number was so low, but he believes the Frisco machine is losing steam:
The decades-old political alliance between San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Senate President pro tem John Burton faltered. Their candidates in local elections, including Burton’s own daughter, were largely rejected; Brown was on the losing side of a local ballot measure fight; Burton’s nephew-by-marriage lost a state Assembly bid despite Burton’s strong backing; and voters rejected Burton’s pet cause, a state measure to loosen legislative term limits. The results raise doubts about Brown’s succeeding Burton in the Senate and Burton’s prospects to run for mayor next year.
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