This coming weekend, the California Democratic Party will meet in Sacramento. There will be much drama surrounding whether or not State Treasurer and former State Democratic Party Chairman Phil Angelides will get the official endorsement of the Party he once led.
That said, you look at the Democratic Primary between Angelides and Westly, and any Republican really has to ask the question, which of these candidates will likely fair worse against Governor Schwarzenegger in the November ballot. If you ask Schmidt, Soderland and company, I’m sure that they will happily tell you that when we come into the home stretch, the Governator will clean the clock of either candidate handily. That said, there are a lot of folks that think Steve Westly would be a more challenging opponent for November, both because of his extremely deep pockets and the fact that Angelides is vulnerable to so many more attacks.
So here is my grand idea! For those of you who do not remember, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, unfortunately, is a liberal Democrat by the name of Susan Kennedy. While seeming to be a very nice person, Kennedy has spent her professional career fighting conservatives and promoting liberal causus. Some examples of her activism can be found on her resume, including serving as a Deputy Chief of Staff to the now disgraced and recalled Gray Davis, serving as Executive Director of the California Abortion Rights Action League, and — most importantly for my idea — Kennedy served as Executive Director of the California Democratic Party! To be even more specific, she was Phil Angelides’ Executive Director. That’s right, Bob Mulholland worked FOR Kennedy. I am sure that the proudest moment of "Team Angelides/Kennedy/Mulholland" was the trecherous last minute attacks that contributed to the narrow loss of Bruce Herschensohn in 1992.
Anyways, I really didn’t intend on rehashing the whole "Why did the Governor hire a liberal Democrat to run his office" shtick — I’ve done that plenty on these pages. But, since I have brought it up, for the record, I will ask that she get the boot, and that we get a Chief of Staff in there that actually looks to Ronald Reagan as a hero, instead of Jane Fonda.
My idea was that Kennedy should take some time off this Friday and over the weekend, and "work" the Democratic Convention for her old boss, Angelides. Besides being theraputic (if she feels remorse for ‘selling out her people’ to work for the GOP Governor) — Kennedy must have hundreds of relationships with the many delegates who will be at that convention. Perhaps we could even orchestrate some sort of ‘faux-resignation’ where she fakes a principled resignation from the Governor’s office ("I am sick and tired of working for a Governor that won’t raise taxes!") and actually go into the convention as kind of a hero/lost sheep returning to the fold.
She can give a keynote address, where she talks about how California needs a Governor like Angelides who will raise taxes and bring more socialized spending programs to the state. She can vouch for the fact that while she had been in the Governor office, she had to battle with Republicans every day, and deal with a boss who actually had a natural dislike for big-government solutions to solving the problems of California.
Her speech, along with personal attacks that she can coordinate with her old flack, Bob Mulholland, should propel her old boss Angelides into an endorsement, giving him some much needed momentum.
Then, mission accomplished, she can return to the Governor’s office on Monday, and throw her Democratic Convention name tag up on the cork board with her Tom Hayden campaign buttons, and an Al Gore for President bumper sticker.
Crazy idea? I suppose so…