A few minutes ago, Harry Sidhu wrapped one of the most interesting press conferences to which I’ve ever been.
It was basically two parts. First, he addressed the "Orange County Grand Jury Report" mailer sent out by the Mimi Walters for Senate campaign, attacking it as deceptive and defending his record regarding working with OCE to screen Anaheim City Jail prisoners for illegal immigrants.
Pretty standard.
Then, Harry went on to discuss the negative tone of the SD33 race, said he took responsibility for his campaign’s part in it, and then renounced any further negative campaigning, pledging that henceforth his voter communication would all be positive.
Nearby Harry were boxes of negative mail produced by his campaign, which he then proceeded to feed into a big shredder next to the podium.
A cynical interpretation is that it’s easy to renounce negative campaigning two weeks before the election when you’ve already carpet-bombed your opponent with negative mail and ads, and SD33 voters are likely sick and tired of the hit pieces anyway.
And keep in mind that the independent expenditures committees can still do the dirty work of attacking Mimi — so it’s not as if the attacks on Walters are now going to stop.
And while I’m sure it isn’t lost on Sidhu that there’s a voter-pleasing political upside to publicly taking the high road, I think Harry is honestly bothered by his role is fostering a very negative campaign and concerned about how it reflects on him and his reputation.
Plus, I’ve worked for a self-made multimillionaire candidate before. They may be loaded, but they retain the penny-inching habits acquired from the lean financial times of their youth. Physically destroying mail you have already paid tens of thousands of dollars for is not something these guys do lightly.
We’ll see how this plays out. I think both sides sense SD33 GOP voters are over-saturated with negative mail, and my guess is the forthcoming Walters mail will be largely positive, with maybe a few more hits thrown in.
The next round of Sidhu mailers and cable ads will likely try to win points with voters weary of negative mail by touting his renouncement of negative campaigns.
In the meantime, the damage has been done. Last night, my mother asked me who I was voting for in the 33rd Senate District.
"Mimi Walters," I told her.
"Isn’t she the one who voted for the Democrat?", my mother responded, and I explained to her how that was a misleading attack. My mom relayed how the Sidhu cable attacking Mimi had been on TV a lot, and how it caused her "not to like her," citing the segment showing Walters with a wad of cash in her hand.
So, Harry’s decision could turn out to be a brilliant political maneuver, or a fatal example of unilateral disarmament.
We’ll see.
UPDATE (11:31 a.m.): I’ll have video of the presser up later this afternoon.
And Harry, his wife and daughter are still out in front of Anaheim City Hall, shredding away.
UPDATE (3:57 P.M.): When I finally left Anaheim City Hall close to noon, Harry and Co. were still out there shredding, and estimated they had another 15 minutes of shredding ahead of them.