Sacramento Bee’s crack reporting staff has posted another break-through investigative piece with the revelation that all three GOP candidates for Governor have had some kind of tie to Democrats over the past half-century.

The Bee features a photo and quote of FR publisher Jon Fleischman – another indication of the increasingly higher profile respected blogs are playing in shaping, as well as commenting on, public opinions.  Maybe the Bee was hoping a quote from a well known conservative would make them look like they did their homework this time. 

A quick overview of the story is that Campbell was a Democrat 40 years ago, Whitman gave money to Boxer in 2003, and Poizner gave money to the Democrat National Committee, Al Gore and John Kerry.

While the Bee wonders if these stunning (albeit well-known) revelations are making Republican voters question the candidates partisan loyalties; Fleischman hits the more salient issue of the lack of track record from Poizner or Whitman that troubles conservatives.  Fleischman seems to be concerned that neither has a clear record to demonstrate their ideological views.  He’s right. 

Whitman is new and Poizner appears to have a pliable relationship with most issues.  Both give Republicans pause.

Some try to paint this as a conflict for the heart and soul of the party.  Conventional wisdom (which is often the former and rarely the later) is that a conservative cannot win in California.  They are wrong – it’s neither a battle for the heart of the soul of the party, nor is it impossible for a conservative to win. 

The rather trite “heart & soul” ditty is good at rallying some of the troops, but most Republicans see that we need both moderate and conservative elements of our party to win – and any of the three moderate candidates share more of our values than Moonbeam Brown or “whether you like or not” Newsome.

GOP candidates struggle when the party divides itself.  Conservatives, who represent much of the voting base of the party; and moderates, who represent the bulk of financial strength of the party,  seem unable to set aside their differences long enough to beat the Democrats. 

Rigid leaders on both sides say losing is preferable because we’ll get the right candidate in the future.  But there’s a lot of damage (look-up Grey Davis, Barbara Boxer) being done while we are waiting for a return of Reagan or Wilson.  And too often, we just hand victory to Democrats (with whom both conservative and moderate Republicans disagree with even more).  Or maybe the party is big enough to nominate Tom Campbell and Chuck DeVore.

It’s clear that this year, the GOP is likely to have a nominee for Governor who is moderate on many social issues.  The window is almost closed on a last-minute entrance of a conservative with the resources be viable.  So maybe we need to think about which of the moderates best represents our ideological agreements; which can do the best job of fixing the budget mess, reign in  bureaucracy, roll back taxes and help get Californians back to work.

If money didn’t count, Campbell would stand at the front of the pack – he’s brutally honest, consistent and has real ideas for solving the financial problems facing California.  Republicans might not like his stand on some social issues, but he’s always been clear where he stands and he’s unlikely to become a crusader.  But money does count, and the truth is, Campbell just doesn’t have much (at least in comparison to his billionaire opponents.)

The two candidates with money – Poizner and Whitman — offer fairly similar positions and backgrounds.  Neither has voted consistently, both have given significant contributions to Democrats and both are trying to appear more conservative.  Whitman has owned her earlier contributions, while Poizner blamed his wife.  Whitman offers a reputation for innovation and would try to roll back state spending.  Poizner has clever internet videos lampooning Whitman but refused to honor the Governor’s call for public employee furloughs.

Neither one has a lock on the GOP nomination – and that might the opening Campbell needs to pull an upset.  If Whitman can beef up her ideas a bit and find a campaign message; or if Poizner would spend less time on political games and more if it connecting with voters, either could emerge as a strong GOP candidate.

If the Bee wants to break actual news, perhaps a serious look at the budget proposals offered by all the candidates (and no more letting Brown off the hook) would be a start … it’s tougher work than rehashing old news and using FR quotes to legitimize a story, but that’s hardly the stuff the founders had in mind when they enshrined freedom of press in the Constitution.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.