**10:05 am – Update** I spoke with a representative of Team Radanovich who let me know that 1) the Bee article really overstates the Feinstein presence in the mail, and 2) Radanovich is in-fact in a race with his opponent being a wealthy businessman who has put up a million dollars… DEVELOPING**
My alternate title for this post: "Today IS Friday the 13th, just ask George Radanovich…"
It was just two weeks ago when I was asked a question following a speech I gave to the Republican Women’s Federated Group in La Habra in Orange County.
"What is going on with the Dick Mountjoy for U.S. Senate Campaign and why does Dianne Feinstein have such a big lead?"
In my response, I touched on a few different reasons for our GOP ‘challenges’ in taking out liberal Feinstein, but one of them looms front and center today, amidst news that conservative Republican Congressman George Radanovich (pictured to the right), sitting in a safe GOP seat in the Central Valley, just dropped a mailer for his re-election that features a photo of he and the Democratic Senator, with a pull-quote that according to an article by Michael Doyle in today’s Fresno Bee, is described as saying:
The mailer displays the Mariposa Republican and Feinstein on the same page, and quotes Feinstein as giving "great thanks" for the "leadership" Radanovich showed in seeking a San Joaquin River compromise.
"Congressman George Radanovich knows how to reach across party lines, find common ground and bring people together," the mailer adds.
Which goes to one of my main points about trying to defeat Dianne Feinstein — she has benefited greatly from a very wrong perception that she is a political moderate. In reality, Dianne Feinstein is an extremely left-wing Senator whose views on many, many issues are considerably more liberal than most Californians.
Part of the problem is that she is frequently contrasted (by Republicans I might add) with Senator Barbara Boxer, with Boxer being characterized as ‘ultra-liberal’ and Feinstein being labeled more ‘reasonable.’
Those who do this are mis-characterizing Feinstein. She may be more moderate in temperament than Boxer, but not in ideology. On a few issues perhaps, but on the thousands of issues that come up in the United States Senate, both of our California Senators vote together virtually all of the time.
Anyways, back to George Radanovich, who is a friend. Unfortunately, this kind of political mailer in any campaign year only serves to increase the mis-perceptions of Feinstein, and while Radanovich may be admiring Feinstein’s popularity, and seek to grab some of it — to do this within a month of Feinstein’s re-election is just wrong.
At the same time that Radanovich is sending out this puffy mail with the liberal Democrat, tens of thousands of hard working Republican volunteers up and down the state are making phone calls and walking precincts trying to elect the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Dick Mountjoy, to replace her.
I don’t think that Radanovich, or his political consultant Carlos Rodriguez (a close friend of mine with whom I have been working for nearly 20 years on various campaigns and causes) have done themselves a favor with this campaign tactic.
If we want to look at why Feinstein does well repeatedly in California elections, Republicans can certainly look in the mirror — because, as this action shows, we are helping her out!
Of course, the ultimate irony here is that thanks to a horrible redistricting plan adopted in the state legislature at the beginning of the decade, Congressman Radanovich could be re-elected to another term without sending out any mail at all. (GOP voters were crammed into fewer districts that are super-safe in order to give Democrats more seats in the California delegation.)
If I were making a suggestion to the Congressman, I would do the following two things.
- Issue a public statement making it clear that he supports and is voting for Dick Mountjoy, and that while he has working in cooperation with Senator Feinstein on some key issues, he would prefer that Mountjoy, not Feinstein, be our next U.S. Senator.
- Convey that same message in a follow up mail piece to the same universe of voters who received the same piece of mail.
I guess as a third potential option, the Congressman could actually put a call into Senator Mountjoy, who on behalf of the GOP has stepped up to a daunting task in facing off against Feinstein in the first place, and clarify for him what this was and what this was not.
I will close by saying that I am a big fan of George Radanovich. He has been a conservative leader in the House, and is a member of the acclaimed Republican Study Committee (which is the conservative caucus within the Republican majority). Other than his odd support for the President’s ill-advised "guest-worker" program on illegal immigration, George has been a solid GOPer, and supportive of the Party.
Hopefully this was a glitch and not a pattern, and it will fade into the books as one political mail piece that was a case of "Fire, Ready, Aim."
Unfortunately, this mailer will be used to once again bolster misperceptions about Feinstein, and whenever the folks in the main stream media seek to mis-define the ultra-liberal Senator to their readers, they will use this mailer as an example of how Feintstein is well-regarded by even the most conservative Members of Congress. Sigh.
(I have emails into both Carlos Rodriguez and to the Congressman’s Chief of Staff to try and speak with the Congressman on this — and if we do speak, I will post an update.)