I’ve been engaged in politics, either as a volunteer or professionally, for over two decades now. During that period of time, I have seen Tom Campbell successful run for state and federal legislative offices with success. The area in which he lived, south of San Francisco near San Jose, during the 90’s was home to a lot of GOP officeholders who tended to gravitate more conservative fiscally and more liberal socially. Time having gone by, no that turf isn’t even friendly to moderate Republicans anymore.
Tom Campbell has made runs for statewide office three times now (if you include the current quest for the GOP nomination for Governor). In 1992 he narrowly lost (by less than 3%) the Republican primary for U.S. Senate to conservative icon Bruce Herschensohn (who went on to then Congresswoman Barbara Boxer). In 2000, a cycle with which I am very familiar as I was Executive Director of the California Republican Party at the time, Campbell won the primary (besting then State Senator Ray Haynes and San Diego Supervisor Bill Horn) but got whalloped in the general against Senator Feinstein by nearly 20 points.
By my recollection, Campbell’s better effort was in 1992 — and I think it would be fair to say that he did not have "wind in his sails" in his 2000 run, and was significantly outspend by his opponent.
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January 13th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Jon is right.Not enough room for Tom in this Senate race.Devore’s early grasroots work and Fiorna’s business notariety can not be easily matched. Aiming for Feinstein’s seat in 2012 is a more reasonable goal. A winning campaign modeled after the hard work of Devore could be succesful for Tom, but he would have to hit the road right now working on that goal everyday to make that happen.
Chasing offices like rainbows is not a good plan for success. The conservative activists are on the war path like it is 2012 already..
January 14th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Jon, I think you are over analyzing this. The why is simple, he needs a job and it doesn’t matter if it is governor, senator or dogcatcher. But like most politicians he is ignoring his true need, that being to get some experience in signing the front of a paycheck.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Many people have pondered the question: “How is it possible that Barbara Boxer is a United States Senator?”
She has lived a charmed life. She keeps on running against candidates who are not bad people, but are bad candidates. She is a better than average campaigner, although a worse than average Senator.
Fiorina and DeVore both have a good story and would be just fine, but both of them will be crushed by Boxer. Fiorina has the golden parachute from HP to explain. Chuck DeVore is a nice guy, but he’s going to be a better candidate than Bill Jones who lost by 20 points? No, he isn’t.
Tom Campbell might not win, but he is the best shot we have at beating Barbara Boxer. And let’s not kid ourselves. If he is elected, he will vote with the Republicans about as often as Joe Lieberman votes with the Democrats. That is the best deal we’re going to get. We should take it.