Last night the two Republican candidates for Governor of California squared off in what we would call a much-overdue first debate. First and foremost, I would like to thank New Majority California for generously arranging to broadcast the debate live via streaming video so that FlashReport readers could catch the debate live! You can read more about the New Majority here. If you didn’t get a chance to see the debate, or for some reason want to see it again, here it is…
The debate was held in the posh Samueli Theater which is part of the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts. For this event, unlike most GOP events that I attend, I participated as part of the press corps — which was an interesting way to experience the debate. Kind of like seeing the zoo from the perspective of the animals, I suppose.
If you haven’t seen it from the blog post of last evening, here is a video that more or less encapsulates what it was like in the media room…
Right before the debate, we ("the media") were asked by the New Majority’s press coordinator (and longtime FR friend) Ashley Snee Giovannettone if we wanted to watch the debate from the balcony of the Samueli Theater, or from the safety of the press room (on big-screen TV’s). Most of us preferred the latter after being told we couldn’t bring phones, cameras or laptops with us if we wanted to see it in person.
The debate itself lasted an hour, and literally as soon as it ended, we in the press room were besieged by an onslaught of advocates of the campaigns, as well as event organizers, all "available" to talk to the press — or in my case, to a conservative blogger.
Using the handy-dandy FlashCam, I was able to conduct quite a number of brief interviews, which appear below in three videos. Following the last video, I will take a moment to share my thoughts on who won (or didn’t win) the debate…
On video one, we have interviews with news reporter Conan Nolan (the debate moderator), CA GOP Chairman Ron Nehring, California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg, and finally the leadership of the New Majority — NM California head Larry Higby, NM Los Angeles head Fritz Hitchcock, NM Inland Empire head John Bennett, NM San Diego head Joel Reed, and NM Orange County head Tom McKiernan. This first video doesn’t have too much "spin" in it — but just wait…
Video two (below) contains interviews with the supporters of Steve Poizner. It actually starts with a little clip of Poizner talking to reporters so that you get a sense of what that is like. Poizner is followed by former State GOP Chairman Mike Schroeder, Assemblywoman Diane Harvey, former Senate (and Assembly) GOP Leader Jim Brulte, Assemblyman Cameron Smyth, AFP California Chairman and Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy, and finally Poizner spokesman Jarrod Agen.
Video three (below) is filled with interviews with a number of Meg Whitman’s supporters. Like with video two above, I open with some footage of Whitman supporters giving their post-debate "spin" — including former California Governor Pete Wilson, GOP consultant Mike Murphy, Bill Simon, and finally Whitman Communication Director Tucker Bounds.
As for my quick take on this first debate — I would make the following observations.
My expectations for Whitman were lower because I don’t think she is a natural at public speaking. That said, she well-exceeded my expectations in terms of her style and on holding her own.
Poizner did well during the debate, and actually would argue based on my scoring of the responses and statements made during the debate rather methodically, that he outperformed Whitman, though not by much.
In the scheme of things, this debate was much more policy-oriented than I thought it would be — and frankly, it was less combative than it could have been.
That said, stepping back and looking at this debate in the context of the overall campaign for the GOP nomination, Poizner needed to perform better himself, while he needed Whitman to perform poorly. In the absence of those things, nothing about this debate was a "game changer" and that is never good for the candidate behind in the polls — which is definitely Poizner for now.
Of course as we look forward from here, it is a political eternity (May?) until the next Gubernatorial debate. So look for the attention in this campaign to shift back to the paid media advertising — and a lot of it!
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