The Status Quo Candidate

Deborah Saunders profiles Tom Campbell, longtime CA Republican politico, and currently running against billionaire Meg Whitman and Super-billionaire Steve Poizner for the GOP nomination for governor. The poor Republican in the race

Two very rich Republicans - former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner - are lining up to run for governor in 2010. The most money that a third Republican gubernatorial candidate, Tom Campbell, ever earned was as the dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley - about $300,000 per year. That would make him the pauper in the primary.
Campbell's problem is not that he's modestly wealthy. It's that he is hoping to follow the strategy of a previous CA guv.
It may be a long shot, but some political insiders wonder if Campbell could repeat the example of Gray Davis - the David who beat moneyed goliaths Al Checchi and Jane Harman to win the governor's seat in 1998. They both had money and lots of press coverage, but the most experienced candidate, Davis, won first the primary, then the general election. (Yes, I know there was this recall thing a few years later, but that's another story.)
Tom, Gray Davis, should be an example of everything not to do. He was very good at getting elected, not so hot at carrying out his duties once elected. Frankly, I don't want to hear one word about your freakin' electoral strategy. I want to know how you plan to govern.

Sadly, for Tom, he let's us know, albeit inadvertently:

Campbell's other gamble is to be the Republican who backs Proposition 1A, the
spending-cap-but-it-comes-with-tax-increases measure that will be on the May 19
special election ballot. Whitman and Poizner both oppose the measure being
championed by Schwarzenegger, Democratic legislative leaders and the handful of
Republicans who voted for Sacramento's most recent budget.

You can't be a Democrat without being pro-choice and pro-gay marriage. And you can't be the GOP nominee for governor if you support these sorts of budget "compromises." Next please.



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