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American Morning
California Voters to Decide Political Races Today
Aired March 05, 2002 - 09:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A big day in California politics, something we want to focus on for the next couple of minutes. It could be the last hurrah for Gary Condit who has been trailing in the primary race to keep his congressional seat. It is the first time he has faced the voters since being linked to missing intern Chandra Levy. But there's some other very important races to track in the Golden State, including a gubernatorial primary.
And we're going to turn now to Ron Brownstein, political columnist for the "L.A. Times," for his take on the Condit-Cardoza battle and some of the other critical choices facing California voters today.
Good morning, Ron, thanks for joining us.
RON BROWNSTEIN, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: So let's start off with perhaps the race that's getting the most attention and it is that California gubernatorial race, arguably probably one of the more competitive races. We're going to put up on the screen or actually, share some video of some of those candidates. What are your predictions? What are the polls saying?
BROWNSTEIN: It really is going to be one -- it could be one of the most incredible finales and results in a -- in a primary in recent memory. The mayor -- former mayor of Los Angeles, Dick Riordan, started off as a huge favorite, recruited in, encouraged into the race by the White House who wanted -- liked the idea of a more moderate Republican nominee for governor. They've had trouble being competitive with candidates who are pro-life and anti-gun control in California, like many coastal states. And he finds himself now heading into the final hours trailing a political neophyte, Bill Simon Jr., who has appealed to the conservative core of the Republican primary base and has surged ahead of him with a -- as a series of attacks have left Riordan sort of in a crossfire.
Gray Davis, the Democratic governor, intervened very heavily with his own advertising in this race, fearing Riordan perhaps as an opponent. He spent $10 million in anti-Riordan ads questioning his credentials. From the other side, Simon has questioned his credentials as a real Republican. So Riordan sort of gotten caught in a vice here and his numbers have essentially collapsed in much of the polling. ZAHN: Yes, we're actually going to put some -- latest polling statistics up there showing Simon with 37 percent of the vote, Riordan with 31 percent of the potential vote and Jones with 9 percent.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
ZAHN: Now as we look at these numbers, it is interesting to note this war of words that's been going on between these candidates. You had at one time, Bill Simon actually referring to Richard Riordan -- excuse me, I think it's the other way around, Richard Riordan referring to Bill Simon as a sanctimonious hypocrite, Secretary of State Bill Jones accusing Simon of trying to buy the...
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
ZAHN: ... GOP nomination.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
ZAHN: Did any of that stuff stick?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know this really has seemed to become a race about who is the real Republican here. You know in various ways, all of them are accusing the other of not being real California Republicans. Riordan in his last ads pointing out Simon's long tenure in New York and New Jersey, registration as an Independent.
Jones using the former governor Dick Majon (ph) to attack Riordan because Riordan had supported his Democratic opponent in the '80s when Dick Majon was running. And of course Simon doing ads that cited Riordan's praise of Bill Clinton, which is not exactly a plus in a Republican primary.
The basic problem -- the basic situation you've got is that about three-quarters of Republican primary voters identify themselves as conservative in a state that is fundamentally moderate in a general election. So what many people feel has happen to Riordan is in effect he looked past the primary toward the general. Hhe tried to position himself to be able to run for those centrist voters, which the GOP has been losing lately in California, but first he had to get past a core Republican primary base and he has made himself objectable to them and the other candidates have piled on and amplified those problems.
ZAHN: Ron, need a very quick final thought on what the polls also seem to be suggesting about Gary Condit's future, is this the last day of his political life?
BROWNSTEIN: Well all indications are that he is trailing in the polls, he's trailing in money, he's trailing in endorsements. Probably the only chance he has would be if there's a very low turnout. There's really nothing to bring out Democrats on this primary day. It's a Republican gubernatorial primary. As we've been discussing, if it's a low turnout, maybe his core supporters get him through but probably this is the end. And even if he wins, very hard, almost impossible to win in November.
ZAHN: All right, Ron Brownstein, have a good day out there. I know you've got a lot of exciting stuff to cover and...
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: ... you'll keep us posted. Appreciate your joining us this morning.
BROWNSTEIN: OK.
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