Simon still a loser

Despite much fanfare to the contrary, Simon's California campaign continues to be mired in ineptitude. A week ago, Simon's campaign claimed it had been reenergized after a judge threw out a jury's fraud verdict against one of his family businesses. Davis barely batted an eye as he shifted his negative ads to other Simon corporate abuses (and there are plenty on the record). Still, Simon expected GOP donors to jump back into the race, making him competitive against the sleazy Davis. However, that hasn't happened:

Simon's campaign headquarters is split into hostile camps. Major GOP donors remain deeply skeptical of the candidate and his campaign team. Perhaps most significant, Simon has shown little sign of expanding his support beyond the roughly 33% of the California electorate that comprises the rock-ribbed Republican base--and he has made little effort to do so.

In the week following the verdict decision, Simon managed to raise only $270K, including about $100K from the state GOP and Simon's apparently very rich finance director. That total bought him exactly one day of statewide television ads.

During the same period, Davis collected $650K.

Posted September 23, 2002 08:30 AM | Comments (0)