Will Bustamante drop out?

Political Wire picks up on speculation that Bustamante might drop out.

I don't know what to say about this except damn, we may have just seen a campaign more inept than those of Simon's (CA) and Townsend's (MD) in 2002. I didn't think that was possible.

Update: I didn't mean to imply that Cruz will drop out. To me, it's most likely a plant from the Davis camp who desperately wants to make it a Davis/Arnold battle.

But there's no denying that Cruz has run a horrid campaign. For example, he had no public events scheduled this Monday or Tuesday -- and this in the final week of the campaign.

Latino support for Bustamante is still extremely high, and he may very well pull this off. As I've said in the beginning, it'll all come down to turnout. If Latinos, union workers, and partisan Dems turn out, then both Davis and Bustamante have solid shots.

In fact, the notion that Arnold has it 'in the bag' may very well come back and hurt him as his soft supporters decide to do other things than vote. And while the new allegations of sexual harrassment may not be too surprising, to say the least, they may spur some principled Republicans (they exist) to stick to a real Republican like McClintock (especially if CW has Arnold winning easily).

Nah, it wouldn't behoove Bustamante to drop out, and I don't think either he, nor Davis, are assured of defeat. Like I said, it'll all come down to turnout and no one -- not the candidates, not the pollsters -- can predict who will turn out.

Update II: That wily Arnold. While allegations of groping seem like old news to me, fresh hypocrisy is not:

Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who last week accused Democrat Cruz Bustamante of ``skirting and violating'' California's campaign-finance laws, has found a loophole of his own that could prevent voters from knowing who is underwriting his campaign before Election Day.

Schwarzenegger has loaned his two campaign committees $4.5 million, despite a voter-approved law that was supposed to restrict such loans to $100,000 in order to limit post-election fundraising. By loaning funds, candidates can tap donors after they're in office to repay the debt, and voters won't know before Election Day who really is paying for the campaign.

Posted October 02, 2003 08:33 AM | Comments (98)