In Year Three of the post-recall era, California’s Republican Party will almost certainly be presenting as its nominee for the U.S. Senate seat long held by former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein one Dick Mountjoy. He is a 74-year old former state senator from suburban LA, one of the initial crop of “Prop 13 babies,” very conservative legislators elected in the wake of the Jarvis-Gann Proposition 13 property tax revolt of 1978.
Some in the GOP, looking for a fresh articulate face, had tried to persuade a young potential star of the party, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues and Spanish-speaking Haitian immigrant Pierre Prosper, to switch from the primary for state attorney general to the U.S. Senate race. But his campaign confirmed today that he will remain in the running for California attorney general. A race in which he currently trails Central Valley state Senator Chuck Poochigian for the right to probably take on former Governor and two-time Democratic presidential runnerup Jerry Brown in the general election. (With all due respect to LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, now running way behind the wily veteran Brown, Oakland’s mayor, in the Democratic primary, in both the polls and money.)
According to Republican sources, Mountjoy, the likely Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, never known for his fundraising prowess, is not scheduled to address his party’s state convention this weekend in San Jose. I have calls in to his answering machine to see what events he has on tap at the Republican confab.
Despite all the fanfare around the election of Arnold Schwazenegger, Republican hopes statewide in the erstwhile Golden State have not panned out, turning up mostly fool’s gold. The “ever vulnerable” Barbara Boxer, as the conventional wisdom had it, California’s junior U.S. Senator, easily turned back what was purported to have been a serious challenge in 2004 from former California Secretary of State Bill Jones, trouncing him 58 percent to 38 percent. Senator Feinstein seems likely to do far worse than that to this year’s Republican nominee.
It seems highly unlikely that we will see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dick Mountjoy alighting dramatically from a Black Hawk helicopter as the former action superstar and Feinstein did together yesterday. For one thing, Schwarzenegger has enough problems with Latino voters now without running around with the self-described author of 1994’s anti-illegal immigrant Prop 187. For another, and with all due respect to the former state senator, the governor may not be particularly familiar with him.
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10 Comments
1. Dana:Is this a vanity run for office like Bill Dannemeyer’s 1992 Presidential bid?
Feb 23, 2006 - 4:22 pm 2. Dana:How quickly we forget! I meant Bob Dornan’s 1996 Presidential bid.
Feb 23, 2006 - 4:25 pm 3. Bill Bradley:Dana, you are confusing your obscure Rep congressmen.
Feb 23, 2006 - 5:31 pm 4. Bill Bradley:Still no word from the presumptive Republican nominee for US Senator …
Feb 23, 2006 - 6:50 pm 5. Ann:Richard Mountjoy is all the Republicans can come up with for the U.S. Senate. This is even worse than before the recall.
Feb 23, 2006 - 7:51 pm 6. Rick:The sad thing in all of this is that Feinstein could use a good challenge. She is rather aloof and removed from reality. Illustrating this is the following passage from Andrew Rasiej, who is a political/techie type:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/15/8488/56208
//Once, in the spring of 2001, I was invited by then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to address the Senate Democratic caucus. I outlined the three digital divides facing the Democrats:
1. The fact that Republicans were outspending them on technology and out-organizing them: you could give $50 once to a Republican congressional candidate and thanks to their brilliant use of databases and their willingness to share data, every Republican candidate in the country would have your name. (Meanwhile, it was only a few months ago that the DNC reached an agreement with the DCCC and DSCC to share voter data.)
2. The fact that Democrats were voting against bills to increase spending on broadband infrastructure, which was like voting against a subsidy for their own base–since it’s the less well-off who are less likely to be online.
3. The fact that no one was thinking about measuring the technology quotient in any piece of legislation: Would this program be made obsolete by new technology, could it be enhanced, etc.
Here are two responses I got. First Senator Dianne Feinstein raised her hand and said, “Senator Daschle, the Internet is full of pornography and pedophilia, and until that’s clean up, I don’t think the Senate should be on the Internet.” (And she represents Silicon Valley!)[...]//
Feinstein’s centrism is very practical and in-line with the majority of the state’s electorate. But when I read things like that, I really wonder if she’s just a little to comfortable and complacent after 13 years in the Senate.
Feb 23, 2006 - 8:54 pm 7. Bill Bradley:Well, the Republicans in California are so sad they have nothing to come up with. Blasted by Boxer, finished by Feinstein.
Feb 23, 2006 - 11:29 pm 8. Dana:Don’t foget Feinstein is viewed as being so formidable that she was the one politico that gave Arnold pause when he was calculating whether to plunge into the recall. It was Feinstein’s announcement that morning she wouldn’t participate in the recall that was the last piece of the puzzle for Arnold’s announcing his run on Jay Leno later that day.
There is a rumor after Arnold announced that Feinstein prvately expressed regret she hadn’t run for Governor.
Feb 24, 2006 - 10:23 am 9. Bill Bradley:That’s right, Dana, though the sequence of events was somewhat different.
Feb 24, 2006 - 1:36 pm 10. credit report score:credit report score…
Bernard!suspensions travesties thefts:relater credit http://www.available-credit-report.com/ …
May 23, 2006 - 5:55 pm