Primary Race Comes Back to Haunt Simon

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. announced his “A” rating from the National Rifle Assn. with the equivalent of a whisper: a written statement issued just before 9 p.m. on a Friday.

He was just as quiet about his endorsement by the California ProLife Council, a group that seeks to outlaw abortion. He announced it just before 7 p.m. the next day.

By releasing both bits of news after dark on a January weekend, the Simon campaign minimized coverage. His stands on guns and abortion would be promoted privately--by mail to conservative Republicans.

But in the month since Simon captured the GOP nomination, Gov. Gray Davis has sought to turn his rival’s primary campaign against him. Day after day, the Democratic incumbent trumpets Simon’s conservative positions on guns, abortion and other issues that the Republican candidate now struggles to avoid.

Simon’s overtures to conservatives in the primary--no matter how discreet--have become the centerpiece of the Davis reelection campaign.

“If you allow yourself to get boxed into an ideological corner in your party primary, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, there’s going to be hell to pay in the general election,” said Garry South, the governor’s top political strategist.

The Davis team is using Simon’s statements during the primary to attack him not just on guns and abortion, but also on the environment, gay rights, education and energy.

“There is sort of an embarrassment of riches here,” said Davis pollster Paul Maslin.

The governor faced no serious opposition in the Democratic primary. But as the survivor of a hard-fought GOP primary against Secretary of State Bill Jones and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, Simon has left a trail of statements for Davis to exploit. During the primary, Riordan, a moderate, called Simon an unelectable extremist. Davis, who helped knock Riordan out of the primary by spending heavily on advertising against him, has picked up the same theme in his quest to beat Simon.

Analysts Criticize Simon for Avoiding Questions

So far, Simon’s strategy has been to hew strictly to his own agenda. He talks relentlessly about his plans to solve the state’s fiscal troubles, stimulate the economy, improve public schools and rebuild the water, power and road systems. He dodges all questions about guns and abortion, refusing to say anything about either topic.

“Each candidate can choose which issues he or she would like to focus on,” Simon said Monday at a campaign stop in Rosemead.

But political analysts are skeptical about Simon’s ability to avoid topics raised by Davis--all of them longtime staples of California campaigns.

“It will be viewed as if he’s hiding behind opinions that he does not want known,” said political scientist Larry N. Gerston of San Jose State. “It will backfire on him terribly.”

Simon strategist Sal Russo said the GOP candidate was sticking to subjects that voters consider important while Davis was raising extraneous issues to divert attention from his mishandling of California’s energy and budget problems. Simon echoed that view in his speech to Asian American Republicans on Monday in Rosemead.

“There’s a reason why so many Californians now would not vote to reelect Gray Davis, and it’s not because of my stands on a particular issue,” Simon said. “It’s about his failed leadership in the areas that affect Californians each and every day.”

For the most part, Simon’s focus during the primary was the same as it is now. But to position himself as the favorite of conservatives--the bulk of GOP primary voters--Simon also touched on the issues now favored by Davis, namely abortion and guns. Those appeals were particularly effective in Simon’s effort to gain an edge over Riordan, whose support of gun control and abortion rights irked conservatives.

Simon’s campaign Web site features not just the NRA and ProLife Council announcements, but also a Feb. 19 statement touting Simon’s endorsement by Gun Owners of California.

“It is time for the politicians to stop harassing law-abiding gun owners and instead do more to go after the criminals,” Simon says in the statement.

In the California ProLife statement, the group’s executive director, Brian Johnston, says Simon “believes in restoring legal protection for innocent life” and “wants the government out of the abortion industry.”

On Jan. 26, Simon said in a campaign news release that he was “humbled by this vote of confidence” by the ProLife Council.

“With the help of [the council] and all Californians, it is my hope that we can begin to work toward a new culture of life in our state,” Simon said at the time.

Polls Reflect Disparity Among Voting Groups

On abortion and guns, polls illustrate the stark contrast between the GOP voters Simon was courting in the primary and the broader electorate he faces now.

A Times poll in February found that 51% of California Republicans favored abortion rights, but among all registered voters, 63% held that view. The survey found that 29% of Republicans supported stricter gun control, but 51% of all registered voters took that position.

The margins are even bigger between the conservative Republicans who dominated last month’s primary electorate and the general election audience that awaits Simon in the fall.

“He’s taken some stands that in a general population are not very popular,” said Eric Smith, a UC Santa Barbara political science professor.

Among the GOP primary candidates, only Riordan favored abortion rights and gun control. With that in mind, Davis spent millions of dollars on television ads against Riordan, helping to persuade GOP voters to nominate the more conservative Simon, who could be attacked on abortion and guns.

At an East Los Angeles school Monday, Davis did exactly that.

“I remain strongly pro-choice, strongly for sensible gun control,” he said. “My opponent is endorsed by people who are opposed to a woman’s right to choose ... and does not support reasonable gun control, so there’s a pretty sharp contrast.”

Ideology Is a Risky Strategy for Primaries

Simon’s predicament is a common one for candidates who win primaries that split along ideological lines. George W. Bush tried to score points with conservatives during the 2000 GOP presidential primary by visiting fundamentalist Bob Jones University in South Carolina. But by failing to disavow its anti-Catholic sentiments, Bush drew widespread criticism and tainted the moderate image he had been trying to project.

In Simon’s case, he marketed himself during the primary as a conservative Republican in his ads. The governor’s advisors are hinting that video excerpts of those spots could soon wind up in a Davis campaign ad.

“When was the last time you saw a Democrat on the air saying, ‘I’m a liberal Democrat’?” South said.

Since the March 5 primary, Davis aides have broadened their attacks beyond abortion and guns.

Last week, South accused Simon of rhetorical gay-bashing during the primary. He cited Simon’s criticism of Davis in October for signing legislation that granted inheritance, sick leave and other rights to gay couples. South recalled that Simon said California “should not be in the business of trying to classify people or confer rights based on lifestyle.”

On Tuesday, Davis spokesman Gabriel N. Sanchez called Simon a “self-dubbed oil and gas man from way back,” borrowing a phrase Simon used to describe himself in May. Simon, an oil industry investor, has insisted that he misspoke, but the Davis campaign is using the statement nonetheless to cast him as a threat to the environment.

Davis forces also are attacking Simon for saying during the primary that he favored a free-market approach to the power crisis.

It was a traditional appeal to GOP conservatives, but Davis says it would invite price gouging by power suppliers.

On schools, Davis advisors call attention to Simon’s support during the primary for the takeover of failing public schools by for-profit corporations, a position now notably absent from Simon’s public remarks on education.

“He went through the primary trying to convince everybody he was a camel, and now that the primary is over with, he’s trying to tell everybody he’s a giraffe,” South said.

Russo, Simon’s chief strategist, used his own animal metaphor to explain why the GOP candidate has emphasized some issues and downplayed others as he shifted from the primary to the general election race.

“The audience is different,” he said. “It doesn’t do any good to talk about reptiles to people who want to hear about mammals.”