Simon Vows to Fight On Against Davis

In his first public appearance since laying off nearly half his campaign staff earlier this week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. on Friday pledged a strong fight against Gov. Gray Davis and said he can stand the incumbent’s barrage of negative television ads.

“What I can’t stand,” Simon told the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, “is what he’s done to the state of California. What I can’t stand is how he mortgaged the office, how he’s sold his signature.”

Simon lags far behind Davis in fund-raising, allowing the governor to run televised attack ads since June without the GOP candidate being able to mount a significant response on the airwaves.

Simon, who is making his first run for office, ran into further difficulty July 31 when a Los Angeles jury issued a $78-million fraud verdict against his family-owned investment firm. That verdict has threatened to undercut Simon’s argument that his business background qualifies him to govern California.

Since that verdict, Davis has collected $1.15 million in the large contributions that candidates are required to report publicly, compared to $595,000 for Simon. A prodigious fund-raiser, Davis had $31.6 million in his campaign treasury at the end of June compared to $5 million for Simon.

Simon, a multimillionaire, also contributed money of his own to his campaign for the first time in months, writing a $6,250 check on Aug. 6, according to campaign reports. Aides said the check was to pay a campaign worker’s salary.

Simon lent himself $5 million during the GOP primary earlier this year. He is scheduled to appear at three fund-raisers with President Bush next week.

In an effort to streamline what critics said was a bloated campaign staff, Simon this week fired about 30 aides--some of whom had served him since he was a blip in the polls last year.

After his speech Friday, Simon told reporters he had to make the cuts to stay competitive with Davis, and indicated that he would begin television advertising soon.

“All we’re trying to do is remain in fighting shape for a very tough campaign,” Simon said. “You’ve always got to manage your campaign responsibly.”

The Davis campaign seized on the layoffs to buttress its argument that Simon is an incompetent manager.

“This guy fired half his campaign staff, and you mean to tell me he’s a better leader” than the governor? said Davis spokesman Gabriel Sanchez. “It speaks to the guy’s loyalty too.”

Simon’s aides were informed Wednesday afternoon and Thursday that they would be laid off with no severance. But the candidate said many are volunteering to stay with the campaign until election day. If Simon wins, the volunteers will receive double their back pay.

“These people are good people,” Simon said, “and they did a good job.”

Though some GOP insiders have questioned the viability of Simon’s campaign, the candidate appeared in good spirits Friday. He was in his element, speaking to a crowd of businesspeople in the conference center of the new Roman Catholic cathedral in downtown Los Angeles.

There had been reports that Simon was going to give a major speech on corporate responsibility. Instead, the candidate gave a variant of his standard stump speech to the crowd, in which he blamed Davis for the state’s budget deficit, energy crisis and failing schools but offered few specific proposals of his own.

During a question-and-answer period, though, he alluded to the bruising nature of the campaign.

“People have said, ‘Hey, Bill, when are you going to take the gloves off? These ads are real burners,’ ” Simon said. “Well, they are. I don’t like them. But I can stand them.”

His voice rising, Simon then accused Davis of giving generous wage hikes to prison guards after their union contributed to the governor’s campaign, and of allowing a company that has donated to Davis to dump waste into San Francisco Bay.

“This system is broken, the system that allows Gray Davis to mortgage his office and take 50 million bucks and spend $16 million to attack me,” Simon said, his face flushed.

“I’m going to get up and respond to him!”

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Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report.