A National Map Without California

The easiest job in the White House just might belong to whoever is responsible for the president’s California political briefings. For six years now, there’s been the same story to report: Republican election prospects aren’t pleasant; big-money donors want to know whether their state is “in play” in the next presidential election.

It’s an odd situation, made odder by this contradiction: After his current visit to California, President Bush will have raised more than $7 million for gubernatorial hopeful Bill Simon Jr.--more money than collected for any of this year’s GOP candidates with the exception of Bush’s brother, the governor of Florida.

All that time, travel and presidential sweat equity invested for a contest that means little to George W. Bush’s political future.

It’s a bitter pill for the California GOP to swallow, but maybe it’s time to own up to a hard truth: The Golden State isn’t the linchpin to this presidency that Republican die-hards want to believe.

Yes, California’s 55 electoral votes would all but ensure a second Bush term. But as the last election showed, they’re a luxury for the GOP, not a necessity.

Having a partisan ally in Sacramento is overrated as well. The elder George Bush and Bob Dole lost big here despite having Republican Pete Wilson as governor. Jimmy Carter twice failed to carry California while fellow Democrat Jerry Brown was in the governor’s office.

In this election, California doesn’t factor into Bush’s most urgent priority, which is Republican control of Congress. South Dakota, with just 1/44th of California’s population but with one contested Senate seat to California’s none, matters more.

And while the matchup between Simon and Gray Davis may turn out to be the nation’s most expensive race, it’s not at the forefront of this year’s gubernatorial parade. From 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Florida and Texas may appear to weigh more heavily for reasons having to do with family pride, personal ego and electoral votes.

Where this leaves California is in a political no-man’s land from now through November.

Bush is helping the Simon campaign by raising a badly needed $3 million on this trip. Yet he isn’t stumping across the state on Simon’s behalf.

Is it to avoid the correlation between corporate responsibility and the $78-million verdict against Simon’s family business? Perhaps. Then again, the president is campaigning in the Central Valley with House hopeful Dick Monteith, a telling sign of Bush priorities.

Or is it that the White House recognizes that California’s governor race is an aberration of the current political climate?

Enron, the stock market and Al Qaeda don’t fuel the California debate. Neither parties’ issues prevail. Simon and Davis aren’t spending millions in ads and direct mail to champion the repeal of the estate tax or prescription drug reform.

Rather, the California governor’s race promises to be something that Bush should recognize from his primary days in 2000, when he and Arizona Sen. John McCain exchanged body blows. After Labor Day, California lurches full-throttle into an insult-fest that will have everything to do with two candidates’ failings and precious little to do with the Bush agenda, much less a forward vision for Californians.

It’s the kind of bellicose politics that Bush claimed to be above when he sought the presidency as a Washington outsider. As a California outsider, he may want to avoid being associated with an ugly tit for tat that serves only to further jaundice voters. Let’s assume Bush will return after the election, to again show that he cares about the GOP’s fortunes. It could be a most welcome visit. After another few weeks of Davis-Simon brickbats and broadsides, California may be in sore need of “a uniter, not a divider.”