Let's see if the California Republicans will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, again.
Simple arithmetic adds up to a problem for Republicans in the California recall election -- divide their votes among the top three GOP candidates and none may end up in the governor's office.Posted by Alan at August 16, 2003 05:22 PMThat's why some Republicans backing actor Arnold Schwarzenegger are trying to perform a little subtraction -- urging GOP conservatives Bill Simon and Tom McClintock to get out.
"All they're doing is taking votes away to a certain extent from Schwarzenegger,'' said Republican consultant Allan Hoffenblum, who is not working for any of the candidates. "If you have three Republicans running great campaigns and one Democrat running a mediocre campaign, the Democrat probably would win.''
The numbers in a statewide Field Poll released today back that up. Among the major candidates to replace Gov. Gray Davis should the governor be recalled, Schwarzenegger gets 22 percent, McClintock 9 percent and Simon 8 percent -- a total of 39 percent of likely voters. That's much more than Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's 25 percent -- when it's not split three ways.
via the Mercury News