Highest ranking republican in CA drops endorsement of Bush and now supports McCain!!!

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Looking to the March 7 California primary, McCain claimed a Golden State convert Tuesday evening, as sources in his campaign said the secretary of state, Bill Jones, was abandoning his earlier endorsement of Bush and would be backing the Arizona senator. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), February 16, 2000

Answers

Politics: Bill Jones, California secretary of state, will rescind support for Bush. Move highlights worry among members of Republican establishment.

By CATHLEEN DECKER, Times Political Writer

Secretary of State Bill Jones, California's highest-ranking Republican officeholder, will today rescind his endorsement of Texas Gov. George W. Bush and defect to the camp of his chief rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The move underscores a widespread concern in Republican circles since McCain's landslide defeat of the party's national front-runner in the New Hampshire primary earlier this month. Jones said his decision stemmed from Bush's efforts in South Carolina to dissuade Democrats and independent voters from siding with McCain in Saturday's primary, and from the relentlessly negative tenor of the campaign there. Jones said he was making his views public in part because he and others had kept their silence as previous Republican candidates doomed their campaigns by appealing only to Republicans. He specifically cited the campaigns of Bush's father, George Bush, in 1992, 1996 nominee Bob Dole and the 1998 California gubernatorial nominee, Dan Lungren.

'An Obligation to Say Something' "I've been down this road before with Bush Sr., I've been down this road with Bob Dole, and I didn't say anything in those cases," said Jones, one of only two Republicans to retain his statewide office when California Democrats won a landslide election in 1998. "Maybe I had a bad feeling, and I didn't say anything. But I'm the only one left. I have an obligation to say something." Jones said he would make his views known today at a Los Angeles news conference. Bush spokeswoman Alixe Glen Mattingly said the campaign regretted but respected Jones' switch. "This campaign is about leadership, commitment and vision and the affirmation of those qualities in George W. Bush has been made unequivocally clear by the support of over 90% of the GOP elected officials in California."

Unlikely to Touch Off Other Defections Jones' move was unlikely to set off an avalanche of defections from the Texas governor; more likely, others are waiting to see how Bush and McCain fare in Saturday's South Carolina primary. A victory for Bush could assuage the worry of his supporters, just as a McCain win could send them over a cliff of panic. But it certainly highlighted the worry among members of the Republican establishment, which had flocked to Bush in the earlier, easier days of his candidacy. Bush, whose campaign until then had the flavor of an incumbent's waltz, lost by 18 points in New Hampshire and was forced to retool his strategy. In recent days, he has copied McCain's free-wheeling style and slammed his competition in negative ads. Bush leads in some pre-primary polls, but others are too close to call. Even if largely symbolic, Jones' defection comes as something of an embarrassment to Bush in California, where polls show he has been running unusually well among voters who usually flock to the Democratic Party. But, as has happened in other states, Bush is now having to fend off a charge by McCain in California. Jones, an outspoken advocate for higher voter turnout, said Bush's efforts to brush aside McCain's non-Republican voters and his reliance on negative advertising would threaten turnout efforts and the needs of California Republicans to attract a wide array of voters. "I don't want to see that come to California," he said. "I don't want to hear about the fact that my voters shouldn't vote. . . . I don't want to see 70 negative ads running in California, tearing down a candidate. McCain, too, has been criticized for running negative ads in South Carolina, although he unilaterally pulled them last week. Jones, however, said that the senator from Arizona has "pretty much maintained" his pledge to run a positive campaign. Jones said he was attracted both by McCain's championing of campaign finance reform, which Jones himself has favored in California, and by his ability to attract voters from across the political spectrum. "We have ignored this ability to bring crossovers and Democrats to the party and our candidates and it has hurt us," he said. Under California's blanket primary, voters can cast their ballots for any candidate, regardless of party. But only the ballots cast by Republicans will be counted in determining who wins the GOP delegates at stake on March 7. Jones said he worried that Bush in California would discourage non-Republicans from voting for him or McCain on election day. That message, he said, would likely depress turnout and also cause Democrats and independents to abandon the party in November. "I'm sending as clear a message with this resignation as I can that this is unacceptable to me, in the strongest terms," he said. The Bush campaign will pick up the endorsements of two state senators and two assemblymen today, and continues to have the support of the only other Republican statewide officeholder, Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush. Mattingly said the California campaign has been "reinvigorated" by the New Hampshire loss. "It was actually a good wake-up call for the whole campaign," she said. McCain, in a telephone interview from South Carolina, said that the defection of the state's senior Republican from the Bush camp was a symbolic help to his campaign here. "It shows the monolith the Bush campaign is portraying is cracking," he said. The Texas governor also has a commanding, if shrinking, lead in polls here. Even McCain, talking to reporters over the weekend, played down the importance of endorsements. "The higher visibility the race, the less endorsements really matter," he said.

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), February 16, 2000.


I am jsut really glad to see that Bush is getting a real run for his money. I think initially he thought he was a "given". I also like the fact that McCain is giving the Democrats a run too as he may just garner their votes from Gore.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassi123@aol.com), February 16, 2000.


Just the Facts.....

- McCain was one of the "Keating Five," congressmen investigated on ethics charges for strenuously helping convicted racketeer Charles Keating after he gave them large campaign contributions and vacation trips.

Charles Keating was convicted of racketeering and fraud in both state and federal court after his Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $3.4 billion. His convictions were overturned on technicalities; for example, the federal conviction was overturned because jurors had heard about his state conviction, and his state charges because Judge Lance Ito (yes, that judge) screwed up jury instructions. Neither court cleared him, and he faces new trials in both courts.)

Though he was not convicted of anything, McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating after Keating gave McCain at least $112,00 in contributions. In the mid-1980s, McCain made at least 9 trips on Keating's airplanes, and 3 of those were to Keating's luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain's wife and father-in-law also were the largest investors (at $350,000) in a Keating shopping center; the Phoenix New Times called it a "sweetheart deal."

- Mafia ties: In 1995, McCain sent birthday regards, and regrets for not attending, to Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonano, the head of the New York Bonano crime family, who had retired to Arizona. Another politician to send regrets was Governor Fife Symington, who has since been kicked out of office and convicted of 7 felonies relating to fraud and extortion.

- At least one veteran's group (U.S. Veteran's Dispatch) really hates him, and accuses McCain of cooperating with the North Vietnamese while he was their prisoner. They also sketch McCain's ties, through his wealthy father-in-law, to various Arizona scandals including the murder of reporter Don Bolles. Check out their version at the US Veteran's Dispatch web site.

- Family troubles: McCain has a reputation as a politician who has difficulty keeping his pants zipped, according to Republican sources. He acknowledges that his adultery broke up his first marriage. His second wife Cindy, the daughter of a wealthy Budweiser beer distributor, was addicted to prescription narcotics and even stole hard drugs from a medical charity that she ran. McCain acknowledges that she didn't want him to run, and only agreed once he promised that she doesn't have to go to New Hampshire or Iowa.

Quotes: - "Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father." -- John McCain

- "He took his role as father very seriously. But when we finished chores, we'd go to the beach and swim. He'd pretend he was Banana Man and throw me into the waves. We had bodysurfing contests." -- McCain's daughter Sidney. Banana man?

- Leonardo DiCaprio is "an androgynous wimp." -- McCain.

Sources:

"The Pampered Politician", by Amy Silverman, The Phoenix New Times, May 15, 1997 "See John Run Off at the Mouth", Phoenix New Times, October 1, 1998

"Opiate for the Mrs.", Phoenix New Times, September 8, 1994

"Flashes: What's Up, Murdoch?", Phoenix New Times, September 17, 1998

the US Veteran's Dispatch web site.

"Symington Gets Slammer", Phoenix New Times, February 2, 1998

Election 98: Arizona Governor, Fox News web site

"Keating Gets New Trial", CNNfn Web Site, December 2, 1996

"No More Wagging,", (editorial) by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, January 3, 1999

"John McCain, rock-and-roll dad", by Andrew Essex, The New Yorker Magazine, December 6, 1999 p52

-- Diane (cptlauthor@aol.com), February 16, 2000.


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