Debate Behind Them, Candidates Seek Edge

[Judi Lynn]

September 26, 2003

Debate Behind Them, Candidates Seek Edge


By Michael Finnegan and Daryl Kelley, Times Staff Writer


SACRAMENTO — A day after recall candidates clashed in a hard-edged debate, the major contenders in the race for governor scrambled for advantage Thursday.

Gov. Gray Davis ramped up his attacks on Republican actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger sought to project an image of Republican solidarity behind his candidacy, announcing endorsements by Bill Simon Jr., the party's 2002 nominee for governor, and by a group of county GOP chairmen.

But the other major Republican hopeful, state Sen. Tom McClintock, refused to bow to pressure from the actor's campaign to drop out of the race. Indeed, with 12 days left until the election, tensions mounted between the two GOP candidates after Schwarzenegger began airing a new television ad. It showed McClintock's face popping up in a slot machine as the actor questioned the propriety of the senator's campaign donations from Indian tribes.

One of those tribes, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, reported Thursday that it had purchased $850,200 in television time for ads backing McClintock, considerably more than McClintock himself has spent.
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-recall26sep26,1,7758792.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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[PATRICK]

1. the irony

of course is that if McClintock had no integrity he would have been forced, blackmailed, bought out the race long ago.