Break out another chicken suit. The campaign silly season has moved over to include the Democrats.
No sooner had Attorney General Jerry Brown announced he was opening an account to collect money for a likely run for governor than San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the other guy in the Democratic primary, was out with a plan for 11 debates, one in each of the state’s media markets – Hello, Eureka – starting, well, right now.
“Now that there are two candidates for governor, we owe the Democratic voters of California an opportunity to compare our visions and platforms side-by-side,’’ Newsom said in a press release.
Nice idea. Nice try. Never happen.
Brown’s campaign, er, exploratory committee, quickly responded by reminding Newsom that the AG really and truly isn’t an official candidate for governor, but if he does ultimately decide to run, he’d be happy to talk about the possibility of holding debates. Maybe.
Basically, don’t call us, we’ll call you.
If you want to know which candidate is running behind in the polls, it’s pretty safe to put your money of the guy who’s calling for more head-to-head showdowns.
Remember John McCain’s call last year for a series of 10 town hall meetings across the nation with Barack Obama? Didn’t happen. Or when Democrat Phil Angelides wanted to schedule eight debates with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the 2006 governor’s race? He got one.
More recently, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican candidate for governor, has been working overtime, with no success, to get former eBay CEO Meg Whitman to debate him early and often. He handed out rubber Meg-a-Ducks at a Sacramento press club debate earlier this year that featured only him and former San Jose Rep. Tom Campbell. At last weekend’s state GOP convention, there was a guy in a chicken suit wandering around with a sign saying “Meg 2 Chicken 2 Debate!?” And Poizner can barely answer a question at a campaign gig without bringing up the debate issue.
There may have been a campaign where the frontrunner called for more debates, but try to find one. By their very nature, a debate puts the candidates on equal footing and why on earth would anyone leading in the race want that?
It might not be good government at its finest, but given a choice between losing well and winning ugly, well, that’s not really a choice for most politicians.
There will be a GOP debate before next June’s primary, but as long as Whitman believes she’s ahead, it won’t be soon.
Same thing on the Democratic side. Brown opened the governor’s campaign account so he could collect more money, not so he could stand on a stage and listen to Newsom yell at him for the next eight months.
But even if he wanted to do debates right now, it’s impossible for Brown to even think too much about a campaign, Steven Glazer, a senior advisor to the former governor, wrote in a letter to Newsom, because “he is currently focused on doing his job as Attorney General – protecting consumers and prosecuting criminals.”
Regardless of what Brown may say, there isn’t any provision for an exploratory committee in California campaign law. In a federal campaign, someone like Carly Fiorina can create a committee and raise a limited amount of money to test the waters for a Senate campaign without actually joining the race.
As far as California’s secretary of state is concerned, however, once you’re in, you’re all in. Brown can say he’s created an exploratory committee, but officially, once he starts collecting money for the governor’s race, he’s as much a candidate as Newsom or any of the Republicans in the race. If he makes the campaign official, as far as the state is concerned the only change will be to the stationary.
Still, the once and maybe future governor can act like he’s still playing Hamlet when it comes to getting in the governor’s race, whether anyone in California believes him or not. And arguing that he’s a busy guy with an important job is a cagey way to dodge the calls for debates, platforms or even a suggestion as to why he should be California’s next governor.
And when you’re the attorney general, it’s even better, since you can keep up a steady drumbeat of press releases about drug gangs busted (8/26), swindlers of seniors sentenced (9/11) and credit card scammers arrested (9/23), all the time arguing that it’s not politics, just the deadly serious business of government.
Of course, Newsom can do the same thing, too. But it’s not nearly as much fun for a mayor, especially in San Francisco where every time Newsom tries to take credit for some new program or accomplishment, there’s a peanut gallery of mayoral wannabes blowing raspberries at him from the sidelines.
John Wildermuth is a longtime writer on California politics.