Author: Marty Wilson

Behind the Prop 10 Defeat, the Pickens Plan Will Go On

As the campaign manager for Proposition 10 and an early and active member of the McCain for President finance team Tuesday night, for me, could be viewed as a personal and professional disaster. After 30 plus years knocking around California politics, I’ve experienced worse.

In 1992 I was the California campaign manager for President George Bush and that was an equally disastrous year for we Republicans. I remember the press availability the morning after the election that I participated in with some of my colleagues from the Pete Wilson organization. At the merciful conclusion of the media event I looked pretty shell-shocked and the sage Dan Walters said to me, “Don’t worry kid, it’s our job to bayonet the wounded.”

So wounded I am again some 16 years later and I feel compelled to answer this question, “Marty, how the Hell did you lose the Proposition 10 campaign when you were funded and your opposition had no money?”
To which I answer, “It was harder than you think.”

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