Brian4Liberty
01-30-2010, 01:20 PM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/01/26/MN5K1BLOQ2.DTL
DeVore hopes to notch Massachusetts-style upset
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore wants to be the Scott Brown of California - a conservative GOP state legislator who vaults to the U.S. Senate in a state dominated by Democratic voters.
Like Brown, DeVore could tap into a network of Tea Party supporters and others who distrust President Obama and blame him for adding to the nation's spiraling debt. A Field Poll released today finds that 28 percent of registered California voters identify with the group.
This is the first time the poll has measured attitudes about the Tea Party movement, which began a year ago and gained stature after Brown's upset victory over Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat, in last week's special election for the Senate seat that Sen. Edward Kennedy held for 46 years.
On the heels of Brown's grassroots success, Tea Party organizers spent last weekend strategizing about other high-profile national races.
"The California Senate race is on their target list, and they see Chuck DeVore as the person who could win the race," said Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for Freedom Works, a Washington, D.C., organization that has promoted the movement's rallies and hosted the strategy session.
Not going away
Should DeVore fail in the primary against Republican candidates Tom Campbell and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the Tea Party could throw its support to Fiorina against three-term incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer, Steinhauser said.
"Whatever happens, they're not going to sit this one out," he said.
The poll also found that 71 percent of Tea Party supporters don't think - or aren't sure whether - Obama was born in the United States, which would make him ineligible to be president. Obama's birth certificate shows he was born in Hawaii.
Steinhauser dismissed any correlation between Tea Partiers and birthers in the state. "That issue is a distraction," said Steinhauser, who believes Obama was born in the United States.
DeVore does, too. But in 2008, he led (and gave $1,000 to) Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America, a political action committee. There, DeVore teamed with high-profile birther Floyd Brown to run an ad campaign against then-presidential candidates Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that criticized their positions on taxes and immigration.
Although the Tea Party movement is decentralized, there are believed to be 40 to 50 Tea Party organizations in California, ranging in size from a few dozen to several hundred supporters. In the Bay Area, there are about 10 groups, with a total of about 5,000 supporters. There are a dozen such groups in the Los Angeles area. DeVore's courting of his state's Tea Partiers is another of his similarities to Scott Brown.
Both men are military veterans and tireless campaigners popular with grassroots activists - DeVore announced his Senate run in November 2008, two years before the election. DeVore, who opposes abortion, is more conservative than Brown, who supports some abortion rights.
'Money bomb'
Last fall, the Senate Conservative Fund PAC - chaired by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a Tea Party favorite - chose DeVore as one of four Republican senatorial candidates to receive its endorsement.
In a measure of DeMint's endorsement powers, last week he announced a one-day online fundraising effort next month for former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who is challenging Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary there. A similar "money bomb" for Brown raised $1.3 million in a day.
But DeVore, 47, faces many challenges in California that Brown, 50, didn't in Massachusetts.
Sprinting through a five-week-long special election campaign in a geographically small state, as Brown did, against a poorly run campaign led by a one-term statewide officeholder is different than running in California.
And DeVore must win a primary against what is likely to be a better-funded opponent - Fiorina, who has already given her campaign $2.5 million - and a moderate with greater name recognition and experience in elected office - former South Bay Congressman Campbell.
If DeVore wins the primary, he has to defeat Boxer, who has $7.2 million in the bank after raising money from 23,000 contributors in the fourth quarter. In November, DeVore's campaign touted its raising of $1 million from 17,000 contributors in its first year.
Plus, in Massachusetts, the National Republican Senatorial Committee worked with Tea Party activists and others in support of Brown. DeVore's campaign has accused the committee of favoring Fiorina. The committee denied the accusations.
Where they rank
In a Field Poll last week on the Senate race, DeVore finished third, with just 6 percent support, behind Campbell, with 30 percent, and Fiorina, with 25 percent. In a Rasmussen Poll, he trailed Boxer by 6 points, while Fiorina trailed Boxer by 3 percentage points and Campbell trailed the senator by 4 points.
Still, it's early in the California campaigns. In Massachusetts, Brown trailed Coakley by 30 points in an early poll.
However, DeVore faces a more daunting challenge: Eighty-five percent of the Field Poll respondents hadn't formed an opinion of him.
"The issue with DeVore is: How do you introduce yourself to voters?" said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. "This is a huge state. You need to raise money because you've got to get ads out there."
"The simple fact is that (Massachusetts) was a unique situation," said Wayne Johnson, a Republican consultant who has worked on DeVore's Assembly campaign and whose firm has provided nonstrategic service for Fiorina's Senate effort. "But still, there was something there that could apply to any of the Republican Senate candidates, not just Chuck."
In Massachusetts, "there was a great candidate who tapped into voter anxiety, and in some cases, voter anger, about what was going on in Washington, D.C.," Johnson said. "That could happen here."
For that to happen in California, Steinhauser said, "those people who say they identify with the Tea Party have to go to their neighbors and friends and tell them to vote for Chuck DeVore - or whoever they decide to vote for."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/01/26/MN5K1BLOQ2.DTL#ixzz0e7kzEqqW
Brendan says that the "Tea Party" could throw it's support behind McCain's hand-picked candidate Fiorina. Sorry Brendan, ain't gonna happen.
Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for Freedom Works: "the Tea Party could throw its support to Fiorina"
DeVore hopes to notch Massachusetts-style upset
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore wants to be the Scott Brown of California - a conservative GOP state legislator who vaults to the U.S. Senate in a state dominated by Democratic voters.
Like Brown, DeVore could tap into a network of Tea Party supporters and others who distrust President Obama and blame him for adding to the nation's spiraling debt. A Field Poll released today finds that 28 percent of registered California voters identify with the group.
This is the first time the poll has measured attitudes about the Tea Party movement, which began a year ago and gained stature after Brown's upset victory over Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat, in last week's special election for the Senate seat that Sen. Edward Kennedy held for 46 years.
On the heels of Brown's grassroots success, Tea Party organizers spent last weekend strategizing about other high-profile national races.
"The California Senate race is on their target list, and they see Chuck DeVore as the person who could win the race," said Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for Freedom Works, a Washington, D.C., organization that has promoted the movement's rallies and hosted the strategy session.
Not going away
Should DeVore fail in the primary against Republican candidates Tom Campbell and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the Tea Party could throw its support to Fiorina against three-term incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer, Steinhauser said.
"Whatever happens, they're not going to sit this one out," he said.
The poll also found that 71 percent of Tea Party supporters don't think - or aren't sure whether - Obama was born in the United States, which would make him ineligible to be president. Obama's birth certificate shows he was born in Hawaii.
Steinhauser dismissed any correlation between Tea Partiers and birthers in the state. "That issue is a distraction," said Steinhauser, who believes Obama was born in the United States.
DeVore does, too. But in 2008, he led (and gave $1,000 to) Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America, a political action committee. There, DeVore teamed with high-profile birther Floyd Brown to run an ad campaign against then-presidential candidates Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that criticized their positions on taxes and immigration.
Although the Tea Party movement is decentralized, there are believed to be 40 to 50 Tea Party organizations in California, ranging in size from a few dozen to several hundred supporters. In the Bay Area, there are about 10 groups, with a total of about 5,000 supporters. There are a dozen such groups in the Los Angeles area. DeVore's courting of his state's Tea Partiers is another of his similarities to Scott Brown.
Both men are military veterans and tireless campaigners popular with grassroots activists - DeVore announced his Senate run in November 2008, two years before the election. DeVore, who opposes abortion, is more conservative than Brown, who supports some abortion rights.
'Money bomb'
Last fall, the Senate Conservative Fund PAC - chaired by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a Tea Party favorite - chose DeVore as one of four Republican senatorial candidates to receive its endorsement.
In a measure of DeMint's endorsement powers, last week he announced a one-day online fundraising effort next month for former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who is challenging Gov. Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary there. A similar "money bomb" for Brown raised $1.3 million in a day.
But DeVore, 47, faces many challenges in California that Brown, 50, didn't in Massachusetts.
Sprinting through a five-week-long special election campaign in a geographically small state, as Brown did, against a poorly run campaign led by a one-term statewide officeholder is different than running in California.
And DeVore must win a primary against what is likely to be a better-funded opponent - Fiorina, who has already given her campaign $2.5 million - and a moderate with greater name recognition and experience in elected office - former South Bay Congressman Campbell.
If DeVore wins the primary, he has to defeat Boxer, who has $7.2 million in the bank after raising money from 23,000 contributors in the fourth quarter. In November, DeVore's campaign touted its raising of $1 million from 17,000 contributors in its first year.
Plus, in Massachusetts, the National Republican Senatorial Committee worked with Tea Party activists and others in support of Brown. DeVore's campaign has accused the committee of favoring Fiorina. The committee denied the accusations.
Where they rank
In a Field Poll last week on the Senate race, DeVore finished third, with just 6 percent support, behind Campbell, with 30 percent, and Fiorina, with 25 percent. In a Rasmussen Poll, he trailed Boxer by 6 points, while Fiorina trailed Boxer by 3 percentage points and Campbell trailed the senator by 4 points.
Still, it's early in the California campaigns. In Massachusetts, Brown trailed Coakley by 30 points in an early poll.
However, DeVore faces a more daunting challenge: Eighty-five percent of the Field Poll respondents hadn't formed an opinion of him.
"The issue with DeVore is: How do you introduce yourself to voters?" said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. "This is a huge state. You need to raise money because you've got to get ads out there."
"The simple fact is that (Massachusetts) was a unique situation," said Wayne Johnson, a Republican consultant who has worked on DeVore's Assembly campaign and whose firm has provided nonstrategic service for Fiorina's Senate effort. "But still, there was something there that could apply to any of the Republican Senate candidates, not just Chuck."
In Massachusetts, "there was a great candidate who tapped into voter anxiety, and in some cases, voter anger, about what was going on in Washington, D.C.," Johnson said. "That could happen here."
For that to happen in California, Steinhauser said, "those people who say they identify with the Tea Party have to go to their neighbors and friends and tell them to vote for Chuck DeVore - or whoever they decide to vote for."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/01/26/MN5K1BLOQ2.DTL#ixzz0e7kzEqqW
Brendan says that the "Tea Party" could throw it's support behind McCain's hand-picked candidate Fiorina. Sorry Brendan, ain't gonna happen.
Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for Freedom Works: "the Tea Party could throw its support to Fiorina"