& HERE'S WHY THEY HAVE NO BENCH :

Trying to Exorcise a GOP Demon : Simon ad woos Latinos alienated by Republicans' past attacks. (Frank del Olmo, June 23, 2002, The Los Angeles Times)

In a state as big and diverse as California, one broadcast ad will not make or break a political campaign. Still, the ad Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. began running last week is both noteworthy and praiseworthy.

It is noteworthy because it was the first ad that Simon's campaign broadcast in an uphill effort to unseat Gov. Gray Davis. The better-funded Davis campaign has been hammering away at Simon with its own TV ads for weeks now.

Even more intriguing, however, is the language that Simon's campaign team opted to use in its first ad--Spanish. The new Simon ad will be used on both radio and TV stations to "introduce" the GOP candidate to a group of voters he has made only a minimal effort to woo thus far, California's more than 400,000 newly enfranchised Latino voters.

It is also noteworthy that a California Republican would make such a dramatic, and potentially controversial, gesture to seek Latino voters' support.After all, most political analysts trace the GOP's current weak position in California to 1994, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, linked his reelection campaign to Proposition 187, the ballot initiative to bar illegal immigrants from schools and other publicly funded services.

This is how the Simon candidacy can help to revive the party, if the GOP there is smart enough to aggressively court Hispanics instead of asking them to cut the lawn and then go home. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 24, 2002 1:49 PM