LAUNCH THE REAGANAUTS :

Simon lampoons Davis in series of new TV ads (Carla Marinucci and John Wildermuth, June 26, 2002, SF Chronicle)

In a pair of TV ads debuting today, GOP businessman Bill Simon lampoons Gov. Gray Davis as the denizen of a dusty office jammed with campaign cash, visited by a parade of dollar-laden constituents.

The new 30-second spots use parody to stick in the minds of voters while skewering Davis -- the Democratic incumbent who has raised more than $30 million for his re-election campaign -- on the fund-raising issue, where Republicans believe he is most vulnerable. [...]

The commercials were shown on a day the Simon campaign announced they had added as senior advisers veteran GOP consultant Ed Rollins--who managed President Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign--and Lyn Nofziger, who worked for Reagan in California and Washington.

The move, GOP insiders say, is an effort to help Simon's campaign become more aggressive against Davis.

Suddenly, with the hiring of two of the historic giants of Republican electoral politics, it's necessary to take Bill Simon seriously. No one, besides Ronald Reagan, has ever understood better than Mr. Rollins how to position the GOP so that it appeals to middle class men. This race is not dissimilar to the Christie Todd Whitman/Jim Florio campaign in NJ, where Rollins helped knock off an incumbent governor in a Democrat state. Let's hope they've got a cache of "walkin'-around money" on hand. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2002 2:24 PM