If you’re entertained by politics in California, then you should have your popcorn ready watching a few statewide races on the GOP side this past week. Gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner lopped the first grenade of the week by holding a press conference accusing Meg Whitman of unethical, and even illegal campaign tactics. The accusation stems from an email that was sent by a Whitman campaign official Mike Murphy directly to the Poizner campaign. In the email Whitman’s camp urges Poizner to drop out of the race to preserve political capital that would be better spent on the US Senate in 2012. The email also pretty blatantly vows that Meg will drop $40 million in negative expenditures against Poizner in the primary should he stay in the race. During the press conference Poizner indicated that he was filing a complaint with the FBI, US Attorney and California State Attorney General’s Office. Of course the irony with this complaint being filed with the AG’s office brings the 3rd major candidate, Jerry Brown, into the mess as well.
Not to be outdone entertaining us political spectators, while the Poizner was conducting his press conference, mailmen around the state were delivering complimentary signed copies of Whitman’s new book “The Power of Many” to California Republican Party members. The reason Meg’s campaign is trying to get in the good graces of the CA GOP faithful may be because of the news on Tuesday that she wouldn’t be participating in a debate with Poizner at the coming CA GOP State Convention in March. For those CA GOP members who didn’t appreciate the gesture from Meg, there is now a Facebook group for them to consider should desire to cash in on Meg’s gift:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=451343800471
And then there was the Demon Sheep…
This disturbing image that would make Freddie Krueger blush is brought to you by the Carly Fiorina campaign. In her new ad she criticizes Tom Campbell for being a “F.C.I.N.O” (pronunciation still unknown). The ad has generated a huge internet buzz, not for its substantive content, but for the ridiculous imagery. In fact, late last night #DemonSheep became a trending topic on Twitter. A conservative activist reportedly from North Carolina has started a twitter profile for the Demon Sheep (http://twitter.com/demonsheep) and had over 1,200 followers in under 24 hours. The updates are actually quite hilarious. In fact US Senate GOP rival Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s campaign has already capitalized on this buzz by vowing to eradicate Demon Sheep from our political discourse and has set up http://www.demonsheep.org to advance that objective.
This ad is incredibly embarrassing for Carly’s campaign despite the what her campaign is proclaiming. Fiorina campaign spokeswoman Julie Soderlund acknowledged the avalanche of attention the ad has received when the National Review quoted her today: “It has taken on a life of its own. We produced it with the intent of breaking through the clutter, but it has exceeded our expectations. It seems to be everywhere online. Some people call it the best ad ever, some say it is the worst, but everyone is talking about it.” Really Julie? Some are saying the best ad ever? Apparently denial isn’t just a river in Egypt in Fiorina world. Successful political ads usually garner attention and drive a message home, all the attention surrounding this ad has been focused almost exclusively on the bizarre “Demon Sheep.” Furthermore, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is urging the Fiorina Campaign to make more video “preferably featuring farm animals.” At least the Fiorina creative team received a vote of confidence from the enemy.
For those who have not seen the now famous ad, here it is: (Warning characters in this video may cause nightmares and is not suitable for children)
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