Bill Simon, Choice of Republican Conservatives

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According to today's Los Angeles Times poll, in less than a month, businessman Bill Simon has erased a 14-point deficit and is now neck and neck with LA's former Mayor Richard Riordan. Each is at 31 percent among likely voters with Secretary of State Bill Jones trailing with just 14 percent. The prize is the Republican gubernatorial nomination against incumbent Gray Davis. Inspired by President Ronald Reagan in whose second administration he served as Assistant US Attorney, Simon vows to make it a campaign of ideas against the more liberal Riordan and the "failed leadership" of the Governor. We talk to Simon about taxes, abortion rights, gun control, the state's huge budget deficit, public safety, education, and the prospects of a staunch conservative pitted against a Democrat in a state with a liberal electorate.

Interview with Bill Jones (aired February 28), Richard Riordan (aired March 1).

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Proposition 41: Voting Modernization Bond Act of 2002

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Credits

Host:

Warren Olney

Producer:

Frances Anderton