Which Way, L.A.?

Bill Simon, Choice of Republican Conservatives

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). Newsmaker: Compton's Once and Future Mayor In an election last June, Eric Perrodin ousted long time Compton Mayor Omar Bradley. But Bradley protested and, after a lengthy court trial, was reinstated by a Superior Court judge. Today, Perrodin won his appeal of that decision. So, as of 4pm Thursday, Bradley is out again, and Perrodin is back in. The once and future mayor talks about his long road to Compton City Hall. Reporter's Notebook: No More Chads: Propositions 41 and 43 The outcome of the 2000 Presidential election was delayed because of obsolete voting machinery in Florida. It turns out that 40 percent of California voters use the same kind of punch cards that caused the problems. A.G. Block, Executive Editor of the political monthly California Journal, says that Propositions 41 and 43 will help resolve voting irregularities caused by man and machine.