OCR's Mickadeit: Brewer senses sharks circling her

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Thursday, August 11, 2005

Brewer senses sharks circling her

The race to fill Chris Cox's seat in Congress should be fun to watch.

By FRANK MICKADEIT
The Orange County Register

"A bloodbath."

That's what Marilyn Brewer calls the upcoming race for Chris Cox's former seat in Congress. Sounds great.

Had lunch with Brewer and one of her big supporters, Bob Iger, at Antonello on Tuesday and that evening prowled around the Balboa Bay Club, where old Republicans were teaching young Republicans how to smoke cigars - a wonder of nature you'd have to be of another species not to appreciate. Reminded me of that scene in "March of the Penguins" in which the parent penguins tenderly regurgitate food into their youngsters' mouths. The circle of life.

Nowhere did I hear anything to contradict Brewer's assertion.

Brewer, a former Assembly member, is in the race, as is state Sen. John Campbell. The question on everyone's lips Tuesday night was: Is Minuteman Jim Gilchrist in? (Another question people had is why one of the plum seats in all of Congress is not drawing more candidates. In particular, where are the multi-millionaires with no political experience who want to buy a seat, a la Darrell Issa? Kicking around those guys is half the fun.)

Anyway, Brewer's message is that she's the moderate on social issues, which is code for abortion and stem-cell research. On other issues, she said, she and Campbell are pretty much in lockstep. Oops. Except for that vote Campbell made in 2001 in favor of allowing undocumented residents who have been in California for a number of years to pay the state-resident fee at state universities.

(snip)

After (Campbell) calmed down, he explained that Republicans who voted for the bill were fooled into believing it would only apply to people who were on the verge of being sworn in as citizens. Later, he said, they learned it would be applied to anyone who simply said he wanted to be an American.

Then I called Gilchrist to ask whether he's running.

"Still speculative," he said.

He's got Alan Keyes' former campaign manager researching whether he'd be a viable candidate.

(snip)


My early assessment: Brewer: a vote to protect Roe v. Wade. Gilchrist: a populist who will endlessly hammer on immigration. Campbell: another Cox.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/08/11/sections/local/local_columns/article_629380.php