Bill Simon, the Republican candidate for California Governor, came out to Rosita's Armory in downtown Salinas this morning. It was a breakfast $100 a plate fund raiser. Rosita's is a old time Mexican style cafe run by Rosita and her father and in fact is the oldest cafe in Salinas, and only 1 block from the John Steinbeck museum.
It was a small crowd of about 100 Simon backers, about 70% Hispanics from the Salinas area. About 10% of the crowd was politicians from the local area, including the sheriff of Monterey county and a state senator. Rosita gave one of the first speeches in which she emphsized the need for a Republican governor who can lessen the logjam of regulations that are preventing small businesses in California from thriving.
Mel Martinez, the current Bush administration Secretary of HUD, next gave a speech in which he talked about the need for affordable housing in California. Hopefully he was not talking about subsidizing it with government money.
When Bill Simon came in, he walked thru the well wishers and shook everyone's hand who wanted to, including myself. Bill Simon always looked like a large man on TV. In reality, I would guess he is only 5' 7", on the other hand he looks 10 years younger than his 51 years. Simon stressed only a few big issues. His largest was the need for cutting taxes, cutting regulation and the need for affordable housing. He talked little about Davis, except that Simon would run a far less corrupt administration.