CONVERSATION WITH TOM CAMPELL Republican senatorial candidate Rep. Tom Campbell visited our Editorial Board Thursday to give us an update on his campaign and his chances. His first priority was to remind us that Sen. Feinstein was a co-author (with Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch) of a methamphetamine bill that would give the government a foot in the door to control freedom of speech on the Internet and shut Web sites down on the say-so of a bureaucrat. We've deplored the bill before and hope it doesn't pass. Rep. Campbell, despite being a decided underdog, was upbeat. He argued that the way Sen. Feinstein had chosen to campaign - choosing not to debate or to campaign actively until just recently - might actually help him. "In a three-week sprint I might just break through," he told us. "If it had been a six-month marathon, with her spending a million a month and with her incumbency advantage and fundraising lead I probably couldn't have matched her." He says an internal poll three weeks ago showed him "only" nine points behind. Rep. Campbell has chosen interesting issues to highlight, especially for a Republican. His TV commercials emphasize the failure of the war on drugs and the need for alternative approaches. He has been a vocal opponent of the $1.3 billion commitment to Colombia, ostensibly to fight drug traffickers, which could get the U.S. embroiled in a long-term civil war. "I don't know of any American who really thinks we can solve our domestic drug problems by fighting a foreign war," he told us. Besides the drug war, he says he differs with Sen. Feinstein over federal spending (the National Taxpayers Union rates him as the most frugal member of the House), his commitment to a permanent moratorium on federal Internet taxes, his opposition to federal censorship on the Internet, his opposition to the economic sanctions against Iraq and his commitment to the War Powers Act, which supposedly guarantees a role for Congress in committing U.S. troops overseas. "The most fundamental difference is that she will go to the federal government first when she perceives a social or economic problem, whereas I view the federal government as a last resort," Rep. Campbell told us. Rep. Campbell hasn't been entirely consistent by our lights. He supported the federal assault-weapons ban. We believe his support of Prop. 39, which would reduce the two-thirds threshold needed to pass school bonds, is unwise. But there are clear differences between him and Sen. Feinstein. We'll report on Sen. Feinstein's positions later this week. We'll see Nov. 7 which approach California voters prefer.
No member comments available...
|