| (cross-posted from ATM Watch also at John Edwards 08) Over the past few weeks it's become quite evident that John Edwards is running for California...and he's running for it hard. The interesting thing about how he's doing it is that, against all conventional wisdom, he's managed to mount an inexpensive stealth campaign made up of campaign stops both conventional (rallies at colleges) and unconventional (an appearance at a Santa Monica Democratic club, a visit with Fresno farm workers and a recent Q&A with reporters in San Francisco, which I diaried with a link to video HERE) in between stops for California campaign cash.
More over the flip including some incredible new Survey USA numbers... |
The latest sign that Edwards absolutely thinks California is within his grasp is the release today of the endorsement of John L. Burton, former CA Democratic congressman, assemblyman and, until 2005, president pro tem of the state senate. He is a beloved liberal who was described in the following way by The Los Angeles Journal upon his retirement in 2005:"Gone will be the Senate's most vehement partisan for social services for the poor, the Senate's angriest voice against tax breaks for businesses and the wealthy, its loudest voice for protection of workers, its fiercest pro-labor advocate and its disciplinarian."
Sound like anyone you know? Remarkably, Edwards's California strategy may already be paying off. According to the latest Survey USA Poll, out today, Edwards surged 7 points since the previous poll was released on March 6. Here are the numbers (3/6 results in parentheses.) Hillary Clinton 43 (44) Barack Obama 25 (31) John Edwards 17 (10) Bill Richardson 4 (4)
That movement is pretty stunning and, I'd argue, is not attributable exclusively to the positive response of "some people" to the courage and character John and Elizabeth displayed when they announced her cancer had returned. Edwards has his eye on California all right and it's beginning to look like California just might have its eye on him.
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