Though relatively mild mid-July temperatures have quieted one of summer’s familiar sounds – the mechanical whirl of air conditioners – Californians are continually reminded of the high cost of energy when utility bills make their monthly appearance in mailboxes.
And the Golden State’s residents are letting their governor know just what they think about it. Taxpayer groups and critics of Gov. Gray Davis have begun an aggressive advertising campaign against the governor, saying his poor leadership has worsened the state’s energy crisis.
Among those in agreement with the radio and television ads criticizing Davis is Republican California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon. Davis’ leadership style, said Simon, “is one of reacting as opposed to being proactive, and I think that’s where he’s going to have problems” in the upcoming election.
In an exclusive interview with WorldNetDaily, Simon said it’s hard to know whether the energy crisis will be as serious next summer as it is this year. But the current state dilemma is not the only thing Davis has to worry about.
There will always be “one or more crises because of the way Gray does things. He tends to be in a state of denial for a period of time on something, and then when he’s forced to deal with it, it’s usually worse at that point than it would have been had he dealt with it when it first became evident,” said Simon. The energy dilemma is just one example of such a crisis, the candidate remarked.
“He really waited for well over seven or eight months before attacking the problem. He could have done something last fall, and he clearly could have done something last summer,” Simon contended, though he acknowledged that “sometimes you’ve got to wait to see a few symptoms before you treat the illness. But I’d say that it was pretty clear the patient was ill toward the latter part of last summer, and Davis just didn’t do anything.”
Simon believes the state’s water supply is also an area of concern, yet Davis continues to ignore it. Part of the solution to what could prove to be an even bigger disaster than the energy shortage is the building of more off-stream storage reservoirs, Simon has said. Raising the height of Shasta Dam by six feet would also be a good idea, he said.
So, just who is this Davis challenger?
William E. Simon Jr., 50, is the son of former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon Sr., who was appointed by President Richard Nixon. After graduating from Boston College’s law school, Simon went on to work in a private law firm and later served as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he worked as a prosecutor under then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani. Simon now serves on the Board of Directors for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a non-profit public interest law organization dedicated to restoring a balance between the rights of crime victims and the criminally accused.
 Bill Simon |
A prosperous businessman, Simon co-founded in 1988 with his father and younger brother a private investment firm that has participated in such successful ventures as PAX TV, a family-friendly broadcast network free of graphic violence, sex and inappropriate language.
Simon’s candidacy in the 2002 gubernatorial race is the businessman’s first go at political office. But lest naysayers decry him as California’s newest Al Checci, it should be pointed out that Simon plans not to finance his campaign through the family checkbook.
“It’d be one thing if I just said, ‘OK, fine, no problem – I’ll just cover this all with my checkbook.’ But I don’t think that would be prudent. I don’t think it would be a good idea. And it certainly wouldn’t tell me if I have support of people,” he said. “The bottom line is I believe that public service is a noble calling. Some people are called to it and some people are not. Maybe it’ll become clear that I’m not being called to it in another couple months. I don’t have a clue.”
But one thing the candidate does know is that he’s going to pursue the path to the state Capitol “as long as it seems appropriate and I’m getting support.”
A California transplant from New Jersey, Simon and his wife Cindy made their home in the Golden State in 1990. The couple has four children ranging from ages 8 to 19, and live in Los Angeles.
As a father, Simon is concerned about the state of education in California, saying he believes the current public education system is broken.
“The reason I say that is that is when you look at the test results, whether it be at the fourth-grade level or the eighth-grade level or the 12th-grade level, you’re basically looking at a very sub-par ranking with other states,” he said, noting that California students rank second-to-last in the nation’s reading levels.
“It’s just not appropriate. In order to get educated, you’ve got to read. I mean, if you can’t read, you can’t really do anything else in school,” he remarked.
The solution?
“I think you’ve got to have accountability and standards that have teeth in them,” he asserted.
Simon believes the state’s current accountability system and academic standards are “probably acceptable,” although he would “tweak them a little bit.” The problem, he said, is that they’re not mandatory. Simon would make the new standards mandatory, and if schools didn’t meet them, “I’d create a mechanism where something happened, and in this case that something would be that people would come in and take over the school.”
And those “people” would not be state government officials.
“I don’t happen to think the state is best suited to take over schools,” the candidate professed. “We could get into a disagreement about that with other people who believe like Davis does, that the state is the answer to everything. I don’t happen to believe that.”
Instead, Simon points to the success of company-run charter schools as a potential model for public-school improvement. Such schools exist in the San Francisco Bay Area, where companies have recognized the need for a well-educated work force and taken proactive measures to ensure kids get the education needed to work in the technology-driven Silicon Valley.
But whatever the cure for California’s ailing public schools, “Kids deserve an education,” Simon added.
During the near 40-minute telephone interview, Simon did more than just talk policy. The wealthy businessman lives by an old saying: To whom much is given, much is expected. For the last seven years, he has been vice chairman of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, the largest private network of social service organizations that work to support families, reduce poverty and build communities. He is also chairman emeritus of Covenant House of California, a crisis shelter for homeless and at-risk youth. Additionally, he and his wife established the Cynthia L. & William E. Simon Jr. Foundation, which, among other things, provides educational scholarships to youth.
Simon inherited his sense of philanthropy from his parents, who made Andrew Carnegie’s 1889 treatise, “The gospel of wealth,” required reading for the Simon children. Carnegie believed the rich should use their wealth to benefit society.
“I think its principles still apply. It’s the idea that you’re a custodian of whatever you make or do in this world,” explained Simon, who said the book outlines the old adage, “You can’t take it with you.”
“It’s just the idea that we’re all in this together, and maybe what we ought to do is have a concept of sharing and try to help out. I’m a great believer in trying to help people help themselves, and that’s one thing that Catholic Charities does,” he continued.
Simon said he recognizes some people are just down on their luck and need a helping hand. At some point in life, he noted, practically everyone feels that kind of need.
“All you need’s a break. All you need’s a chance. You’re not asking for a handout. But sometimes you’ve had bad luck. Sometimes a couple bad things have happened to you. And you know, I’ve seen it happen so many times in people’s lives when all they needed was a break. And it made all the difference in their lives, whether it be a scholarship in high school or a scholarship in grammar school.”
With that philosophy in mind, Simon and his father began an informal “Santa Claus” program at a New Jersey hospital. The Simons informed the hospital’s administration that the family intended to pay anonymously for some expenses not covered by patients’ insurance.
“Insurance companies these days can be a little strict,” Simon observed.
In a curious twist of fate, Simon’s own housekeeper was helped by the program. He tells the story in his own words:
“When my wife and I lived in New Jersey, we had a gal that would come in every Friday and help my wife with some of the chores around the house. She was great; we all loved her. She used to cook this pizza that was just the best pizza I had ever tasted.”
The housekeeper, named Michaela, did not relocate to California with the Simon family, and it had been several years since anyone in the family had been in touch with her.
“Well, it turned out that Michaela needed a walker. She had hip surgery. She was getting on in years, and she had an artificial hip put in, and the insurance didn’t cover the walker. It covered something else – some stupid thing it covered – but it didn’t cover the walker. And obviously, Michaela needed to walk around. And so we gave her a thousand dollars, but she didn’t know that it was us.
“My brother Pete still lives there, and he saw Michaela with this walker and Michaela was talking about this Santa Claus. She still doesn’t know it’s us.”
This kind of life-touching philanthropy “was something that my parents always felt strongly about,” Simon said. As an example, he relayed another story that took place in the same hospital whose patients benefited from the Simons’ “Santa Claus” endeavor.
For years, Simon’s mother had been sending flowers to cancer patients in the final stages of the often-fatal disease. Each bouquet was accompanied by a card his mother signed simply with, “From a friend,” and a hand-drawn heart. Six years ago, Simon’s mother found herself being treated on the same floor of the hospital she had been providing with flowers.
Simon said a nurse divined his mother was the anonymous flower-giver and asked the dying woman if it was indeed her doing.
“My mother winked at her. Can you imagine?” remarked Simon. “It was so like mom to do that.”
The example provided by his family and his Catholic faith have guided Simon into the philanthropic path.
“If you have a faith as I do and you believe someday you’re going to have to account for yourself, it’s great to have a little bit of insurance in the bank in my estimate,” he quipped. “But that’s not the reason I do it. You feel better about yourself. You feel more at one with the world.”
While talking about his mother, Simon paused and became introspective. Then, as though the candidate fa?ade was removed, he spoke frankly about his motives behind his candidacy.
“There’s nothing that compares in my life with the opportunity to be of service to my fellow man. I think as I get older, I really believe that those are the kinds of things that mean the most. I’ve tried to be as successful as the next person; I’ve been as competitive as the next person; and I’ve tried my hardest to get to the top and make as much money as I could and be No. 1 and all those kinds of things. And sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I did not succeed. And now, having run the race many times, I really think that the most important thing is, have you been of service to your fellow human being? Have you maximized the talents that God gave you? That’s what I’m trying to do right now in this governor’s race,” he intimated.
Then, mentioning that his adviser might not be entirely pleased with what he was about to say, Simon opened up further:
“You know, I don’t have any interest in beating the hell out of Gray Davis, really. He’s a fellow human being like the rest of us. I don’t think he’s a good leader. I don’t think he’s well-suited for this particular time in our history. But I don’t think he’s a bad man. I think he’s well-suited for something else. I think he should open a fund-raising business. I think he would be very fantastic at it. He’s shown that already. He’s a very fine fund-raiser. In fact, if he wasn’t a Democrat, I probably would retain him. Maybe he’ll need a job in a few months – we could help him open his fund-raising business,” he said through chuckles – not that Simon appears to need help fund-raising at the moment.
He met his goal of getting to $1 million in the bank by June 30. Indeed, he nearly tripled his goal, raising $2.8 million that month. When added to the approximate half-million of his own dollars dedicated to campaigning, Simon has a total of $3.4 million in the bank. He has said that if his campaign account does not reach $10 million by the end of the year, he will re-evaluate his gubernatorial bid.
A myriad of opinions have been thrown his way about whether or not he should run for governor, he said, and not all have been positive.
“Some people have said to me, ‘Billy, you’re a nice guy, but why don’t you stay with your day job?’ And you know, if the majority of people felt that way, I would. But the majority of people right now I talk to say, ‘We think you’re the kind of guy that ought to be in public service.'”
Some have suggested he run for a lower political post before making a run for the plush office on the Capitol’s first floor. But Simon compared his gubernatorial bid to his work with PAX TV. His investment firm infused the unique television venture with $10 million, and Simon was made vice chairman of the network when it launched in 1998.
“My wife said to me, ‘Why do you think you can be vice chairman of a national television network? That’s a little bit like me coming home one day and saying I’m going to try to run the 100-yard dash in the Olympics, or I’m going to be a surfer or something.'”
“It’s a fair question,” Simon admitted. “But, you know, they tell me I’ve been an outstanding vice chairman. That’s where I really confuse people. Because I say to them, why don’t we just let the record speak for itself? I’m a conservative who believes in the free market and individualism and self-sufficiency, and in report cards, accountability and those kinds of things. If I can’t hack it as the vice chairman of PAX, then I’m sure people will let me know,” he continued. “I’m sure that they’ll be asking for my scalp within weeks if they think I’m incompetent. I haven’t checked lately, but there have been no scalp-hunting missions.”
“I’ve done lots of things for the first time,” the candidate said, adding that his resume did not necessarily reflect specific references to some of those first-time endeavors.
Singing the praises of PAX, Simon said the network offers an alternative to other kid-centered programming, which he described as getting too “edgy.”
“With PAX, there’s no foul language; there’s no violence; there’s no sex. Some would say there’s nothing, but I would say we’re getting good viewership,” he said. “I think we’ve done a service to the country, because we’ve shown that you don’t have to be edgy to make a sale, and that’s important.”
When the network first launched, trade magazines trashed the “Beaver Cleaver” network. Some even took shots at Simon, asserting the financier didn’t know enough about the entertainment world, the candidate said.
In response, Simon said, “I just shake my head. If everybody took that attitude, we would still be in Britain. Nobody would have sailed for this country. You’ve got to take a chance sometimes. The know-it-alls in Hollywood were out to get us.”
But Simon said the network has proven wholesome programming has a market.
“Remember that old saying, be there or be square?” he asked. “It’s kind of the reverse of that. It’s not bad to be square within that definition. It’s not bad to be happily married with kids that you’re trying to raise properly, going to church on Sundays. There’s nothing wrong with that. And I think if we send that message without being defensive, I think that’s great.”
While PAX does its job promoting family-friendly messages, Simon is faced with the challenge of getting his message out to California’s 34 million citizens. The Republican gubernatorial primary is just under a year away, and Simon faces stiff competition from former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordian and Secretary of State Bill Jones.
But political commentator William F. Buckley believes the two political veterans may not have what it takes to get elected. In his June 22 column for National Review, Buckley says Riordian “has a rich-man’s ambivalence to the whole idea of that exertion. He is 71-years-old and there is that other ambivalence, which is that of conservative California voters to Riordan. He is not a faithful feller.”
Riordian supported Democrat Dianne Feinstein twice in her senatorial bids, and he “played a prominent role” in Tom Bradley’s gubernatorial campaign, the columnist wrote.
Jones, the lone Republican statewide official, has little name recognition and has been characterized as making the bid simply because he is “next in line.”
Whomever California Republicans end up choosing for their Davis challenger, Simon has thrown his hat in the ring and asks GOP voters to take a good look at their options.
