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More Parsky Watch Parsky Watch - The Magazine Take the Parsky Watch IQ Test Visit the Parsky Watch Store	Back to Parsky Watch archives Stiffing Sen. McClintock’s race for Controller Parsky Watch #31 December 12, 2002 THE QUIET REPUBLICAN We’re back – tanned, rested and ready after a much needed post-election vacation. Obviously, the painfully narrow defeat of Bill Simon was a disappointment to everyone. Or was it? It’s no secret that Gerry Parsky was anything but supportive of our nominee. This isn’t just our opinion. We quote the November 6 Sacramento Bee: “Simon also had little support from Bush’s point man in California, businessman Gerald Parsky, who had feuded bitterly with Simon’s late father, former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon.” That’s not from an editorial page, not from the fevered mind of the Parsky Watch, but from a straight news story reported as a plain old fact. Call us crazy, but we don’t think Gerry Parsky is crying many tears over Simon’s defeat, nor giving it even a second thought. He has certainly been the quietest Republican in the state Other matters dominate the mind of Gerald L. Parsky, super genius. So it’s a good thing we’re still thinking about it. Long-time readers are familiar with the destructive litany of Parsky’s ineptitude and indifference: his broken promises, his inexcusably anemic fundraising, his refusal to leverage his Administration contacts for the benefit of the state party, his talent for doing too little too late. The media, characteristic of their intrinsic inability to delve beyond the surface or diverge from the rest of the journalistic pack, have ignored Gerry’s role in the November disaster, focusing instead on Bill Simon or the blunders of Parsky’s cat’s-paws like Rob Lapsley. We’d like to highlight a few for posterity’s sake: Parsky’s refusal to pass to Tom McClintock anything but a token share of the $600,000 the RNC gave him for down ticket races – despite the fact that everyone knew McClintock had the best chance of any Republican of winning. Parsky’s treacherous decision was a stab in the back that deprived McClintock of victory for no other reason than he doesn’t match Parsky’s profile of a “winning” California Republican. After all, a McClintock victory would disprove Parsky’s infamous dictum that 'If you are a conservative, you cannot win in California.’ Parsky instead shoveled that dough into the campaigns of moderate GOPers who fit the Parsky profile – and who wound up getting shellacked. Parsky’s shivving of the McClintock campaign tracks with his sabotage of Simon. Top Simon staffers admit Parsky forced the campaign to abandon their focus on Davis’ failed record on energy (which actually moved voters) and switch a feckless attack on Davis’ ethics. Parsky asked the White House NOT to have the President campaign in California, depriving Simon of the bump tat Bush’s barnstorming gave to winning GOP candidates in other states. And lest we forget, the crucial gap between the $10 million Parsky promised to raise, and the $5 million he actually raised (we should also recall the gap between that paltry $15 million and the $19 million raised by the “unprofessional” state party administration in 1998 gubernatorial election cycle). That gap meant to the difference between victory and defeat for Bill Simon, Tom McClintock, Dick Montieth, among others. But hey, the election’s over – just water under the bridge. As the last man standing, Gerry Parsky can look forward to a bright future running the California Republican Party, unfettered by interference or second-guessing by any pesky statewide Republican officeholders (or at least conservative Republicans who disagree with his vision of a philosophically hollow GOP). Don’t worry, though – we’re not going anywhere.