Dr. Pitney on the California Primary; Governor & FDR

From George Skelton’s article in the Los Angeles Times on Governor Schwarzenegger’s recent FDR invocation:

The FDR analogy “is a stretch,” says Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College and a former Republican National Committee official. “All politicians like to touch the hem of his garment. But the situations just aren’t comparable.”FDR, after all, created Social Security, and that became “the basis for the federal welfare state,” Pitney says.
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Pitney says: “I don’t think taxes are avoidable.”

From an article by Guy Kovner in The Press Democrat:

Not only winning, but the margin of victory in California, will count as candidates vie for nominating delegates in a primary season that runs through early June.”This election will be arithmetic,” said Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

“This one could come down to a slog for delegates.”

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Not only is Super Tuesday a coast-to-coast event, with elections in adjoining states from California to Georgia, as well as New England and the Northern Plains, but California, with 13 major media markets, also is the most expensive place to run a campaign.

“California could be the black hole that sucks up all your resources,” Pitney said.

Democrat John Edwards and Republican Mike Huckabee, both short on cash, will be hard-pressed to pay for significant campaigns in California.

Edwards, who is running well behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama here, may essentially skip California and spend his time and money in more promising states, Pitney said
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North Coast Republicans…may get special attention because of the technical details of the GOP’s closed primary, in which only registered Republicans may vote and most delegates are awarded winner-take-all in each congressional district.

Consequently, Republican candidates may target districts with a relatively small GOP electorate (in Sonoma County, just 25 percent of registered voters) that may align with their ideology, Pitney said.

Sonoma County “will be very popular with the candidates,” he said.
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But the Super Tuesday ordeal, as it is, measures the strength of the men and women who would be president. “It really puts the candidates to the test,” Pitney said.