LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A political rookie who has loudly and proudly touted his conservative credentials has now moved into a tie with former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Bill Simon's recent surge in the polls continued in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times survey that gave the Southern California businessman 31 percent of the vote, the same percentage of votes as Riordan, who has been the frontrunner since the race began and who has had the edge over incumbent Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in some polls as well.
Undecided voters were pegged at 22 percent while California Secretary of State Bill Jones appeared stuck at around 14 percent with the March 5 primary less than a week away.
The newspaper's previous poll conducted in January had Riordan with 34 percent of the vote to Simon's 20 percent and Jones' 16 percent.
Simon appeared to begin making up ground on Riordan as the campaign began to take on a testier tone both in a trio of debates and in television advertising campaigns in which Riordan's friendly relations with Democratic leaders and soft stand on abortion have been challenged by both Simon and Jones.
A Simon television ad currently being aired around the state claims Riordan is an admirer of President Clinton, much to the seeming dismay of an appalled Simon, who touts President's Reagan and Bush as his "role models" without specifically saying which President Bush he is referring to.
"This ad shows that while Bill Simon is busy running against Gray Davis, Dick Riordan is busy running against the Republican Party," Simon's consultant, Sal Russo, said in a press release. "In our focus groups, when Republican voters learn that Dick Riordan loves Bill Clinton, they leave faster than the poor urban tenants Riordan summarily evicted to open his restaurant."
Riordan, who owns the landmark Pantry restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, has also been pinged by the Davis camp in a series of ads alleging that he is actually against women's right to choose. The situation has forced Riordan into a position of having to state he is personally against abortion, but supports freedom of choice.
Some of the 1,398 registered voters surveyed by the Times over Feb. 20-24 agreed that Riordan was beginning to appear to be less conservative than they liked while others agreed with Riordan's ads questioning Simon's ability to beat Davis and handle "California's toughest job."
"I support Riordan because he was mayor of a large city," declared Allen Clark, 81, Sacramento. "I just feel he's more experienced."
Donna Reich, 64, San Francisco, told the newspaper she found Simon's lack of political experience and baggage refreshing.
"He just comes across to me as sincere and not too political," Reich said of Simon.
