Bush Seeks California Riches

Fresh from what he called a "glancing blow" at his campaign, George W. Bush flew into California Tuesday night to secure his hold on Republican voters here.

After losing the Michigan GOP presidential primary to Arizona Senator John McCain, Bush declared it will be the "the good Republicans and like-minded independents who will make the decision in California." The state has its primary on March 7 - also known as Super Tuesday.

The most recent polls here, conducted in mid-February, show Bush leading McCain by 22 points. That gap will surely tighten after McCain's win in Michigan, just as it did after the Arizona senator's win in New Hampshire. But more important for Bush, and more daunting for McCain, is that eight of ten registered Republican voters in those polls chose Bush.

Unlike Michigan and South Carolina, which allow independents and Democrats to help choose the Republican nominee, California has a blanket primary. That means independents can vote for whomever they choose, but only the votes of registered Republicans will count toward the allocation of delegates.

But before it starts a victory celebration, the Bush campaign may need a Hollywood-style facelift.

"The George Bush who began his long, wild ride through the nominating process, the compassionate conservative who could reach out to bring new people into the party is not the George Bush who came out of South Carolina and faltered in Michigan," says Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political scientist at Claremont University. "He has moved out of necessity farther to the right, and thats dicey coming into California."

Bushs major event Wednesday was a town hall meeting sponsored by the Spanish-language Univision network at the Catholic-affiliated Loyola Marymount University.

Jeffe saw it as a symbolic appeal to two groups who may be upset by Bush's appearance at ultra-conservative Bob Jones University in South Carolina, which bans interracial dating and compares the Catholic Church to a cult.

"If you want to have a chance to win the Latino vote in California, youve got to look at winning the Catholic vote," said Jeffe. "He has to make amends."

Bush expressed confidence that McCain wouldn't score another Michigan-style victory, where he says "nearly 20 percent of the Republican primary (was) made up of liberal Democrats. Thats going to stop here pretty soon."

Bush blamed Democrats for trying to "hijack the election," and criticized McCain for encouraging Democrats to "cross over" and for his new efforts to recruit support from within the GOP.

The Texas governor says he finds it amazing that McCain has suddenly started "reaching out to Republicans."

But Bush may have some reaching of his own to do. Political consultants say he also needs to "cross over" and appeal to independents and moderates McCains major base of support so far because they may make the dfference in whether he can win the "beauty contest" of popular support in California.

"If George W. Bush falters in the beauty contest, it will erase whatever is left of his argument that he is the stronger Republican candidate against Al Gore or Bill Bradley in the fall," says Jeffe.

In other words, he must have the public perception of being the winner in California, where more than anyplace else, perception is everything.