GOP Veteran Seeks to Unseat Feinstein
By Michael Finnegan, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
January 25, 2006

Taking on a test that other Republicans have shunned, retired state Sen. Richard Mountjoy said Tuesday that he was entering the race for the GOP nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

A longtime leader of the state Republican Party's conservative wing, Mountjoy had been weighing a Senate run for weeks but said for the first time Tuesday that his decision was "definite."

"I'm in the race," he said in an interview. "No turning back."

The former Monrovia lawmaker described his candidacy as an effort to advance the conservative cause in Congress.

Although Democrat Feinstein has been widely seen as moderate since her 1992 election, Mountjoy said she had "totally taken the positions of the left."

The latest evidence, he said, was her Senate Judiciary Committee vote Tuesday against President Bush's nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court. All eight committee Democrats voted against Alito, while all 10 Republicans backed him.

With his announcement, Mountjoy becomes the first seasoned Republican to enter the Senate race — little more than four months before the primary.

The reasons others have stayed out are many: Feinstein is California's most popular elected official, according to polls, and she has raised at least $6.9 million to seek a fourth term. She is well-known to most voters, the state has tilted strongly toward Democrats for more than a decade, and the national political climate has soured for Republicans in recent months.

"I bet the house on Feinstein," said Thad Kousser, an assistant political science professor at UC San Diego who cited those factors and others.

Feinstein campaign strategist Kam Kuwata said Mountjoy had long positioned himself as a politician "to the right of the right wing of the Republican Party."

"Dianne Feinstein is in the mainstream, and has always been in the mainstream, and calls them as she sees them on the merits of each case," Kuwata said.

Mountjoy's preparations for the Senate race have set off jitters among some Republican strategists who fear that his conservative stands on abortion, immigration and other issues could harm the party's image. In the interview, Mountjoy said he opposed legal abortion, even in cases of incest or rape.

"In the case of incest, there's always adoption," he said. In cases of rape, he added: "I believe that man is a creation of God, and I don't think you kill God's creation."

He also questioned whether there were ever cases in which abortion was needed to protect the life of a mother.

On immigration — a touchy subject for a party trying to reach out to Latinos — Mountjoy took exception to Bush's proposal to allow temporary guest workers from abroad.

"I don't think you give special benefits or a special place in line to those who have flaunted the laws of the state," he said.

Still, Mountjoy said he stood fully behind Bush on national security matters. "He is exactly on target in Iraq," he said.

The absence of any other Republican to take on Feinstein has led to a behind-the-scenes push by some party strategists to recruit another candidate.

Several have joined GOP state lawmakers in trying to coax Pierre-Richard Prosper, now a candidate for state attorney general, to switch to the U.S. Senate primary. Prosper is a former Los Angeles prosecutor and Bush administration ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues. Already in the attorney general's race is state Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno).

Mountjoy, 74, ran once for statewide office: In 1998, he finished third in the GOP primary for lieutenant governor. A former Monrovia mayor and councilman, he served in the Assembly from 1978 to 1995 and in the state Senate from 1995 to 2000.

Mountjoy was a coauthor of Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot measure that sought to curb public services for illegal immigrants. In the 1996 presidential race, he was California chairman of the Pat Buchanan campaign. He is also a former leader of the California Republican Assembly, a conservative advocacy group.


www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-senate25jan25,0,107013.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

He's got my vote.

A Republican doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell in that part of the country . At least he'll make her spend her money .

Good luck.

About fucking time somebody got off their ass to pry that haggard witch out of her seat.

I wish I couold vote for him.

Sen. Mountjoy is a fine man, a conservative Republican and a supporter of the RKBA.  

He doesn't stand a chance.  

I wish the man well.  I know him personally, even though I haven't seen him for a number of years he's good guy.  He lives in the same general vacinity as I do, in the San Gabriel Valley(10 miles east of Los Angeles).  He's a shooter, I saw him at the local indoor range years ago.  His sons are also gunners.  Mountjoy is very Christian and church oriented,  though I don't know what domination and strongly anti-abortion.

I'd almost consider moving to Kalifornia just to vote for him.

This would be a monumental blow to the anti-s if she were dethroaned. Man... this is definitely something that should be followed.

where do I send the check

With that strong an anti-abortion stance, he hasn't a snowball's chance. It's a big item over here.

NTM

Quoted: where do I send the check

+1 I'll send him some $$.

I'm already sending Lynn Swann some to unsesat that asshat Rendell in the PA Gov race.

"Although Democrat Feinstein has been widely seen as moderate since her 1992 election..."

WTF?  

Quoted: where do I send the check

I will find out for you. I will call him to tomorrow.

Quoted: I wish the man well.  I know him personally, even though I haven't seen him for a number of years he's good guy.  He lives in the same general vacinity as I do, in the San Gabriel Valley(10 miles east of Los Angeles).  He's a shooter, I saw him at the local indoor range years ago.  His sons are also gunners.  Mountjoy is very Christian and church oriented,  though I don't know what domination and strongly anti-abortion.

All reasons that prove what Hipster said, "He doesn't have a chance."

Sorry man, that is why I left.  

The worst part of it is, I am sure you are sincere in saying he is a good man, and I beleive it.  Unfortunately, before the race even begins they will make him out to be as ugly as a , with ideas given to him by , and after the race he will look like this: with a little and thrown in.

Quoted: "Although Democrat Feinstein has been widely seen as moderate since her 1992 election..." WTF?

Yeah, that stuck right out.... so much for "objective" reporting.

Quoted: where do I send the check

Honestly, where?  I'm a college student and no real money to give but I would love to help put that bitch out of a job.

Quoted: Quoted: "Although Democrat Feinstein has been widely seen as moderate since her 1992 election..." WTF?   Yeah, that stuck right out.... so much for "objective" reporting.

Sadly, that is objective reporting.  To many of the residents of San Jose, San Francisco, L.A., Oakland, etc., Di-Fi is a moderate.  They'd like her to be even further left than she is.  Hard to imagine but that's the way they "feel" out there.  

So when do we mobilize the import of voter fraud, I mean absentee ballot, (R) votes into the state?  I mean that's the New York snow-bird liberal's way of voting in FL I thought.

Quoted: Quoted: I wish the man well.  I know him personally, even though I haven't seen him for a number of years he's good guy.  He lives in the same general vacinity as I do, in the San Gabriel Valley(10 miles east of Los Angeles).  He's a shooter, I saw him at the local indoor range years ago.  His sons are also gunners.  Mountjoy is very Christian and church oriented,  though I don't know what domination and strongly anti-abortion. All reasons that prove what Hipster said, "He doesn't have a chance." Sorry man, that is why I left.   The worst part of it is, I am sure you are sincere in saying he is a good man, and I beleive it.  Unfortunately, before the race even begins they will make him out to be as ugly as a , with ideas given to him by , and after the race he will look like this: with a little and thrown in.

Yeah I agree, this is typical of Fienstein's Democratic allies at the L.A. Times.  Yeah, I agree with the Times assesment of Mountjoy's politics.  He is even to the right of me.

BTW: Feinstein is a moderate, because the L.A. Times is pretty far to the left.

Quoted: With that strong an anti-abortion stance, he hasn't a snowball's chance. It's a big item over here. NTM

surprising since I can't imagine many people getting pregnant since there's so many derned queers...

She'll probably have him shot.

Quoted: I wish I couold vote for him.

hasn't stopped all the illegals and dead people who voted the hag in.

Although Democrat Feinstein has been widely seen as moderate since her 1992 election,

Remember that she is the gun-grabbing cunt that, after getting the 1994 AWB passed,  said "and if I could have gotten the votes, we would have banned all the guns."

My question is, a "moderate" in who's eyes? Stalin? Lenin? Hitler? Milosovich? Pol Pot? Saddam Hussein?

Eat shit and die whore!

Quoted: A Republican doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell in that part of the country . At least he'll make her spend her money .

While that is probably true, California has traditionally been a "Conservative" state.
It's only within the last 15 or 20 years that things have drifted to the left.

Feinstein is a "Moderate" Gimme a break she a freakin' left wing socialist.

Dont think hes gonna win but I wish he would

We've got two people here. Feinstein and Pelosi.

Tell me that Pelosi isn't way further to the left than Feinstein. Compared to Pelosi, Feinstein -is- a Moderate!

NTM

Feinstein will be in office until she dies.

He doesn't have a snowballs chance in libtard land.  If I prayed he would be in them.  Best of luck.

Quoted: Feinstein will be in office until she dies.

you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?  
..............that she is an immortal freak like that NAZI from Hellboy?

that bitch needs to go, I keep seeing her name more and more, that's not a good thing

Quoted: Feinstein will be in office until she dies.

Hopefully this happens soon

Quoted: With that strong an anti-abortion stance, he hasn't a snowball's chance. It's a big item over here. NTM

All the more reason for conservatives in the state to get involved in his campaign and beat on doors, getting out the vote.

Quoted: Quoted: Feinstein will be in office until she dies. Hopefully this happens soon

Maybe we could convince her to get into an Oldsmobile with Ted Kennedy.
Then he could kill her like he did Mary Jo.

Quoted: Quoted: A Republican doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell in that part of the country . At least he'll make her spend her money . While that is probably true, California has traditionally been a "Conservative" state. It's only within the last 15 or 20 years that things have drifted to the left.

True.  And that shift is largely due to East Coast liberals moving into California.  Not only does the state have its own homegrown liberals, they have an influx from around the world.  

Funny how one of the most liberal, socialist, anti-American Senator's there is, is called a "moderate" who's "always been in the mainstream" , but the Republican is "right of the right wing"


This guy will get money from me, just because.