In Orange County’s 35 State Senate District, there is a Special Election taking place to see who will succeed newly-elected Congressman John Campbell.  The race is shaping to be a donnybrook between moderate GOP Assemblyman Tom Harman (moderate is probably generous) and Dana Point City Councilwoman Diane Harkey, who is more conservative in her views.

There will be a lot of coverage of this race, given that one of the FR blog team members, Duane Dichiara, is a lead consultant for Harman’s campaign, and of course there are three OC bloggers – Matt Cunningham, Adam Probolsky, and yours truly.Congressman.

In BREAKING NEWS — newly minted Congressman John Campbell has endorsed Diane Harkey…  Here is the release…

Congressman John Campbell Endorses Diane Harkey

Dana Point Councilwoman becomes leading candidate to succeed Campbell in Senate

“Diane Harkey is a dynamic Republican and a perfect fit for the voters in the 35th Senate District,” said Campbell. “She is a bright, articulate and hard-working conservative with a background in business. She understands the issues being debated in Sacramento and is committed to lower taxes, limited government and fiscal restraint.”

Campbell added that taxpayers and homeowners will be able to trust Harkey to look out for them in Sacramento. “I am supremely confident that Diane will fight to protect Proposition 13 and private property rights,” stated Campbell.

The endorsement from Campbell, who was elected to Congress on Tuesday, will give a huge boost to Harkey’s campaign, which has been gaining steady momentum in recent weeks.

“Diane Harkey now has the most important endorsement. John Campbell is very popular and respected in the 35th Senate District and his support will carry a tremendous amount of weight with voters in the Special Election,” said Campbell’s political consultant Dave Gilliard.

GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER ENDORSES TOM HARMAN FOR STATE SENATE!

Well, not really.  Actually, not at all.  Harman put the endorsement up live on his website, but it wasn’t true.

I have to tell you that when I got an email this morning asking if it was true that Governor Schwarzenegger had weighed in for Harman – I said that I didn’t think so.  This e-mail directed me to Tom Harman’s website, though, and when you clicked on endorsements, the LEAD item under "Selected Endorsements" was none other than the Governator himself!

I immediately reached out to a contact with the Governor’s office – and quickly had my instinctual response confirmed — NO ENDORSEMENT FROM ARNOLD.

Curious, I went back to the site.  I printed out the page for you to see (click the attachment below – note the harmanforsenate.com URL in the top right corner).  This whole thing is strange, and I’m actually much more inclined towards "sloppy" than "sneaky."

Nevertheless, this shows that in the world of politics, you’d best dot your "i"s before you put it in print.

[Note, the claimed Ross Johnson endorsement was apparently also false.  Nice.]

This entry was posted on Monday, December 12th, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.