McClintock Convinced Persistence Will Pay Off

Even within his own Republican Party, he has always been an outsider, consigned to counting his victories indirectly -- as the instigator of ideas that catch on later, usually with someone else's name attached.

"By the time I got to junior high and high school, the term 'geek' certainly applied, and I'm still pretty much the same guy," said McClintock, 47. "But I do feel I've gone from being a lonely voice to one that people listen to."

Bill Simon Jr.'s exit from the recall election over the weekend has given McClintock his moment. As the campaign's prominent fiscal and social conservative, he is now poised either to be a spoiler in the Oct. 7 election or, if votes on the long recall ballot are split just so, to replace Gray Davis as governor.

A new Times Poll last week found that McClintock's support has doubled since early July to 12% of likely voters, behind Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Republican movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

With California's budget balanced only through borrowing and its credit rating at junk bond levels, McClintock believes he is finding an audience for his conservative fiscal positions.

As governor, he says, he would bypass the deadlocked Legislature, if necessary, to balance the budget through executive order and ballot initiative. He would cap government spending, cut California's bureaucracy, contract out for state services and reduce the state's workers' compensation benefits.

Last year, as the state budget shortfall ballooned, McClintock was the only member of the Legislature to vote against salary and pension increases for state prison guards, a package that costs at least $700 million a year. Davis, who received nearly $1.5 million in his first term from the guards' union, signed the bill.

Witty if a bit stiff, McClintock took his frugal notions to voters last fall as a candidate for state controller, using a fictional Scotsman, "Cousin Angus McClintock," to vouch for his being "as tight as a bullfrog's behind, and that, me friends, is watertight."

Though outspent 5 to 1, he lost by a slim margin and pulled more votes than any other Republican on the statewide ballot, including Simon in his loss to Davis for governor.