Bill Jr Simon

Bill Simon Jr., a political novice and Republican gubernatorial hopeful, touts his experience and accomplishments in business as qualifications to run California, home to the fifth-largest economy in the world. As he has campaigned, he has commiserated with small-business owners, spoken of his many corporate investments and boasted of being an "oil and gas man from way back."

Former gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. said Thursday that he planned to run a "shadow campaign" through the rest of the recall effort, delivering policy speeches culled from his two failed bids for governor. The onetime GOP nominee, who dropped his campaign to succeed Gov. Gray Davis on Aug. 23, saying there were too many Republicans in the race, said he wants to share his knowledge and push the remaining candidates to be specific in their platforms.

Financial statements filed Saturday show that actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, investment banker Bill Simon Jr., Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and businessman Peter V. Ueberroth have personal holdings and incomes of several million dollars each. The reported figures represent only a portion of their assets. The financial disclosure statements, required of all candidates for state public office, do not reflect amounts of more than $1 million.

Bill Simon Jr. dropped out of the race for governor Saturday, saying that there were too many Republicans on the ballot and that he didn't want to jeopardize the party's opportunity to replace Gov. Gray Davis if Davis is recalled. Simon's decision instantly changed the dynamics of a fast-paced campaign, although it was not immediately clear which of his rivals would benefit most. The announcement was welcomed by the two leading Republicans in the race, state Sen.

Republican nominee Bill Simon Jr. pledges that as governor he would cut taxes, balance the budget, create child-care programs at every school and preside over a freeway- and reservoir-building spree. But despite spending much of the last year touting himself as "the candidate of ideas" who will focus on the nuts-and-bolts issues Simon says Californians care about, he has put forward only sketchy plans on how he would achieve several of his ambitious goals.

The accidental candidacy of Bill Simon Jr. began in the fall of 2000, when Simon -- staring down his 50th birthday, recovering from his father's death, feeling a void in his life -- was hit up for a political donation by a state Republican official who offered up the requisite praise that fund-raisers use to lather up donors: Why don't you run?

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. will not be called to testify at a savings and loan trial in Washington until three days after the Nov. 5 election, a federal judge has ruled. The ruling Thursday by Judge Emily C. Hewitt of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims spares Simon from testifying during the crucial final days of his campaign. The U.S. Justice Department had said it might call Simon to the stand Oct. 16, less than three weeks before the election.

A U.S. attorney Tuesday cited "poor management and board oversight" for the 1993 collapse of Western Federal Savings and Loan, a California thrift that was controlled by the family of Bill Simon Jr., the Republican gubernatorial candidate, along with other investors. But lawyers representing the thrift's parent company blamed a misguided shift in government regulation for sinking Western Federal in 1993 rather than strengthening the beleaguered savings and loan.

Painting a starkly grim picture of California's finances, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Simon Jr. called Wednesday for immediate spending cuts and a reduction of the state's tax on capital gains. In assailing Gov. Gray Davis, Simon predicted a deficit of $13 billion to $22 billion by next summer--far worse than the assumption of leading budget experts in Sacramento. Speaking at the Richard M.

The U.S. Justice Department has put Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon Jr. on its witness list for a savings and loan trial that starts next month in Washington. The tentative schedule would have Simon on the stand Oct. 16--less than three weeks before the election. The trial stems from a lawsuit that Simon and other investors in the former Western Federal Saving and Loan filed against the government.

Over the last two weeks, Bill Simon Jr. has crisscrossed California from Eureka to Palm Springs. He has awakened often at 3 a.m. for radio interviews followed by campaign appearances at flower shops, restaurants and other small businesses. When he shows up, almost invariably journalists repeat a single question. Thursday, a Fresno television reporter put it this way: "Will you forgo this election for the sake of the Republican Party if you continue to lag in the polls?"

There he was again, his mouth curved in that familiar wide grin as he hopped out of a dark SUV and waved to a small knot of supporters who welcomed him to a Palm Desert retirement community. "It's great to be back out on the campaign trail," said Bill Simon Jr., the once and current gubernatorial candidate. The Oct. 7 recall election may be a new world for most of the 135 candidates attempting to replace Gov. Gray Davis. But for Simon, it's deja vu.

The campaign for governor intensified Sunday as Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante charged Gov. Gray Davis with undermining his campaign, and Republican candidate Bill Simon Jr. launched a radio ad calling actor Arnold Schwarzenegger "a liberal." The moves signaled that the free-for-all race to replace the governor is splitting -- for now -- into at least two different campaigns: one within each of the major party's ranks.

The emerging tug-of-war between Bill Simon Jr. and Tom McClintock played out in the rolling foothills of Placer County on Saturday, as the two right-of-center gubernatorial candidates traveled to California's most Republican county to court the same conservative voters.

Amid the circus that is California's recall election, two candidates -- Bill Simon Jr. and State Sen. Tom McClintock -- are courting the Republican Party's conservative voters by focusing on the state budget crisis and vowing to fix it with cuts in both taxes and spending. Although public anger over the budget sparked the recall, few candidates are talking about the problem in any detail. Simon, who as the Republican nominee in 2002 narrowly lost to Gov.

Over the first five days of his campaign, as he glided from one media-festooned event to the next, Hollywood actor and gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to create jobs, clean up Sacramento and make children his top priority as governor. But he has said close to nothing about how he would do those things, ducked questions on other topics and declined all interview requests from California's political press, even as the Oct. 7 recall election looms.

Calling California's foster care system dismal, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. said Monday that he would seek federal assistance to increase the amount of money for families that take in children with nowhere else to go. Simon said the state should ask the Bush administration to waive a portion of the fines California pays to the federal government because it lacks an automated child support collection system.

In his first public appearance since laying off nearly half his campaign staff earlier this week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. on Friday pledged a strong fight against Gov. Gray Davis and said he can stand the incumbent's barrage of negative television ads. "What I can't stand," Simon told the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, "is what he's done to the state of California. What I can't stand is how he mortgaged the office, how he's sold his signature."

Financial statements filed Saturday show that actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, investment banker Bill Simon Jr., Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and businessman Peter V. Ueberroth have personal holdings and incomes of several million dollars each. The reported figures represent only a portion of their assets. The financial disclosure statements, required of all candidates for state public office, do not reflect amounts of more than $1 million.

Former gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. and other investors in a defunct savings and loan have won a $305-million judgment against the U.S. government in a case featured last year in campaign attack ads by Gov. Gray Davis. Simon's court victory bolsters the arguments that he made last year to counter Davis' accusations that Simon had caused the collapse -- and taxpayer "bailout" -- of the Marina del Rey thrift, Western Federal Savings and Loan. Judge Emily C. Hewitt of the U.S.