Bill Jr Simon

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. toured some of Los Angeles' neediest neighborhoods Wednesday with former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, promising to spur investment in the inner city through tax credits. But Simon's message was interrupted by persistent questions about his finances, as protesters organized by the Democratic Party shadowed him throughout the afternoon, waving signs that said "Tax Evader" and chanting "What is Simon hiding?"

Decrying the kidnapping and murder of a 5-year-old Stanton girl, Gov. Gray Davis and his Republican challenger, Bill Simon Jr., both said Thursday that they support a statewide alert system that would broadcast information about abductions immediately after they occur. Other states currently use the Amber alert system, named after a 9-year-old Texas girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996, to send out emergency alerts over the broadcast media about kidnapping suspects.

On the spring day Gov. Gray Davis issued his state budget, Republican rival Bill Simon called a news conference to denounce the proposal--hours before it was even released. Since then, Simon has refined his criticism. Stumping across the state in the governor's race, the GOP hopeful has relentlessly picked apart Davis' spending blueprint, assailing him for cuts in everything from farm worker assistance to local police aid.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. on Monday proposed a tax credit for parents to offset the cost of child care, and a tax break for businesses that provide day care to employees' children. The cost to the state, he said, would be nothing. Like his earlier proposal to cut California's capital gains tax, Simon said, the tax breaks for child care would stimulate business, making up for the lost revenue.

Gov. Gray Davis vowed Thursday to run a civil campaign against Republican Bill Simon, promising to shun "over-the-top" personal attacks against the businessman and neophyte candidate. Still, Davis foreshadowed a rough election season. Offering a highly selective portrayal of his opponent, he criticized Simon's lack of political experience, his spotty voting record and the involvement of his family investment firm in a failed savings and loan. "He is not ready for prime time," Davis said.

Capping an election season marked by surprise and scandal, Californians go to the polls today to pick party nominees in the race for governor while Central Valley voters decide the fate of embattled Rep. Gary Condit. The gubernatorial race has been spirited, with three Republican candidates vying for the right to face Gov. Gray Davis in the fall. Davis has run largely unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Gov. Gray Davis crisscrossed California on Sunday in the first half of a final campaign sprint aimed at transforming a steady lead in the polls into triumph in Tuesday's election. In a daylong blitz that began at a Sunday morning worship service in Los Angeles and ended with rallies in Monterey and Oakland, the incumbent Democrat touted his record on education, health care, labor issues, gun control and abortion rights. "We're moving the state forward, my friends!"

It's down to this for Bill Simon Jr.: His only hope of being elected governor is if Democrats so abhor Gov. Gray Davis they cannot stomach voting for him. Too calculating. Too corrupt. Democrats don't even have to vote for Simon. Just stiff Davis. So Simon, in weekend TV ads, began chucking even more muck at the incumbent, dredging up a 16-year-old charge that then-Assemblyman Davis illegally used legislative aides and phones to raise money for his controller race.

Gray Davis and Bill Simon Jr. clashed over ethics, guns, the economy and the environment Monday in a scrappy gubernatorial debate that highlighted their differing styles as much as their disparate stances. Republican Simon, seizing on his first face-to-face meeting with the incumbent, offered a sweeping indictment of the governor's nearly four years in office.

Three weeks before election day, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. is scouring the state for votes and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis is ... where? Davis has kept his profile low throughout his campaign for another four-year term, but he has been especially scarce in the week since his Oct. 7 debate with Simon. One of the last Davis sightings occurred Saturday -- not at a campaign rally, but at an Anaheim Angels playoff game in Orange County.