There is apparently a new candidate in the Republican race for governor: Joe Gschwentner. I speak German so I don’t have any problem with his name but apparently others do, so he goes by Joe G for short.
You may have heard his radio ads extolling his virtues. If you were a state delegate, you might have gotten a robo-call last week. My wife actually got the calls: one from “some guy” ( her words) and the other from Rachel, a hip-sounding sort of valley girl. For the record Joe, Rachel was more memorable.
The message–just days before the assembly–was the same. Dan Maes can’t possibly win and I’ll tell you why: he doesn’t have any money and he’s politically inexperienced. Joe G has $1 million dollars at his disposal and oh, yeah: he’s a great guy.
It turns out Joe G is a millionaire businessman from Douglas County. He has decided to run less than a month ago. Where he got the list of delegates is a mystery: the state GOP denies giving it to him. The calls are coming from the same area code in Indiana that Scott McInnis’ come from. Coincidence? Could be. Maybe in this recession there is only one call center in the US.
Just outside The Ranch property on Saturday were about 15-20 Joe G supporters all dressed in matching t-shirts and waving signs. The funny thing was, aside from the clean t-shirts it looked as though he’d picked up a group of homeless people. One woman–and I do not exaggerate–smiled and waved showing her only tooth.
Jane Norton supporters were there, too. There was a sign reading “Honk if you support Jane.” Nobody honked but I digress. I was mostly gawking at the homeless people.
Does Joe G really exist? Yes: I literally almost bumped into him in the parking lot. Someone told me there were some of his signs posted outside the Event Center, again pointing out that he had $1 million to spend.
All of this raises a lot of tantalizing questions:
- If he’s serious about running, why didn’t he have someone nominate him from the floor?
- Did he make some kind of back-room deal with McInnis to get the lists and attempt to split the conservative vote?
- Will he try to petition on to the ballot (which seems awfully popular this year)?
- If he has money and wants to do good, why doesn’t he donate to one or more established campaigns?
But the biggest question of all: does he think his $1 million can buy the party nomination and the election?
If he does, then he’s not in touch with the electorate, which knows how four infamous Democrat millionaires turned this state blue and are in no mood to stand for it again from either party. After the delegates Saturday rejected two well-funded campaigns in favor of grass-roots candidates that should be even more clear.
If he didn’t take that lesson, at least he has plenty of money to hire homeless people to wear his t-shirts and collect his petition signatures.
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