[img]1646|left|Kevin James||no_popup[/img]Re “Newcomer Promises a Sizable Lift for James’s Mayoralty Campaign”
Look at what can happen at a lecture if you merely raise your hand with a question:
Last summer in Culver City, Fred Davis III, top-tier Republican Party media consultant who operates with a flash, was addressing the group Generation Next in Culver City, and the event was being carried by C-Span.
[img]1645|left|Fred Davis III||no_popup[/img]“There was one guy in the audience who asked really smart questions,” Mr. Davis was saying last night at a meeting of the conservative group the Hancock Park Patriots.
“I never had seen this man before in my life. If you have given any talks, you remember someone like that.
“Afterward, I went over and I introduced myself.
“He said his name was Kevin James. He was running for mayor.
I said ‘Mayor of what?’
He said ‘L.A.’
Look at That Reaction
“I kind of rolled my eyes.”
The two men immediately clicked.
“He lured me into talking to him for two hours,” Mr. Davis recalled.
Keep in mind that Mr. James’s currently assertedly surging campaign was not visible at the time. It was not even in the same state with the radar.
Mr. Davis reputedly knows all things GOP. If he never had heard of such a campaign, well…
No tourist passing through Los Angeles, the celebrated Mr. Davis – recognized for his flowing 60-year-old locks as much as his sui generis political ads – is based on Mulholland, although he also has offices in Austin and Washington.
The Imprint Takes
“I was really impressed by the guy,” Mr. Davis said until he learned more, to his dismay.
“He told me where his campaign was – away down, not just financially but in a lot of ways.
“Now here was this great candidate who did not have a great campaign around him.”
The bad news was: “I was thinking it was too late to raise the kind of money at 1300 bucks a pop Kevin would need to compete.
“But I was coming off of a few experiences with Super PACs.”
With an ever present grin and a gusher of enthusiasm, native to his native Southwest, “I didn’t even know if Super PACs were legal in a mayor’s race. I called my attorney. He didn’t know. So we checked it out. They are.”
Mr. Davis organized – but has kept his distance from the increasingly well received candidate.
“I haven’t really talked to Kevin since that time (the rules don’t allow candidate exchanges with Super PACs). But I have been to some of the mayoralty debates. I watch him blow everybody (his three office-holding rivals) away.”
More astute than most observers, Mr. Davis does not need to pause and reflect before delineating the advantageous distinctions between Mr. James and City Councilman Eric Garcetti, City Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilperson Jan Perry.
“No. 1, Kevin is not part of the City Hall problem. He has not made those horrible votes that have put us on our own fiscal cliff.
“No. 2, I was impressed Kevin had spent nine years on the radio, at night, flailing against what was happening in L.A. He knows the issues. He is the perfect storm because he is an outsider and he knows as much or more about the problems as anybody running.
“No. 3, he is a good guy.”
(To be continued)
