The Balloon is Burst
As the San Digo Union Tribune reports, Gerald Parsky popped his trial balloon and states that he never intends to run for elective office.
President Bush's point man in California, Rancho Santa Fe investor Gerald Parsky, yesterday shot down his own trial balloon that he might run for governor next year if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't.
"I have no intention to run for any public office, even if Schwarzenegger doesn't run for re-election," Parsky, chairman of the University of California Board of Regents, said in an interview yesterday.
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Parsky has been a polarizing figure among California Republican insiders ever since he commandeered the financial reins of the state party at the behest of the Bush White House.
"The only significant success the Republican Party has had during the time he's been in the political picture was the recall, which he opposed," said former state Republican Chairman Mike Schroeder. "I'm sure he'll bring the same magic to his gubernatorial race that he brought to the Republican Party."
Schroeder has been a Parsky critic for years. But even the current state party officialdom, normally publicly deferential to prospective Republican candidates, was openly critical of the Parsky overture.
"Governor Schwarzenegger campaigned for President Bush in Ohio, helped him win that state and was an integral part of the Bush re-election and all Gerry Parsky can do is ask himself what's in it for me, rather than helping the governor push through a reform agenda that would benefit California," said Karen Hanretty, communications director for the California Republican Party.
