In a truly shocking and stunning development, Garry South has made a self-serving statement cluelessly attacking California Democrats:

After we fought through the line of folks there to kiss Willie’s ring afterwards, we asked the Da Mayor about something one of the morning’s speakers, former Gov. Gray Davis campaign czar Garry South, said about the lack of a Democratic ground operation.

South, who also ran Brown’s erstwhile primary opponent Gavin Newsom’s gov campaign, also praised Republican Meg Whitman for setting up an “operation unlike anything we’ve ever seen in California.”

Willie agreed — about the Dems.

“I do not believe that Jerry Brown has a ground operation,” Willie said. He also wonders if it is a good idea for the Dems to rely so heavily on labor for their ground operation.

Now it IS true that Whitman has a strong ground game. I saw it here in SD-15 over the summer when it was used to help elect Sam Blakeslee in the special election. But South and Willie Brown are dead wrong when they say there’s nothing to counter it. Here’s John Burton’s response:

Dem Party chair John Burton told us in plain Burtonese: “Willie Brown is full of (poo-poo). And Garry South never liked any politician who wasn’t paying him. So you’ve got two full of (poo-poo) guys who aren’t relevant to anything in this campaign talking about it.”

In defending the Dems ground operation, Burton said “We’ve already made 1 million calls and have about 80 headquarters and thousands of volunteers. But Willie Brown wouldn’t know that because he’s too busy patting himself on the back.”

CDP Executive Director (and all-around awesome person) Shawnda Westly hit back hard as well:

“In eight years he’s done nothing of note and it’s no surprise that Garry’s on the sidelines in one of the most competitive races in history,” she said. “He simply doesn’t know what’s happening in the current Democratic Party.”

Beyond the quotes, there is plenty of evidence that South is full of it and Willie Brown clueless. Brown has a major financial disparity with Whitman, and so he had to concentrate his spending on messaging, including TV ads. At the same time, the Democratic National Committee in the form of OFA, the CDP itself, and the labor movement do indeed have a significant ground operation. It doesn’t have to be housed within the Brown campaign – the division of labor (Brown does message, the others do field) is a sensible way to share the burden with the resources we’ve got.

In addition to those efforts, other progressive groups in California, like Courage Campaign (where I work as Public Policy Director) and CREDO Action, Planned Parenthood, and the huge coalition of groups organized to fight Prop 23 are doing work to turn out the progressive base. These groups are not engaged in any coordination with a campaign for elected office, and haven’t made any endorsements in the governor’s race. But that’s another significant turnout operation that may well, if unintentionally, impact the governor’s race.

So why would Garry South trash Jerry Brown’s chances? Is it pure spite? Or might the fact that he worked with Whitman campaign flack Mike Murphy on the right-wing JOBSPAC effort in the 2004 generation election have something to do with it?

Garry South has a record unblemished by success. It’s no wonder he’s lashing out at the Brown campaign, which according to campaign manager Steve Glazer now has a 7 point lead in the latest SurveyUSA poll. This election isn’t over, and Whitman is still a serious threat to California’s future – but at least we know that Garry South is, once again, full of it.