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Campaign Crawlers
Lights! Camera! Politics!
California GOP candidates hope to spark some Hollywood magic.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — On a sound stage near Santa Monica Boulevard, actress Valerie Novak flubs a line and director Ladd Ehlinger Jr. asks her to repeat it. “And — action!”
Novak nails the line this time and continues with her dramatic monologue when the director’s cell phone rings, forcing another retake. Ehlinger mutters, “Can somebody fire the director, please?”
Sunday’s daylong shoot was running slightly behind schedule, as actors and actresses lounged around the studio awaiting their turns in front of the camera for a series of political advertisements. Three members of Ehlinger’s cast are Republican candidates for Congress and, by Labor Day, these videos could be bringing them YouTube fame.
Ehlinger has shown a knack this year for producing campaign ads that go “viral” online, turning obscure candidates into Internet superstars. Now the Alabama-based conservative filmmaker has come to Hollywood, working with Republicans who hope to make California a battleground in this fall’s congressional elections.
Talk to conservatives in this state and you’ll get lots of different viewpoints, but the one thing on which they all agree is that the California Republican Party is a useless, hopeless mess. The last time a Republican won a U.S. Senate election in California was 1988, which was also the last time a GOP presidential candidate carried the nation’s most populous state. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure in Sacramento has been like a “good news, bad news” joke: The good news is that a Republican got elected governor; the bad news is that he has become the state’s least popular governor in 50 years.
Exactly who or what is to blame for the state GOP’s dysfunctional condition is a matter of heated discussion whenever California conservatives gather. Many Republicans trace the trouble back to the governorship of Pete Wilson in the 1990s, while others point fingers at the influence of GOP financier Gerald Parsky, a predictable booster of moderate Republican candidates.
Meanwhile, some Republican operatives harbor deep doubts about the loyalties of Meg Whitman, the former EBay CEO who has invested more than $100 million of her own money in her GOP gubernatorial campaign. Forwarding an e-mail from a Whitman campaign staffer about the state party’s “Victory 2010” program, one Republican consultant added a sarcastic note: “Whitman expects candidates not only to pay for their database, but to man victory centers and funnel them data.”
Infighting and suspicion are commonplace in both parties everywhere, but the situation in California is especially discouraging to conservatives, who fear that key opportunities may be lost in a mid-term election where all the omens portend a banner year for the GOP nationwide.
“We’ve lost the brand,” says one Los Angeles-area Republican. “The party in California doesn’t stand for anything anymore.”
Trying to make the Republican Party stand for something except political ineptitude is a perennial goal of California conservatives. However, many complain that not only is the state GOP apparatus decrepit, but that their problems are neglected by the national party leadership, especially in this year’s congressional elections. Democrats control 34 of the state’s 53 House seats, but only one California Republican challenger — David Harmer, running against Democrat Rep. Jerry McNerney in the 11th District, east of San Francisco — has qualified for the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns” program.
Other GOP House candidates in California find themselves struggling to get attention for their campaigns, a situation that isn’t helped by the state’s news media, which at times seem reluctant even to acknowledge the existence of Republicans. A consultant for Mattie Fein, who is challenging Democrat Rep. Jane Harman in the 36th District, was shocked last week when a reporter for the Torrance (Calif.) Daily Breeze answered an e-mail query with a blunt reply: “Don’t call or e-mail us — we’ll call you if we’re interested. And if you haven’t got it yet, we’re not interested.”
Trying to overcome that kind of media uninterest was part of what inspired Fein’s campaign to bring Ehlinger to Hollywood to produce video ads. Having previously directed two independent feature films (Flatland and Hive Mind), Ehlinger garnered nationwide attention in May with a YouTube ad for Dale Peterson, a Republican candidate for state agriculture commissioner in Alabama. That video has since generated more than 1.7 million views online, and the Fein campaign team hopes to get a similar viral boost in their effort to unseat Harman. Ehlinger also shot ads yesterday for California GOP candidates Mark Reed (challenging Rep. Brad Sherman in the 27th District) and John Dennis, who is taking on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the San Francisco-area 8th District.
In a year when the Tea Party movement has kindled grassroots insurgencies across the country, these campaigns in California aren’t waiting around for the GOP Establishment to ride to their rescue. As one local conservative operative said yesterday, “The party’s failed us. The media’s failed us. Sometimes, you have to take things into your own hands.”
About the Author
Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (25) | Leave a comment
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Alan Brooks| 8.16.10 @ 7:57AM
Marge changed my mind about Palin, I would vote for her if she ran in 2016, mostly because of her looks. However it appears she will wait until 2020.
But I'll vote for Obama in '12, I think he is being demonized the way Bush was; would you trade Obama for a Jimmy Carter?
Hell no.
Pete| 8.16.10 @ 10:52AM
Demonized? The mainstream media still wears his dirty underwear as hats, are you kiddng me? If they ever turn on him (as they should) he will throw himself out of a window. That's what passes as "hope" for me these days.
JmsA| 8.16.10 @ 11:15AM
Alan Brooks,
Obama is not even remotely close to being demonized the way Bush was, given that the vast majority of the mass media relentlessly attacked Bush from the day he was inagurated. And as to trading Obama for a Jimmy Carter, neither one is worth a damn. But don't worry, there's quite a bit about Bush that I don't like either, just probably not the things you don't.
ECM| 8.16.10 @ 12:23PM
Wow, you really need to work on your Mobyconcern troll skills: that's about the worst example of the genre I've ever seen.
dac| 8.16.10 @ 9:30AM
You're so proud of yourself, AB, you greasy little troll. Go ahead and explain to all of us poor, stupid tax-suffocated pukes what exactly the difference is, in governing philosophy, foreign policy, and anything else your smug, self-adulating mind can think of, between Carter and Obama.
Well, I'll start you off. On his worst day, Carter would never have come out publicly in support of a terrorist memorial next to the burial grounds of 2700 dead Americans. Nor would he have written not one, but several books stating in the clearest possible terms his hatred for the U.S. Constitution, and America in general. Nor would he have supported avowed communists and Mao-worshippers among his White House staff. I'm making this too easy for you, I know. But see if you can pick up the thread, genius.
Jacka**es like you truly, truly believe you'll be the anointed ones, the guards at the political prisons and re-education camps. Good luck with that if what you intend to vote for actually happens. Even a passing knowledge of the history of totalitarians ought to give you pause: as Trotskyites know all too well, the aspiring tyrant's gutless appeasers, bootlickers and wannabes are the first ones with bullets in the back of their skulls. So screw your head on straight or prepare to lose it.
Claypoole| 8.16.10 @ 11:00AM
You are right, dac. Jimmy Carter was a poor president, utterly incompetent, ignorant of basic economics and embarassingly anti-Semitic. But never once during his term was I afraid for our liberty. No matter how much of a boob he was, he did not aspire to tyranny. Barack Obama does have those aspirations.
WayneH| 8.16.10 @ 5:48PM
dac: Well said.
Dan Hirsch| 8.17.10 @ 8:41AM
Challenge:
Use Reagan, Carter, and Obama in a complete sentence.
How about: Barack Obama will make Jimmy Carter look like Ronald Reagan.
Naah!
Obama will make Carter look better than Ronald Reagan. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Alan B, Are you an unrepentant Communist or just a useful idiot?
Nolite me conculcare!
Bob Belvedere | 8.16.10 @ 9:53AM
This should be a year of triumph for the GOP across the country, but, if it is, it will not be thanks to the Republican Establishment.
Quoted from and Linked to at:
Fear And Loathing: Stacy Goes To Hollywood
hardcard| 8.16.10 @ 10:33AM
Thanks dac for setting this troll in his place (under
a pile of obamasoros turd).
gearjammer| 8.16.10 @ 11:15AM
Carter was a man of his times and did not consider audacity the ultimate virtue. Although, as he gets on in years he's become on nasty SOB.
Seek| 8.16.10 @ 11:36AM
I could never understand how Jimmuh Carter managed to attain a reputation as an affable, warm Christian gentleman during his presidency. By all accounts, he is one of the most nasty and prickly men in public life this country has produced.
RCV| 8.16.10 @ 1:36PM
To get back to the subject of the article, rather than Alan's shocking endorsement of Palin for her looks:
The Republican Party in California is indeed a joke: it stands for nothing and has no leadership. It's highest elected official, Governor Schwarzenneger, is more popular with Democrats than Republicans. It's two major candidates this year, Whitman and Fiorina, are uber-wealthy amateurs who are candidates only because they can bankroll their own campaigns. As the article points out correctly, the party in California "has lost its brand."
Liberal Reader| 8.16.10 @ 11:29PM
You really are what we have been waiting for. Lets reach for hope. Who knew that disasters could have cheerleaders?
RCV| 8.18.10 @ 11:52AM
Lord knows the Iraq War had enough of them.
JmsA| 8.16.10 @ 7:43PM
RCV,
Oh Yeah! And Jerry Brown and Babs Boxer are just so exceptional! Remember troll, I live in California and have seen first hand what the dems have done to this once prosperous state. And by the way, only a fool will believe that the governator is a true Republican. Do you actually believe the Kennedy clan would have allowed him in were he a Republican? Wake up and smell the coffee. At least both Fiorina and Whitman have some accomplishments to their name, and I'm not talking about misspending the hardworking taxpayers' money like you know who.
joli| 8.17.10 @ 4:23PM
RCV is wholly correct in the assessment of our current leadership and candidates. Just because they really are THAT BAD, it does not follow that RCV (or anyone else) considers JB or Babs to be any better. It's a false argument.
RCV| 8.17.10 @ 11:41PM
As a matter of fact, I think JB is a pathetic, washed-out candidate. He was incompetent last time as Governor and simply an awful administrator. While he was a halfway decent Mayor of Oakland, that job played to his strengths. The only reason Boxer has survived this long is that every election, the California GOP nominates a truly undistinguished person to run against her, as they did this time. Tom Campbell, whatever your view of him, would have trounced Boxer. Fiorina will go down in flames, as will Whitman. Another lost opportunity for the California GOP.
Long Ben| 8.17.10 @ 12:29AM
Living in the Hollywood produced stream of cultural sewage as Californians do , it should not suprise anyone , that they should begin to think , act and vote as those in Hollywood , Lord help California .
RCV| 8.17.10 @ 12:30AM
Well, JmsA, if you live in California, you know how pathetic the GOP record has been. The fact that the only successful GOP candidate has been, as you put it, "not a true Republican" says it all. The only thing Fiorina ever accomplished was to run HP so badly that she got canned. Whitman couldn't bother herself to vote, even once, in 23 years. And these are the best the state GOP has to offer! Pathetic, truly pathetic.
JmsA| 8.17.10 @ 3:46AM
RCV,
Classical leftist/democrat talking points and ad hominem attacks. The dems, in case you don't know it, control most of the elected high state offices, not to mention the state congress, and they're the ones that have caused the state to go bankrupt. Sorry, you can't the blame that on the Republicans.
I have voted in every election, local, state and federal since age-eligible to do so, and I don't care whether Meg Whitman has voted or not; that's her business.
As to Fiorina having been booted from HP, she did good things for HP after putting herself through college and rising through the ranks, from receptionist to the top job. She's also a best-selling author, sought-after speaker, business commentator, and strategic advisor. She was also the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, serving as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company from 1999 to 2005. During that time, she steered the company through the dot-com bust (I believe that happen during the latter part of Bill Clinton's second term, didn't it?), the worst technology recession in 25 years. She also led the company through the controversial merger with Compaq Computer, now acknowledged as not only the most successful merger in high-tech history, but that which laid the foundation for HP to become the first $100 Billion info tech company. Prior to that, Fiorina started out as a medieval history major, and although law school dropout, she earned an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, and a Masters of Science in Business from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Prior to joining Hewlett-Packard, she rose through the ranks at AT&T and Lucent Technologies over a twenty-year span, leading the IPO of Lucent (at the time, the largest IPO in history) and becoming President of its largest business. She's also one of the most recognized business leaders in the world, and a global influencer of public opinion. Her memoir Tough Choices, has been translated into 12 languages. She also advises government, business and non-profit organizations, and she has sat on the boards of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Group, Inc., and Revolution Health. She has also served as a trustee for MIT, and a board member of Freedom House, Vital Voices, Business Executives for National Security, Initiative for Global Development, the National Symphony Orchestra and Ford's Theatre. She has further served as the Chairman of the Fiorina Foundation, a philanthropic organization, in which she chairs The One Woman Initiative—A Fund for Women’s Empowerment, and is a founding partner with The African Leadership Academy. She also served as a member of the Defense Business Board, as well as the Advisory Group for Transformational Diplomacy for the Department of State. She has previously served on the boards of Cisco Systems, Kellogg Company, Cyber Trust and Merck & Company. She also sat on the New York Stock Exchange's executive board. She was a White House appointee to the U.S. Space Commission to advise it on the nation's space science agenda and to contribute a broad range of high-tech expertise. In addition, she recently served on the CIA’s External Advisory Board. I wouldn't be surprised if she was more qualified and capable than those good old boys that manufactured her ouster from HP. Oh, and by the way, I'm not a woman, I'm a dude. Just in case you wonder.
As to the so called "Republican" governor, if you recall, he was elected to replace the unmitigated disaster that was Grey Davis (D). Unlike you, I know as do most Californians that Schwazzernegger knew the only way he could win the special election was to run as a "Republican," because the people were so fed up with the democrats, particularly Gov. Grey Davis (D). Remember, you wrote: "... is more popular with Democrats than Republicans." Why do you think that is? Do I have to draw you a picture?
I don't know where you were when Jerry Brown was governor, but I was right here in California, and I know, as do millions of others, that Mr. Brown was nothing to write home about, and an unqualified failure is more ways than one. How and when do you think the state employee's began to acquire the power they now possess, including their overgenerous pensions and salaries, which have so helped bring the state to its present financial difficulties? He was so ineffective that the next two governors, Deukmejian and Wilson, Republicans both, were each elected to two terms, as was Ronald Reagan, who defeated Pat Brown (Jerry's father). Not too shabby, huh? It was not until all the leftist morons moved into the state, that democrats began to win elections on a regular basis--and we all know how that's turned out, don't we? Again, do I have to draw you a picture? Now, don't get me wrong, I like Jerry Brown as an individual; he's actually a very nice man. I just don't agree with his politics. Whitman, on the other hand, has proven to be a winner as far as business is concerned, which I believe to be what the state is in dire need of at this time.
As to Babs Boxer, I don't know much about her, other her fanatical support for abortions, her tax and spend and overzealous regulatory proclivities, not to mention her part in the House banking scandal, and her part in the 1991 Clarence Thomas during the Anita Hill Senate hearings, when she led a group of women House members to the Senate Judiciary Committe, demanding the Committee of Senators take Hill's spurious charges seriously, and in doing so, propelled herself into the U.S. Senate in 1992.
Now, don't fret, RCV. We have quite a few fools in this state that will blindly vote for the status quo, Boxer, and other leftist democrats--to the detriment of the state.