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Political Hay
Up From the Grave
The California Republican Party sees an opportunity.
California’s Republican Party met in Sacramento last weekend for what the news media assured us would be a wake. One newspaper wrote, “A punch-drunk GOP arrives for its convention and our writer jumps down the Grand Old rabbit hole to see if ‘Reagan Nation’ can rise from the ashes.”
Rather than hanging crepe, the 1,000 delegates were fired with energy despite losses in November of Congressional and State Legislature seats. In fact, for the first time in many decades, the Democrats have super majorities in both houses of the legislature.
Never mind, the delegates were constantly reminded by candidates for the party’s statewide leadership. From now on the emphasis is on rebuilding from the grassroots up. It wasn’t said in so many words, but the idea was to ditch the moniker Grand Old Party and replace it with “Grand Opportunity Party,” meaning opportunities to help members win elective office and opportunities to replace the state’s stifling tax and regulatory systems with ones aimed at economic growth.
To underscore one of these points, the convention schedule showcased a number of elected minority officials. Harmeet Dhillon, a dynamic woman lawyer born in India, campaigned successfully for party vice chairman on her background of heading a reborn Republican Party in, of all places, San Francisco and running twice for office there.
In the first session, Ruben Barrales, president of a new Hispanic Republican organization, Grow Elect, emphasized the group’s slogan, “Electing Republican Latinos one office at a time.” To prove the point, its website lists 21 such elected officials in local offices up and down the state. The next afternoon, dedicated to break-out sessions, had a Standing Room Only crowd at Grow Elect’s event which featured a panel of elected Republican Latinos telling how they won office.
Michelle Park Steel, wife of Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel, and herself an elected member of the state Board of Equalization, spoke to the convention about the importance of electing Asian Americans to public office (she was born in South Korea).
The changing demographics of the population of California was not lost on any delegates. The convention came shortly after new reports that Hispanics had become the largest single ethnic segment of the state’s population.
Jim Brulte, a veteran of the state legislature, now in private business, led both the Assembly and Senate Republican caucuses during his Sacramento years, won the state chairmanship in a landslide. He is a straight-forward speaker, clear in his resolve to make the state apparatus work for local and regional committees and candidates, and has a reputation for getting done what he sets out to do.
Will all this result in Republican gains in what has become a predictably blue state? Time will tell, but there is plenty of it before the November 2014 election.
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (21) | Leave a comment
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Derek Leaberry| 3.6.13 @ 7:46AM
Wishful thinking. Think of California as Brazil. Third World and dysfunctional.
Santiago| 3.6.13 @ 12:08PM
Brazil these days is more functional than California. At least their citizens pay less in taxes for the same amount of corruption.
markenoff| 3.6.13 @ 12:18PM
I've lived in both places. Don't insult Brazil.
c. j. acworth| 3.6.13 @ 8:34AM
"Michelle Park Steele....an elected member of the State Board of Equalization..."
The WHAT?!! Just what every state needs, especially one that is billions in the hole with no hope of climbing out. Can we get some Republicans elected to the Ministry of Silly Walks?
markenoff| 3.6.13 @ 12:20PM
Not what you think it is:
"The Board of Equalization collects California state sales and use tax, as well as fuel, alcohol, and tobacco taxes and fees that provide revenue for state government and essential funding for counties, cities, and special districts."
http://www.boe.ca.gov/
Arnie| 3.6.13 @ 9:25AM
The Republicans are never going to get California back for the next 50 years unless the Republicans change. As long as the GOP is the party of the conservative south, California will not be voting for them.
GobBluthe| 3.6.13 @ 1:24PM
Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Able Maldonado from the south? Do you even read what it is you write?
C. Vernon Crisler | 3.6.13 @ 5:02PM
And that in a nutshell is why California is on the verge of bankruptcy and cultural disintegration.
RCV| 3.6.13 @ 10:53AM
The California Republican party is seriously in danger of becoming a third party in this state. It has nothing and no candidate of note to offer.
Zeppo| 3.6.13 @ 3:30PM
Yes, but what's the second party?
sotto voce| 3.6.13 @ 4:06PM
Democrats are the second party, public employee unions are the first and Republicans are at the back of the line. Anyone who lives in California and pays attention knows this to be true.
Who Knows?| 3.6.13 @ 12:03PM
"Hispanics had become the largest single ethnic segment of the state’s population."
How long before they become the 50% or more simple majority?
And, when--not if---they do, in effect Mexico will have reconquered California, and you can expect the Democratic Party in that state to morph into the PRI.
Who would have ever believed the Golden State would thusly choose to secede, and without any war?
GobBluthe| 3.6.13 @ 1:25PM
Youre right. The Dem party is the PRI of the 21st century. Corrupt, brain dead and unbeatable.
fmm| 3.6.13 @ 12:08PM
The Grand Offal Party would be more apropos.
KhanKrum| 3.6.13 @ 12:13PM
The pubbies are simply dead in CA & have been for some time. Nothing will change much in the future. Hey, if Satan were running for office there w/ a "D" after his name, he would wind hands down!
Bob K| 3.6.13 @ 2:14PM
The party has no where to go except up.
They should concentrate on the Northern part of the state. As soon as the La Raza nationalist movement gains control of Southern California it will be making preparations to secede from the Union.
Zeppo| 3.6.13 @ 3:53PM
They have nowhere to go, period. In many districts, they consistently fail to field serious candidates. In many years as a registered Republican, I have received zero communication of any kind from the state party. I couldn't tell you what they stand for, though the above report of feeble ethnic pandering does not sound encouraging. They are no longer capable of even slowing down the Democrats. Outside of their remaining strongholds in the rural parts of the state, they are irrelevant.
snipelee25| 3.6.13 @ 3:51PM
Notice how the attendees so quickly fractured into special-interest groups. Hispanic, Asian, probably Pacific Islanders, Chinese (real Asians!), etc.
cicero| 3.6.13 @ 5:07PM
That's not the TITANIC, its the TINATIC. Oh, good. Everything will be just fine, now. And the captain is not an englishman, but a mexican, or maybe an asian. Goody, goody. Those old icebergs won't hurt the ship of state now.
Are these guys delusional, or what? Their cities are broke going into bankruptcy, and the broke when they emerge. They shed the debt owed to little vendors, and reaffirm the debt run up by their employee pension funds. They even reaffirm the rediculous municipal union contracts. And we are supposed to think that these folks will elect conservative Republicans?
I guess that as long as you only view these gatherings as an excuse to eat good food, and drink with folks jusst like you, there can be no harm in them. But if you think they will make any difference, at least until the ship hits the sand at the bottom of the sea, you are engaging in wishful thinking.
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