CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“GOP HOPEFULS WOULD UPDATE TACTICS, NOT MESSAGE”
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“GOP HOPEFULS WOULD UPDATE TACTICS, NOT MESSAGE”
California
Republicans have been predictably disconsolate since their election debacle of
last fall, when Democrats swept them from every contested California seat in
Congress and won complete control of state government for at least the next two
years.
The GOP
gets its first chance to do something about that in its late February state
convention in Sacramento, where the main order of business will be to replace
the party’s current state chair, the affable former state Sen. Jim Brulte.
A hotly
contested race for this potentially significant slot features one moderate and
two ultra-conservatives, all advocating change for their party. But none
appears willing to accept the reality that until it changes its message, this
state’s Republican Party can hope for little more than recovering one or two of
the congressional seats it lost in November and perhaps cutting Democratic
majorities in both houses of the Legislature a tad below two-thirds.
That’s
a far cry from the GOP glory days of the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, when Republicans
controlled the governor’s office for 20 years and briefly held a majority in
the state Assembly.
Returning
to those kinds of electoral performances will require more than the tactical
changes advocated by today’s hopefuls for the chairmanship, the relatively
moderate former Torrance Assemblyman David Hadley, the right-leaning ex-Orange
County Assemblyman Travis Allen and blogger and campaign manager Steve Frank, a
former head of the volunteer California Republican Assembly.
Hadley,
the party’s current No. 2 official, was the early favorite to succeed Brulte,
but Allen and Frank are campaigning hard and reportedly cutting into his edge,
noting the ineffective performance of the state GOP’s present leadership.
“Somebody
needs to revive this party,” said Frank, who has worked with local candidates
from San Diego in the south to Del Norte County on the Oregon border. “In this
last election, there really was no Republican message. We need to go after not
just Republican voters, but California voters of all kinds. We need to stress
quality public education including school choice. We need to stress public
safety and everyone’s right to safe streets and homes. And we need to push for
lower taxes. Every dollar of tax is a dollar’s less freedom.”
Allen,
who placed fourth in last spring’s primary election run for governor, stresses
failures by past GOP managers. “The party has been devastated by 20 years of
failure by the Republican establishment, culminating in one of the worst election
losses in our state’s history. This short-changes people who deserve a better
state.”
Both
challengers to Hadley insist their party is demoralized and, as Allen says,
“has not effectively registered voters in many years, while the Democrats have
industriously schemed to take over California by giving drivers licenses to
illegal immigrants, legalizing ballot harvesting and other practices financed
by left-wingers like Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg and George Soros.” The three
are all billionaire backers of Democrats.
Hadley,
meanwhile, says the fall election was “a forceful reminder of how much work we
have to do to change the politics of the Golden State.”
None of
the three mentions anything about distancing the state party from President
Trump, whose unpopularity in California was a key election factor.
Allen
and Frank both say Republicans need to adopt some techniques used by Democrats
last fall, especially ballot harvesting, in which paid party workers went
door-to-door helping voters fill out and sign absentee ballots, then took
responsibility for turning them in. This practice, illegal before California
law changed in a 2016 party-line legislative vote, was one reason ballots
counted after Election Night leaned so strongly Democratic.
“We
need to use that same practice and take it to a new level,” said Frank. “For
example, we should be urging evangelical voters to bring absentee ballots to
their churches, help them fill them out there and then help them mail in or
file those ballots. We could have done it last fall, but we never take advantage
of churches where a lot of congregants share our values.”
And
yet…all this will remain in the category of big talk until Republicans create
an appealing, positive message and actually take advantage of the new election
laws.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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