Posted on 01/18/2008 10:19:44 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
While the once-imperiled California condor has made a striking comeback, there is another ailing bird in the state that should probably be considered for the endangered species list: California Republicans.
As the 2008 Republican presidential contenders turn their sights toward California on Feb. 5, they might want to take stock of the sorry state of the GOP in the Golden State.
Registered Republicans now constitute barely a third of the electorate in the biggest state — 34 percent — a decline from 39 percent just two decades ago.
Even in Orange County, regularly described as “the most Republican county in the U.S.,” Republican registration has fallen below 50 percent.
The Republicans haven’t controlled the state Senate since 1970. They have controlled the state Assembly for only one year — 1996 — since 1970.
In the past three general elections, Republicans have lost 20 of the 24 statewide constitutional offices up for election. In both 1998 and 2006, the GOP lost six of eight statewide offices.
In 2002, Republicans were shut out of all statewide offices for the first time since 1882 — despite a Democratic ticket led by an incumbent governor up for reelection with job approval ratings in the 30s.
Other than Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2003 gubernatorial recall election, the only non-incumbent Republican to win any statewide office whatsoever since 1994 was a multimillionaire high-tech maven who in 2006 was elected insurance commissioner.
Republicans have lost — count ’em — seven straight U.S. Senate races in California dating back to 1992, the last four by double-digit blowouts.
In the two most recent races in 2004 and 2006, the sad sack GOP nominees didn’t even have the money to air a single spot on broadcast television — a first in the modern era for either major party.
The Republican nominee against Sen. Dianne Feinstein in ’06 ran his own campaign out of his house.
Of the 53 members of Congress from California, only 19 are Republican, the party having lost four GOP-held seats in 2000, a newly created district in 2002 and another, supposedly rock-solid, Republican seat in 2006.
Republicans have lost the past four presidential elections in California, all of them by double-digit, landslide margins.
And George W. Bush’s job approval ratings in California are below even his historic-low national standings — and only a couple of points above former Gov. Gray Davis’ numbers on the day he was recalled in 2003.
There are numerous reasons for this steady decline of California Republicans — among them, a suffocatingly right-wing and socially reactionary ideological tilt that is not reflective of the state’s laissez-faire lifestyle, the inability to recruit and fund viable candidates, and the mostly white male party’s shocking incapacity to reflect the diverse demographics of the Golden State, as of 2000 the first majority-minority state in America.
But perhaps one of the biggest, and potentially most fatal, errors over the long term is the state Republican Party’s refusal to allow independent voters to vote in its presidential primary elections.
Democrats made that change years ago, to reflect the fact that nonaligned voters (who in California are called “decline-to-state” voters) are now almost one-fifth of the electorate in California and growing, having more than doubled since 1992.
They constitute the balance of power in most elections, with Democrats at 43 percent and Republicans at only 34 percent. In some counties, there are now more independent voters than Republicans.
This means that on Feb. 5, only 34 percent of California voters will be allowed to participate in the GOP’s closed primary, while 62 percent (which includes independents’ 19 percent) can register their preferences in the Democratic race.
One thing we have learned about independent voters is that in general elections, all things being equal, they tend to stick with the party in whose primary they participated.
Continue reading our story » Page:
See link for page 2.
This is probably somewhat of an overstatement. By the raw numbers (not %) more Rebublicans voted for Bush in CA than in TX.
My California county votes 67 to 70 conservative republican every time. And they’re voting Hunter this time. The rest of California needs to wake up!
It is what is coming for the GOP in America.
My prediction, as the RNC and the GOP keep drifting leftward and supporting and promoting RINOs.
Just wait until amnesty is passed and another 20 -30 million Socialist democrats start legally voting. - and bring in their families.
Checkmate.
My California county votes 67 to 70 conservative republican every time. And they’re voting Hunter this time. The rest of California needs to wake up!
It’s a pretty biased article....wants the conservatives to give up....
One small quibble-- Hawaii, if I am not mistaken, has been majority non-white as long as it has been a State.
I registered as a democrat here in the SF Bay area. Partly because I want to keep track of the other side, but mostly because I don’t want to experience mysterious problems with voting. I have never had trouble voting, getting sample ballots in the mail, showing up on voter rolls, etc. My wife, as a registered Republican has never received anything in the mail, has not shown up on voter rolls many times, and nothing has changed despite registering to vote several times.
It’s a pretty biased article....wants the conservatives to give up....
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Yup, what you said.
Thanks for the ping.
Pure Purple State Gary South Poppycock IMO!!!
This is sayin Repubs are not supportive of the Hollyweird preversion of human plumbing schematics!!! (an exit is not an entrance, in other words)
They want us all to be like Log Cabin Repellicans!!!
This is exactly what I despise about these miserable malevolent moderates and their politics of expediency and pragmatism above any and all moral values!!!
It's just BOGUS and unacceptable. We had a platform in this state, anybody remember it???
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