Posted on 12/08/2005 8:48:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - A conservative faction of the California Republican Party is asking party leaders to reconsider their endorsement of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election bid next year, a reaction to his hiring of a Democratic activist as chief of staff.
The appeal was made Thursday by the California Republican Assembly, one of the oldest and most conservative member organizations of the state GOP. It cited continued unrest among volunteers that Susan Kennedy, a former aide to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, could have such an important position in the Schwarzenegger administration.
"This should send a very strong message to the governor and the state party leadership that the grassroots volunteers are not happy," said Mike Spence, president of the Republican Assembly.
The governor appointed Kennedy, once Davis' cabinet secretary, last week, to replace Patricia Clarey. Clarey announced she would step down at the end of the year after serving Schwarzenegger since the 2003 recall election that bounced Davis from office.
Although many Republicans - including former Gov. Pete Wilson - have praised the Kennedy appointment, leaders of the state GOP also are upset about Schwarzenegger's decision. The governor has agreed to meet with the party leadership next week.
It is not clear what practical effect the statement from the Republican Assembly will have.
State Republican Party spokeswoman Karen Hanretty said the party could not consider re-evaluating its endorsement of the governor's until the next statewide convention, scheduled for February. That would be one year after the party agreed to give Schwarzenegger an early endorsement for 2006, before he had even official declared his bid for re-election.
Hanretty said that while the Republican Assembly is an important player in party politics, Schwarzenegger has yet to make any policy moves that are inconsistent with pledges he made to the party beginning in 2003.
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Breaking News from the California Republican Assembly
CRA Urges Republican Party to Reconsider Endorsement of Schwarzenegger
Unanimous Vote by California Republican Assembly Executive Committee Demonstrates That Volunteers Are Unhappy With the Governor
The state’s oldest Republican volunteer organization today called on the California Republican Party to reconsider its pre-primary endorsement of Governor Schwarzenegger for re-election in 2006.
“It was a unanimous vote of our Executive Committee,” announced Mike Spence, President of the conservative California Republican Assembly. “This should send a very strong message to the Governor and the State Party leadership that the grass-roots volunteers are not happy.”
Concern about the appointment of liberal Democrat Susan Kennedy as the Governor’s Chief of Staff fueled the vote.
“Clearly, the appointment of Susan Kennedy doesn’t sit well with Republicans,” noted Spence. “But there are other issues as well, and California Republicans are reaching the breaking point.”
Spence pointed to the Governor’s proposed $50 billion “infrastructure bond plan” and the appointment of Democrats to judicial positions and other posts in his administration.
“We applauded the Governor for pressing his reform agenda in the recent special election,” he added. “But the Governor is alienating the millions of California Republicans that make up his base.”
The CRA is currently running an online petition asking the Governor to rescind the appointment of Kennedy. The petition can be found at www.CaliforniaRepublicanAssembly.com/alert.htm.
The 27 members of the Executive Committee of the California Republican Assembly voted unanimously on the question: “Should the CRA ask the CRP to reconsider its pre-primary endorsement of the Governor?”
The California Republican Assembly, made up of local units throughout the state, incorporated on July 12, 1935. It is the oldest Republican volunteer organization in California. For more information, visit www.CaliforniaRepublicanAssembly.com.
And this surprised anyone?
Wilson has no love for the current CAGOP leadership which was around when he was effectively deserted by the party. Wilson wouldn't dare criticize the Austrian since Wilson was instrumental in foisting him on the party. Any criticism would reflect directly on Wilson, further demeaning his legacy, which is already in shreds from the party's perspective.
The irony is that Wilson was lambasted when he went "rogue conservative" and is now about to face a second inquisition because he shepherded a party liberal into a high elected position.
Good
Yeah, but Spence has also gone off the deep-end (IMO) in pushing for Mel Gibson as Governor. He even set up a website!
http://www.MelGibsonForGovernor.com
Mel will not step up and swing the bat for the GOP in California, he has more important work to do.
He is getting ready to do a series on the Holocaust if a recent report is correct.
Why we keep getting these Q factor stars thrust into politics is beyond me. What next, Oprah?
Are we that destitute of good solid individuals to be elected, or are there some who fear acknowledging that they like being force fed quick solutions in the guise of expediency and taking a supposed path of least resistance and quick success; ex., the current Gub and the debacle it turned into..
The last 2 years in California should have made a lot of folks see the folly in that.
Are people so dense these days that they will swallow slop and make it out to be fine cuisine just to save face?
Apparently so.
Q Factor, indeed.
I'd expect this from those that hold the puppet strings. They'd rather keep that power and be in charge of writing the script. I thought Spence had more sense than this, however.
Well, he may actually be just what we need to counter an actor who gave us the Terminator, Kintergarden Cop and True lies.
Mel did give us Conspiracy, Lethal Weapons and Mad Max.
I don't know if California is ready for another
Action Hero quite yet.
I'd settle for a quiet well-studied conservative fundamentalist myself, but Hey, who gives a rat's arse what I think? ;-)
Near the bottom of the form, in legal sized print, is the following:
Quiet, well-studied, conservative fundamentalists need not apply.
The long knives are out. They've been looking for any excuse. And when they cause the election of a Democrat next November they'll turn on their chosen candidate saying he was too liberal and return to the mantra that they'd have won if only they found the most pure conservative imaginable to run.
If he commutes Tookies' death sentence then we will have something legitimate to bitch about.
CA GOP going off over a *staff* appointment is a level of political auto-erotic asphyxiation, headed toward suicide.
I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. Perhaps she'll do his bidding, not her own, and something of value can be won with the legislature next year. Clearly what was being done as political strategy wasn't working.
27 long knives, in fact, and is the Kennedy appointment just another excuse or the last straw?
Is it really that or just one more in a long line of slaps to the face of republicans and especially conservatives that have been the base of the GOP for years in California?
Do you really want to continue to support a "R" who is in bed with Ds (literally, not just figuratively) and furthering their agenda, and then excoriating those who are seeking to turn the tide becuz you believe the tide so overwhelming, that it is a lost cause regardless? ie, resistance is futile.
So I guess the CA GOP should just close shop and concede defeat? (which it has essentially done in recent years anyway, wittingly or otherwise)
Would you support a new movement that would be willing to suffer for years but would be willing to begin the construction of a true conservative movement and not a watered down moderate version that seeks to straddle the fence and serves and answers to no one except a special few who run it and benefit from its actions?
Just curious.
I sure as heck like what you think!!!
Things are gettin so screwed up that it will soon make it possible for some plain speakin, commonsense, likeable conservative dude or dudette to walk confidently onto the CA stage and mop the floor with alla these feckless political puppets and imbeciles!
Agreed! I'm ready!!!
I favor this astute analysis to your apologist approach.
From One Extreme to Another - Schwarzenegger’s Strategy of CapitulationThe items you mention indicate we have not moved further to the left on those issues. You continue to ignore, however, the multitude of other actions that have moved us further to the left (Record spending, record borrowing, assault weapon bans, etc.) Now he is planning to raise the minimum wage. He continues to appoint democrat judges, including another one today (75% of his appointments in L.A. county have been DEMS). His administration is now planning to increase regulations on the shipping industry. His Climate Action Team would have us signing up to the equivalent of the Kyoto Treaty, introducing new taxes for Global Warming and introducing a cap-and-trade program. ETC ETC ETC. And this news is just from TODAY!
CaliforniaRepublic.org ^ | 12/6/05 | Carol Platt Liebau
Posted on 12/08/2005 3:42:01 PM PST by NormsRevenge
As NormsRevenge just said, perhaps this is the last straw.
Clearly what was being done as political strategy wasn't working.
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You call the first 2 years of this administration executing "political strategy". He had a clear mandate per some after the recall and squandered it immediately regardless the vetos he graced upon us along the way to today's mess we find ourselves in.
you don't like to talk about his budgets that he proposed, the land grabs he signed off on, the "bipartisan" manner in which he appointed more greens and dems to key positions than republicans much less conservatives.
he stole a party's nomination without a primary and yet now you offer him another free ride as we find another kennedy 'in bed' with him. whatever happened to the Conan and lamentaions of the women ,, or was that just for show like most of his performance so far.
sometimes you almost seem to get what a conservative forum is about, but not often enough, imo.
you don't have to ignore the obvious, you just flat out continue to deny it and act like he is as good as we could have hoped for. I strongly disagree and will continue to.
If he lets Tookie slide, You'll still find a way or reason to support him regardless.
LOL. I can here it now.
Why does it matter? The guy will still spend the rest of his life in jail. The long knives are out -- they just hate Arnold. Going off on an inconsequential lowlife prisoner is a level of political auto-erotic asphyxiation, headed toward suicide. If he doesn't support the next proposition on Teen Abortion (or, insert your own future conservative program here), then we'll have something to complain about. Until them, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. We need Arnold--he can win! /bot off
I hear this hate word all the time used against those who will not assimilate with the BilderBorg and their agendas.
It is both sickening and illuminative that those who have no political axes to grind are discounted as nothing more than know nothings full of hate for the Gubinor or are just dem hacks themselves, even as the Gub surrounds himself with them, all for nonpartisan reasons , of course.. in an attempt to appear bipartisan. Why do we even have elections here anymore?
Maybe , it would be more apt to describe any animosity displayed as distrust or distaste for the Kennedy gene pool that has so swept up this state in a maelstrom of liberalism in the guise of only trying to make things better for the "Average Joe".
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