CF: See Amerigomag's #173 for the real answer. Also, succes will be achieved by hard work among people of modest means and hard-core morality, door-to-door, one on one in the places where the GOP is usually too, ummmm, refined to go. Money and commercials by limp elitists does not do what hard-core organizing does. Ground war of the modest folk beats the air war of the affluent airheded and lazy any time it is really tried. Purge the party of Muffy and Skipper and the polo club/ yacht club trust fund babies and go socially conservative and you may discover that most Californians are not hot tub denizens (especially with the cost of energy under libs) or even social behavior exotic flora and fauna.
That's how we used to successfully do it!
Candidates need to get rid of "campaign consultants".
In one conversation I had with a consultant I stated that door to door and targeted mailings were the way to win elections and that TV was not only expensive but a waste of money.
He actually agreed with me and then stated that if he ran a campaign on my basis it would take him full time to do it but if he ran a TV and media campaign he only had to work about 2 hours a week and make more money per campaign.
We used to put together enough people to hit every precinct in a district in the last 2 weeks before the election and if a district was 39% Republican we considered it a winner, and it worked.
In recent years the democraps have understood what we were doing and have copied it and been successfull.
Since the big money country club Republican RINOS have taken control of the state party it's gone all to consultants and cut out the conservative Republican clubs that provided the on the ground people and we now can't win an election unless there is a majority of registered Republicans in the district.