Posted on 03/02/2006 9:38:49 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Conservative Republicans who are upset with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are heading to Bakersfield this weekend and are certain to vent their feelings.
However, most experts say a full-blown conservative revolt against the GOP's only major candidate for the state's highest office is unlikely.
The California Republican Assembly, which represents the conservative wing of the Republican Party, will gather at the DoubleTree Hotel starting Friday for its election-year nominating convention.
CRA president Mike Spence was among conservatives who until recently were threatening to lead a movement to withdraw the Republican Party's endorsement of Schwarzenegger.
However, that threat appears to have been blunted by an agreement to debate issues on which conservatives differ with the governor at last weekend's California Republican Party convention in San Jose.
Those include Schwarzenegger's support for a minimum wage increase, his plans to increase state spending without eliminating the budget deficit and other issues.
Many conservatives are also angry at Schwarzenegger for appointing former Democratic activist Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff.
"We want the governor to return to the themes of the 2003 recall campaign," Spence said. "Those are fiscal responsibility, cleaning up Sacramento and illegal immigration. He has to focus on that."
Schwarzenegger is unlikely to get the CRA's endorsement for governor, most insiders agree, but the key question is how many Republicans -- conservative and otherwise -- will refuse to vote in the governor's race. If many do, it could make victory more likely for one of the two Democrats now running -- State Treasurer Phil Angelides or Controller Steve Westly.
Kern's CRA president, Karen Norton, said the convention may give an indication of that. But she said she doubts many will sit out the election.
"I'm not going to sit on my hands in November when we come to a choice between liberal Democrat Phil Angelides or moderate Democrat Steve Westly," she said.
The convention will hear from conservative heroes like state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, who is running for lieutenant governor, at a Saturday lunch event, and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, a strident critic of U.S. immigration policies.
The group also will honor former Bakersfield state Sen. Don Rogers, an icon of the local conservative movement, at a Friday night dinner.
Most GOP candidates seeking the group's endorsement are also expected to speak and rub elbows with delegates.
The convention also will have its share of subplots.
One will be the tussle between Bakersfield's Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy and state Sen. Roy Ashburn to succeed Rep. Bill Thomas whenever his seat comes open.
McCarthy is considered the natural heir apparent to Thomas' seat because he was on Thomas' staff until he was elected to the Assembly.
But there is deep hostility toward both Thomas and McCarthy among many of the conservatives who make up the CRA and who have clashed with the moderate Thomas for decades.
They support Ashburn, and the convention gives him a big political platform in his hometown at the expense of McCarthy.
Actually, McCarthy, as a local lawmaker and Assembly Republican leader, will make a brief speech at the convention. That has insiders buzzing.
"This is Kevin coming into Roy's world, so to speak," Norton said.
But Thomas may come in for more criticism than even Schwarzenegger.
"One reason Bakersfield was chosen as the location," said Spence, "is Bill Thomas."
However, that threat appears to have been blunted by an agreement to debate issues on which conservatives differ with the governor at last weekend's California Republican Party convention in San Jose.
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We shall see, considering the "debate" was stifled by those who seek to hijack a party for their own purposes of pushing a DemLite agenda while claiming Republican much less conservative dieals as their core beliefs.
After all, "Just Win, Baby! Don't sweat the details!" has worked so well so far.
Well it has worked out well in a way, at least for all the gays , greens and dems that have jobs thanks to an administration that couldn't shoot straight if its survival depended on it.
The minimum wage increase he proposed is a favor to business to head off the Dem / labor effort to make it larger, quicker and include automatic increases.
Honestly, I'm not sure he or any of us knew the state was so willing to be sold down the river to labor and related special interests.
I don't see any factual basis for making that statement, assuming the he is the Austrian and the sold down the river refers to the November 2005 Special election.
The Wilsonegger gang knew well what they we up against. They had been gaging California politics since they left office in the late 90s. The gang is now employing some of those same tactics to benefit their donors.
The most accurate thing that could be said about the November 2005 Special Election was that it only motivated 35% of California's eligible voters to participate and allowed about 20% of California's eligible voters to speak for the other 80%. The election was a dismal failure for the gang because they failed to motivate the vast majority of Californians to participate. The lack of motivation is easily attributable to the gang's unwillingness to communicate the features and benefits of their proposals. That was an impossible task since lurking just beneath the surface of 3 out of the 4 proposals was a direct benefit to the gang, not the electorate.
I agree with the assessment that voluntarily surrendering personal franchise is foolish but the implied benefit of one liberal over another based on party registration is equally foolish.
Here's some food for thought. Had our liberal governor submitted budgets that cut spending and then vetoed the bloated budgets returned to him by the legislature, where would we be today? I suspect California would no longer have a structural deficit. Republicans in the state legislature, purposely disenfranchized by the gang during the budgeting process, would have, if they had the support of a conservative Republican governor, forced the majority to reform the system.
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