Well, Jiminy, you just found FO's thinking cap. ;-)
Posted on 06/17/2006 9:24:16 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
With all the talk about the former red state, Republican state, California, becoming a blue state -- which is not quite as true as some think -- there is someone talking about it becoming a purple state. That is California Republican Party chairman Duf Sundheim, who talked about his hopes for California during last week’s bus tour kicking off Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign against Democratic challenger Phil Angelides.
The Silicon Valley lawyer came on a few years ago to put a moderate face on the party, whose apparatus was traditionally viewed as right wing and increasingly out of step with a more Democratic-skewing state. Billionaire investment banker Gerald Parsky, President Bush’s man in California, and then state Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte, were part of a package deal of sophisticated overseers for the party.
Then Arnold Schwarzenegger came along. The action movie superstar and former Mr. Universe ran for governor years before his anticipated 2006, winning a landslide victory in the dramatic 2003 recall election which ended the governorship of twice-elected Democrat Gray Davis.
For more than a year, as Sundheim tells it, he was ecstatic. Schwarzenegger, who immediately became the most important Republican in California, notwithstanding his maverick views and less than fantastic relationship with President George W. Bush -- his great friend in Kennebunkport, which he once frequented, was the first President Bush, who made him chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness -- was a great success, achieving record levels of popularity.
But then things changed last year. “That was difficult,” says Sundheim of the ill-fated “Year of Reform,” in which the popular movie star governor morphed into a villain in his losing battle with iconic public employees over his special election agenda of four initiatives.
This year, things have been “better,” as he put it, but more complex for Sundheim.
Contrary to the hopes of last year’s victorious Democrats, Schwarzenegger has been in major recovery mode for months. But in recovering his political fortunees, the governor made moves that confounded and infuriated activists from the conservative base of the party. He hired a lifelong Democrat -- a former top aide to recalled Governor Gray Davis and Democratic gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides, a lesbian married on Maui, no less -- as his chief of staff.
And while he brought on a new political team of hardball players from the Bush operation, they, too, were complicit in his move to the left as he embraced and championed the biggest public works spending program in California’s history.
Sundheim bore the brunt of the attendant rebellions. With his help, and the efficient work of Schwarzenegger’s new political team, the anti-Arnold right-wing revolt at last spring’s state Republican convention in Sundheim’s Silicon Valley home base proved to be much ado about not much.
So now, with the governor running against the Democrat most Republicans preferred as his opponent, Sundheim can dream again about the future. Well, as much as any state party chairman can dream about the future when his party’s incumbent president has the second lowest approval rating in California of any president in the history of polling.
Sundheim hopes, not for a red state future for California, for that is a pipe dream given the state’s emerging demographics, but for a purple state future, a melding of red and blue.
It seems a realistic hope, if not an entirely likely scenario, with Democrats in power proving repeatedly to overreach themselves as they did in the run-up to the recall of Gray Davis. And in Schwarzenegger, Sundheim has, as he puts it, his purple “prototype.”
But who is there on the horizon for Republicans besides the once biggest movie star on the planet? If there was ever a one-off, Arnold Schwarzenegger is it.
Indeed, the governor, who speaks often of change and crossing boundaries in politics, did little in the primary just past to promote a purple state future for his beloved “golden dream by the sea.”
Schwarzenegger, perhaps mindful of the need to avoid further alienating conservatives further, didn’t intervene in the primary to help his allies Abel Maldonado, who very narrowly lost the Republican primary for state controller, and Keith Richman, who lost the primary for state treasurer.
Why not? Sundheim won’t say.
Schwarzenegger did, however, prior to the primary, pluck two strong prospects for November from relative obscurity.
He made Bruce McPherson the incumbent secretary of state when he appointed him to replace Democrat Kevin Shelley, who was forced to resign under fire following several revelations about his mismanagement of the office. The former state senator and Santa Cruz newspaper publisher, the party’s 2002 nominee for lieutenant governor, has acquitted himself well in office and has a decent chance to beat the Democratic nominee, LA area state Senator Debra Bowen, an impressive individual in her own right.
He also made Steve Poizner a major figure in the party. The Silicon Valley entrepreneur ran a close race in an absolutely Democratic district for the state Assembly, spending $6 million from his personal fortune in the process. Schwarzenegger, and Sundheim, came to regard the brainy but rather modest Poizner as the saving grace of Schwarzenegger’s otherwise wholly unsuccessful intervention in the legislative races of 2004. So pleased with Poizner was the governor that he appointed him to the Public Utilities Commission. Notwithstanding the fact that Poizner had so many investments in telecommunications and other related high tech ventures that he could not possibly avoid running afoul of state conflict of interest regulations without divesting himself of much of his investment portfolio.
Although this fact was obvious, neither the governor’s aides nor Sundheim impressed this on Schwarzenegger, so happy was he about having found Poizner. Finally, reality dawned courtesy of Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who informed Arnold that he couldn’t possibly confirm the otherwise well-qualified Poizner as a member of the PUC. Now Poizner is the Republican nominee for insurance commissioner against Schwarzenegger’s 2003 recall rival, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante.
After an unexpectedly topsy-turvy time Sundheim pronounces himself satisfied and hopeful about the fall election. Although most of the Republican nominees are conventional types whose prospects are uncertain at best, the party seems poised to make some more gains beyond its shutout status after the last general election four years ago.
Put that white flag away! We ain't givin' up yet! :-)
Well, Jiminy, you just found FO's thinking cap. ;-)
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
Are we having fun insulting party old-timers? So nice of you to show your true color. Purple. Like the kool-aid. Priceless.
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A little add-on
CA: Following the Compass of "BIG" ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1651436/posts
LOL.. sorry I never replied after your post, I pooped out early last night..
Thanks, your thingie analysis is spot on, btw. ;-)
I'm beginning to think you're right. The ilk are more than demoncrap fifth columnists, they are communists and won't stop attacking republicans until republicans are completely neutralized. Pathetic how so many stupid one's of the herd willfully follow these communist sycophants.
LOL. No problem. I did too.
I thought of another one for the list: Support the Constitution -- sometimes.
So you essentially support the eventual outright repeal of the abortion , 2nd amendment, and gay rights planks of the republican platforms both in california and nationally?
They are no longer of any import to you and the
NewMajority faction of the party , is that your drift? and anyone who questions that drift is a commie?
I guess the significant boost in spending is no big deal either.
How moderate of you..
Big government, deficit spending, and indebtedness is also AOK under the Purple Plank.
Yes. Much preferable to the outright communists you and the rest of the ilk support. I'm glad the the herd has begun dropping the facade of being conservatives, their support of Stalin over 'the purple plank' is a sweet touch.
You have gone completely out of your blipping mind if you believe the bilgewater you pump here.
Have a nice day.
Funny, how you had no problem with dalereed preferring Stalin over Arnold. He stated it, I quoted him in my post 9. His post 8, where he stated it, was removed by the Mods, at my request, because he also chose to go over the line, with personally insulting me. But my post 9 is indeed an exact quote from dalereed's post 8.
Do you agree with dalereed, that Stalin is better than Arnold?
How come you are attacking 68grunt, but not a single disapproving word to dalereed, who is the one advocating a communist dictator over a moderate Republican? Do you consder THAT a conservative position?
The only ones attacking anyone here seem to be you and grunt. god forbid we actually talked issues.
dalereed voiced an opinion, not launched a revolution.
You don't like it, tough, grow some skin.
I guess you still don't get that FR is not a moderate Republican forum. so be it.
ya see this ?
ARNOLD'S BRILLIANT POLITICAL MOVE! APPOINTS SISTER OF L.A. MAYOR TO BENCH
http://www.capoliticalnews.com/discuss.php?id=520
Schwarzenegger Names Four to Los Angeles Superior Court (incl Villaraigosa's sister)
Metropolitan News-Enterprise ^ | April 21, 2006 | KENNETH OFGANG
Posted on 04/21/2006 11:36:11 AM PDT by calcowgirl
That sailed right thru the radar.. almost. ;-)
This is a brilliant move on the part of the Governor. He appoints a woman, a Hispanic, a Democrat, and the sister of a major Democrat leader! A four-fer!!!It's not good for California or good for the bench or good for Republicans or good politics; it's political pandering to benefit only one person--Arnold!What do you think? Is this good for the bench, good for California, or just good politics that for two months few had noticed?
His-spandering
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