Posted on 02/24/2008 10:28:40 AM PST by NormsRevenge
With John McCain's presidential nomination nearly in hand, California Republicans began the task Saturday of trying to unify the party's moderate and conservative wings behind the Arizona senator. It was a first step in what is expected to be a gargantuan struggle in November -- winning a state that last voted for a Republican president in 1988.
As the two Democratic presidential nominees still battle it out, state GOP leaders meeting in San Francisco this weekend are hoping to get a head start on the general election. They are laying the groundwork for encouraging McCain's campaign to spend the tens of millions of dollars required to mount a serious campaign in California, where the percentage of GOP voters is dwindling.
The state party has a lot of work to do. Not only are Republicans losing ground to Democrats among registered voters, perennial battles between moderate and conservative GOP activists are exposing the party's identity crisis. Meanwhile, the leading Democratic presidential candidates raised far more money than the leading GOP contenders during the primary race as the state GOP party organization is scrounging for cash to avoid red ink.
State party Chairman Ron Nehring called unifying the party behind McCain, "our No. 1 job coming out of this convention." The party is holding its twice-yearly state convention in San Francisco, where only 10 percent of voters are Republicans, for the first time since the 1970s. It's evidence that Republicans are expanding their outreach statewide, party officials said.
Many party members said they expect Republicans to rally around McCain, even if he is not their perfect choice.
"I'm more conservative than McCain," said Lisa Marshik of Los Gatos. But, she added, "I think he can beat the opposition."
The convention is being held as moderate leaders, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is backing McCain, and major Southern California party donor Larry Dodge, are urging party operatives to drop conservative initiatives they contend alienate independent and moderate voters -- the very ones McCain needs if he can pull off a victory in California.
Dodge, who had postponed a planned $3 million contribution to the party, which is on the verge of running in the red, wrote Nehring a letter late last month complaining about party management: "Two-thirds of the voters of this state refuse to be members of our party as it is. We do not need to alienate them further."
Republican registration in the state has dropped from 35.6 percent to 33.3 percent since 2004 as more voters choose to be unaffiliated. In contrast, Democratic registration remained around 43 percent.
At last September's party convention, Schwarzenegger complained the party was "dying at the box office" and urged a more moderate platform to help change the party's fortunes. The governor did not attend this weekend's convention, instead he was in Southern California on Friday marking the expansion of an auto speedway. On Saturday he took off for the National Governors' Association meeting in Washington, D.C.
On Saturday, in San Francisco, conservatives appeared to win the platform showdown and today party members are expected to adopt a document that includes a number of planks including anti-abortion and anti-gun control positions. Dodge and Nehring, however, released a statement Saturday saying that Dodge's contribution to pay off a loan would be forthcoming as long as a financial and political plan is in place by March 17.
Virginia Chang Kiraly of Menlo Park, who led a push to leave the contentious social planks out and instead highlight the party's fiscal priorities, said "We need to make California relevant for Republicans. It's becoming irrelevant." She added she feared McCain may not bother to compete here.
Mike Spence, a Southern Californian who advocated for a more conservative platform, responded "These are John McCain's positions. Conservatives make up the base of this party, they are the ones who do the hard work during elections. And you have to include these positions if you want to get them excited and work."
Among those who may need persuading to work for McCain is Virginia Fuller of Pinole. "Many conservatives have been disappointed with John McCain," she said, adding "So you are skittish."
But McCain supporters say the senator is well-known in California and during the 2000 open primary, when any registered voter regardless of party could vote in the GOP contest, he proved his cross-over appeal to independents, though he lost to George W. Bush. The last Republican Californians supported in a general election was Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, in 1988.
Republicans, too, have been buoyed by Field Poll findings, released just before the Feb. 5 election, that showed McCain matching up closely with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and within single digits of Barack Obama in hypothetical general election matchups.
"The senator will sell himself well in California," said Bill Jones, a former GOP secretary of state who is heading McCain's California campaign. He will seek to repeat Schwarzenegger's success in wooing a coalition of independent-minded voters, along with core Republicans.
Jones, however, acknowledged McCain's stance on keeping troops in Iraq as long as needed and his anti-abortion position may not match the majority of Californians' views. He argued, "they may not agree with him but they respect" his background and record.
Jones, citing the Republicans' registration deficit in the state, added "we have to work much harder" to win non-Republicans.
McCain has said he intends to compete in California, but the question is: How hard? George W. Bush spent more than $15 million in the 2000 general election and lost by more than a million votes. And, as the incumbent in his re-election in 2004, he lost by only a slightly smaller number.
"In California, it takes so much money to compete," said Alex Vassar, a recent San Jose State graduate and party member. "And you can come up with zero returns. California is a gamble for Republicans."
Dodge, who had postponed a planned $3 million contribution to the party, which is on the verge of running in the red, wrote Nehring a letter late last month complaining about party management: "Two-thirds of the voters of this state refuse to be members of our party as it is. We do not need to alienate them further."
The CA GOP has pulled some good ones in the past..
We are about to witness one more kick to the teeth of long-time conservative Republicans.. ones who don’t appreciate moderates telling them how they shall need to forsake principle and be assimilated... and ones who show up less and less at the polls as each election rolls around the last few years.
The same moderates who have alienated so many from the GOP the last few years here in California witht their rush to the left are at work again, imo.
It is a sell-fulfilling prophecy that sadly will likely continue to condemn California to being a farm club for mediocre mind-blown candidates to run in, while the state sinks into the abyss of more and more debt and debauchery at the highest levels of its state leadership.
Party on!
But it couldn't possibly be because guys like Mr. Dodge feed the public impression that Republicans are dominated by corporate crooks. Eh, Larry?
Now now,, pay no attention to the man behind the rows and rows of money bags.
Wow, the California Republican Party leadership throws support behind the great western star, Lefty McCain. Who would have thunk it? How could they support a conservative like Schwarzenegger and the likes of McCain. It just baffles the mind.
What’s that you say? McCain isn’t any more of a conservative than Schwarzenegger is. Schwarzenegger rolls in the sack with a Kennedy clanner, and McCain gets rolled by the Kennedy clan?
Hmmm, birds of a feather huh.
Yeah, let’s vote him in then. Three cheers for the Kennedys. Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!
Go John. I’m sure that all important Kennedy endorsement is soon to follow Arnold’s.
But they don’t need conservative votes. Aren’t they brilliant...
The sad part it it all is that, regardless of whether conservatives vote for McCain or don’t, California still goes to the democrat candidate. In this way, any hope of sending McCain or the California GOP a message about principle will be lost.
McCain is way more conservative than Schwartzeneggar.
Name an issue, he’s further to the right. I don’t know about S’s views on campaign finance reform, but other than that, I’m sure McCain is more conservative.
You’re absolutely right.
Nice tag line.
I changed my registration during the illegal immigration amnesty bill mc cain was thrusting down our throat...I am an independent, and the only way I would vote for John, would be if he would quit campigning for a month and come put a fence up in smugglers gulch, here in san diego..it is a very small area, and he and the rest of the amnesty crowd could finish it off in a short while..that might convince me he is serious on stopping illegal immigration...
Thanks. Not a single McCainiac has had an answer to it, either. Total silence. Telling...
In the end, you can’t just tell folks what you’re against. You have to show them what you’re for. McCain Republicans don’t have the vision for such, because they’re unprincipled.
Don’t hold your breath. We need folks like you around...
He’s only serious about stopping the illegal flow, because he envisions massively expanding the legal flow. These folks are masters of the slight of hand.
Ahnold telling us the Republican party isn’t doing well at the box office?? What, we are not getting enough of the Jaywalker (Leno) vote?? Let’s dumb down conservatism to Ahnold’s level, where it’s only a word to toss out in a primary and never used again. More “compassion,” that’s the ticket. Maybe we could hand out free health care to all unless you are still in the womb. Obama’s got great box office.
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