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Republicans ponder big loss in California
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/4/10 | Joe Garofoli,John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writers

Posted on 11/04/2010 11:25:19 AM PDT by SmithL

alifornia Republicans woke up Wednesday with a political hangover. Nationally, they celebrated the GOP's taking control of Congress, but their dismal showing in California gave them a lingering headache.

Many of them wondered how they missed the national wave - and differed on which direction to go next.

They lost nearly every statewide office, drubbed by double digits in most of the races. Meg Whitman couldn't win the governorship despite straddling the political middle and spending a record $160 million. Carly Fiorina couldn't roust Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, despite tacking right and exploiting Boxer's low approval ratings.

For months, party officials boasted that their ticket was its most diverse ever. It included a pro-choice former corporate executive (Whitman); an anti-abortion ex-CEO (Fiorina); a pair of very conservative legislators (Tony Strickland and Mimi Walters); a not-so-conservative Latino who had been appointed to the job he sought (Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado); and a charismatic African American former NFL player turned businessman (Damon Dunn).

All of them lost....

Democrats' registration

Part of the reason, as Fiorina said in her concession speech Wednesday in Irvine, is that "we could not overcome the (2.3 million) registration advantage the Democrats have, particularly in Los Angeles."

Whitman started making in-roads among Latino voters by spending $12 million in Spanish-language advertising and outreach. But any goodwill evaporated in October after Whitman struggled to handle revelations that she had employed - and fired - an undocumented immigrant as her housekeeper for nine years.

"It's a white party" in an increasingly diverse state, said Robert Huckfeldt,... "What you saw in this election was a lot of partisan voters coming home to their party."

Every Republican paid for the Legislature's agreement to raise taxes as part of the 2009 state budget deal. "It damaged the brand,"

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: 2012midterms; bluestate; ca2010; cagop; calgop; damondunn; fiorina; goldenstate; maldonado; megwhitman; rino; whitman
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To: Persevero
Fiorina toed all the marks for a conservative.

Absolutely UNTRUE! Anyone involved in any way with the corrupt World Bank is NOT a conservative.

She could not overcome the animosity towards her behavior at Hewlett Packard either.
121 posted on 11/04/2010 1:10:15 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: Publius
The state should lose its statehood and regain its former territorial status.

California was never a territory, like Texas, it was a an independent republic before joining the Union.

122 posted on 11/04/2010 1:10:35 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (Had God not driven man from the Garden of Eden the Sierra Club surely would have.)
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To: A CA Guy
I agree with you and PSJones. It was Arnold vs the Unions. It seems that 3 of the 5 props were hard core anti-state union, but the others were pretty common sense.

The unions threw so much money against the props and at Arnold, he never recovered.

The vaunted conservatives of California didn't come out to vote. It was a low turnout. the only ones who came out were the the CTA, SEIU, etc. I think teachers were even sending anti proposition flyers home with the kiddies. Crying 5 year olds saying their teacher was going to be fired. Typical CTA nonsense.

123 posted on 11/04/2010 1:10:35 PM PDT by muleskinner
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To: calcowgirl

I’m hoping SanFraNan (Baltimore) and Babs Boxer (Brooklyn) decide to take a powder, as well.


124 posted on 11/04/2010 1:11:50 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: Persevero

And the hypocrisy of those endorsements was exposed early on.
Then she went forward and campaigned on everything except a conservative platform.
She made globalist Rockefeller Republicans proud. And lost.


125 posted on 11/04/2010 1:12:25 PM PDT by calcowgirl
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To: Inyo-Mono

Thank you. You’re right. I forgot my basic high school history.


126 posted on 11/04/2010 1:12:28 PM PDT by Publius (The government only knows how to turn gold into lead.)
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To: A CA Guy

Jerry Brown made the state more business friendly to Indonesia when he created the Air Resources Board.

Arnold is making it business friendly to China, Russia and Belgium with his bullet train boondoggle MOUs.

NONE of this is good for California but is sure loads up the dough into the pocketbooks of those two crooks.


127 posted on 11/04/2010 1:13:37 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: SmithL
For months, party officials boasted that their ticket was its most diverse ever. It included a pro-choice former corporate executive (Whitman); an anti-abortion ex-CEO (Fiorina); a pair of very conservative legislators (Tony Strickland and Mimi Walters); a not-so-conservative Latino who had been appointed to the job he sought (Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado); and a charismatic African American former NFL player turned businessman (Damon Dunn).

Well, Duhhh.. How's that "diversity" working f'r ya, Ca GoP Leadership.

Next bright idea..? Change your name to Ca GoPDem party maybe..? Hmmm.

128 posted on 11/04/2010 1:16:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Obama: Epic Fail or Bust!!!)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

Rush said today it is time to just write off California.


129 posted on 11/04/2010 1:17:18 PM PDT by Mouton
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To: Schatze

That explains it perfectly and I do remember Athens from Greek history.


130 posted on 11/04/2010 1:17:18 PM PDT by Bitsy
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To: skeeter

Good additions.
And we recently have both Gore and Romney as California residents.
And, we can’t leave out Schwarzenegger (Austria) and Shrivers (world citizens?).
And Pete Wilson (Chicago)
And George Shultz (New York)
And Leon Panetta (dang - he’s one of ours... )


131 posted on 11/04/2010 1:25:55 PM PDT by calcowgirl
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To: hedgetrimmer

Arnold is cramming in every last sleazy deal he can before leaving office.
He’s done pretty well financially for someone who said he would work for no compensation.


132 posted on 11/04/2010 1:28:39 PM PDT by calcowgirl
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

You are right. The majority of poor (illegals) are all on welfare and whatever else possible they can get free, and the Dems are the ones who give them everything. When I heard Jerry Brown tell us all that he would be giving free university education to everyone, whether legal or illegal, I knew we have had it. Taxes will go through the roof, worse than what we have now.
California is a lost cause.


133 posted on 11/04/2010 1:41:24 PM PDT by Jennikins (It matters not what we want, as we are being ruled, not governed.)
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To: calcowgirl

First, it wasn’t an article rather a video featuring Tom Sullivan. Sullivan stated that 30% of the financing Cali undertook to this point in 2010 was represented by the Build America Bonds which the Fed guarantees to the tune of 35% of the interest payable on the bond issue. These bonds were backed by the feds beginning in Feb 09 with the $862 billion stimulus package. This is in addition to (not a part of) nearly 1/3 of state budgets which are funded by federal transferes. Sullivan made this point clear.

These Build America bonds were issued for specific state projects, mostly roads and schools. He didn’t mention to what extent other states had used these bonds.


134 posted on 11/04/2010 1:43:13 PM PDT by bereanway (I'd rather have 40 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters)
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To: calcowgirl

Yep.

And why can’t we get anyone to scrutinize Brown, who was probably ineligible to be the Attorney General, and probably ineligible based on a two term constitutional limit, to be governor?

Why is it these crooks can do whatever they want, with impunity? What did they do to get it?


135 posted on 11/04/2010 1:45:14 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: LibLieSlayer

Well you got my attention. I knew none of this.

I’d have thought Lott was the epitome of good behavior what with that hair so perfect.

But hey, now that you mention it, I gotta wonder if those GOP Blue Blood Ruling Classes are so into their corruption that the thought of Tea Party electees entering their bastions gives them nightmares.

The absurdity of the Lisa Murkowski election in Alaska lends itself quite well to my suspicions. I’m currently reading Sarah Palin’s book and she has nothing good to say about Lisa’s Dad.

or...”Corrupt Bastards” as one who is so hated calls them and hey, maybe that’s why she’s so hated maybe.


136 posted on 11/04/2010 1:54:16 PM PDT by Fishtalk (Dance like nobody's watching; Sing like nobody's listening; Blog like nobody's reading.)
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To: SmithL

“we could not overcome the (2.3 million) registration advantage the Democrats have, particularly in Los Angeles.”

Precisely.
And it’s why we lost in Nevada and Colorado as well.
Immigration has tipped CA over.

Do amnesty again, and we would lose Texas, Florida and a few other states ... and the whole country.


137 posted on 11/04/2010 1:54:30 PM PDT by WOSG (OPERATION RESTORE AMERICAN FREEDOM - NOVEMBER, 2010 - DO YOUR PART!)
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To: SmithL

A lot of people are painting NY and CA with a broad brush of Democrats holding strong against the tea party.

However, in NY, the Democrats did hold the Governor and two Senate seats against weak candidates, but the GOP added at least 5 and maybe 7 Congressional seats (out of 29, previously holding only 2 seats) as well as probably retaking the state Senate.

All that proves that California was the only state in the union to resist the Tea Party.


138 posted on 11/04/2010 1:57:04 PM PDT by Dan Nunn (Support the NRA!)
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To: Dan Nunn
All that proves that California was the only state in the union to resist the Tea Party.

We're just too far outnumbered now. The one bit of good news is that the bad economy is driving a fair number of illegals elsewhere (hopefully, south of the border).

139 posted on 11/04/2010 2:08:36 PM PDT by Schatze (It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.)
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To: SmithL

I hope the repubics can prevent any bail out of California! This is bullcrap! The only reason so many Latinos voted for the Brown Fossil was all his pending give-away programs! Screw this state! The Latinos, Unions and whack lefties got him elected so they can all balance the budget together! F ‘em!......


140 posted on 11/04/2010 2:13:55 PM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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