Posted on 01/23/2011 10:52:26 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Republicans in California "as a brand," said former GOP party chair Duf Sundheim, "are dead."
Ouch.
Not that we didn't already know that -- and we told you the other day about some trying to do mouth-to-mouth on the GOP (sorry about the image). But Duf's nugget at the end of a discussion about California's 2010 gubernatorial primary was one of several things we learned here at the lovely Hotel Shattuck at UC-Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies looky-loo-back at the 2010 Guv race.
As the name hints, this confab is like a rave for political geeks-- and those who aspire to be political geeks. It's intended to get on the historical record what REAAALLY happened during the race, in a sort of those-who-ignore-history-are-doomed-to-repeat-it kind of thing. That is, if the campaign operatives who show up really spill anything. Only Team Poizner and Team Tom Campbell did.
How politically geeky is all this? The most fun has been a smackdown between pollsters Really. They were throwing down over what is more accurate -- live interviews or automated phone calls. (It actually is interesting -- geek alert!!.)
There's an incestuous vibe here in the room as reporters and other poli-dorks are furiously Tweeting each semi-nugget uttered from the dais and the dais members are reading them in real time -- and occasionally responding. It's a great way to kill a Friday afternoon until Happy Hour.
What gets big laughs here (other than beating on Meg Whitman's campaign for being THE ONLY ONE too wimpy to suck it up and show up) are obscure references to stuff that happened during the campaign. (Like when "somebody" on Gov. Jerry Brown's campaign staff called Whitman a whore.)
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Duf, as soon as the Gubinator 'arrived', it was all over..
Shouldn’t conservatives in CA be making plans to stop funding the beast?
With the invasion, it’ll never go back to the way it was.
correct title below (Mod change request in process)
Republican brand in Calif is “dead”: Former CA GOP chief
I was ranting about this to my wife today. We had Grey Davis, Arnold, and now moonbeam, back to back to back. GAG.
It remains to be seen if the Republicans will stand firm and not vote to let Brown put his tax raising proposition to a vote. Based on past performance, they will find some jackass who will sell out. Otherwise, they need to tell Brown to .... off and let him and the other clowns solve the problems they created.
Jerry Brown and Bill Lockyer are poster boys for everything that has been, is, and probably will be wrong in California. They both had a lot to do with the situation the state is in now. Bankruptcy is now California’s only option. There is no other at this point. That’s what Brown, Lockyer, and their ilk have done. The Democrats have controlled the state Legislature for the past 50 years. There have been Republican Governors but the legislature is where the real spending was done. The Legislature is where the entitlement programs were created. A Pox on the California Democrats.
The word GEEK is such a juvenile term that it makes the story meaningless...
Republicans in California “as a brand,” said former GOP party chair Duf Sundheim, “are dead.”
Mission accomplished then huh Duf? FU
There is a lesson for Republicans here. If you immitate Dems, then your brand is “dead.”
In the aftermath of the Arizona shootings, I don’t think he can say the GOP “is dead” and get away with it. Shame on him.
The single mistake of the California GOP was in its dogged determination to run as “liberal moderate Democrats”. They had utterly persuaded themselves that they would not, could not, win as conservatives, which was an easy sell, because their leadership were not conservatives, and wouldn’t let conservatives in to the upper ranks of the CA GOP.
Thus, their platform could be boiled down to, “Vote for us as moderate leftists instead of the ultra-leftist Democrats.”
So now it is up to the California Tea Party to first take over the CA GOP, which must be done in a slow, orderly process, systematically eliminating all of the leftist Republicans from the party, no matter how much they assert that they are geniuses with money, and that the party cannot win without them.
The party didn’t win *with* them, so their arguments are invalid.
Until this change happens, California is destined to sink into the ocean, rhetorically.
Statewide perhaps, for now, but there are certainly some great congressman coming from the state. Let’s take a look at how redistricting goes and how California deals with insolvency. Live should be interesting over the next few years.
Amazing, ain't it? With Duf's "leadership", we got Arnold and then Meg (now branded with the "worst campaign ever").
The only thing that should be "dead" is Duf's position of authority on anything, and that includes the political careers of Meg, Carly, and the other liberal plants he pushed.
That means that tea party inspired people are going to need to run for offices across the state to challenge the “old guard”.
You know, if the Republican leadership had pushed Conservatism and failed, I’d agree that Conservatism is dead in the state. Instead I’m left with the reality that Conservatism isn’t dead in the state. Republicanism is.
A new org will come forward to represent Conservatism in the state for the first time in years, and people will like what they hear.
If California does go back to the right under a different brand, the RP will cease to exist within a matter of years.
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