[Poohbah]

Big enough to screw the state for years and years - but to small to endorse the candidate they want?

The heyday of the CRA's power in the CA GOP tracked with some of the CA GOP's biggest fiascos. In 2001, a grass-roots coalition of Republicans forced some changes through, and the overall party infrastructure is no longer completely dominated by this group. But the damage has been done. We're going to be picking up the pieces for another ten years.

But the CRA still has a lot of power in primary elections.

We didn't HAVE a primary this time out.

[EternalVigilance]

In 2001, a grass-roots coalition of Republicans forced some changes through, and the overall party infrastructure is no longer completely dominated by this group.

LOL...that is hilarious. Gerald Parsky and company are a 'grass-roots coalition'??

You might be able to peddle that some places, but around here? I don't think FR has slipped that far yet.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

My main impression is that they have crippled the leadership function at the top levels of the party, and have caused it to go off in even more directions then the normal political party - no small feat.

The Schwarzenegger candidacy offered a lot of folks the opportunity to climb off fences, enabled some to get out, and forced a decision on an issue long overdue.

You have a hard row to hoe ahead - I hope that people are leaping forward into the leadership vacuum even as we speak.

And folks wonder why Arnold's advisors tended to be congressmen who were mostly immune, or complete outsiders.

[CyberCowboy777]

So Rirodan was a better choice than Simon - but the CRA got Simon in - but then did not have enough power to have the party fund him?

[habs4ever]

It was the absence of the primary that got the CRA so indignant, wasn't it? They couldn't pull the strings....no wonder the hysteria.Some lil kingdoms came a crashing down last night, and no wonder Tommy stayed in it until the end.

This was a victory for openness in the CA GOP, as well.

[Yeti]

a grass-roots coalition of Republicans forced some changes through, and the overall party infrastructure is no longer completely dominated by this group.

I like that... "grass-roots coalition....no longer completely dominated..."

Good thing this grassroots coalition of Regular Folks was able to minimize some of the damage done by these Gramsci-esque conspirators, who were plotting nefarious political schemes!

[Iconoclast2]

What if the CRA had set California up for a Conservative Revolution, with McClintock as Governor, setting the stage for a massive and long-term turnaround in moving California to a Free Republic, and the elites pushing Arnold just doomed California to another decade of stagnation?

You can't judge the success of political efforts in such short run terms. Lincoln or somebody said the measure of political accomplishment is turning public opinion completely around in twenty years.