How was he effective in the end ? He handed the Democrats the Governorship on a silver platter, he handed the Democrats the legislature on a silver platter, he did nothing to improve the national GOP's fortunes with being competitive, and he allowed the GOP to be captured by the Country-Club RINO set, the Parsky's, the Firestone's, et al. In the end, with the exception of the current Governor, he managed to set the party's fortunes back for the worst since the infamous 1958 Knight-Knowland office switcheroo.
"If the California Republican Party had adopted Wilson's ideas, i.e. moderated its opposition to abortion"
You mean morph us into the Democrats with its abhorrant amorality ? No thanks. Let them be the party of infanticide.
"spoke out forcefully and eloquently for controlling our borders,"
"They keep coming !" Ah, yes. He not only spoke out so forcefully, he managed to make LEGAL immigrants feel like they were criminal invaders. He made fence-sitting California Hispanic voters into rabid Democrats for the next generation. Well done, Pete. Good show. Perhaps he might've paid better attention to how we treat Hispanic voters in Texas (where nearly half vote GOP), or Florida (where the MAJORITY vote GOP and its very hard to find sizeable chunks of Hispanic Democrat officeholders).
"and repealing preferential treatment based upon race"
A worthy goal, but when it came from someone who could easily be painted as a racist, caused unintended problems.
"then they could very well be in a position to challenge the Dem. Party for supremacy in that state."
We're living with the Pete Wilson approach today, and it has been a fiasco. It's time to try something else that works.
"Wilson is a winner, and has been for his entire political life."
For being such a winner, he sure made the whole damn party into a gargantuan loser.
"The CA GOP tried the "I hate Wilson, let's welcome our Mexican compadres" approach in the past, and it was an unmitigated failure. The only thing it got them was double-digit losses in every single statewide race."
I'm sorry, but we tried it his way, and it has been a major-league loser. Country-clubber liberal "let's vilify the Mexicans" schtick has gotten us nowhere. If the Wilson method worked, we'd have the legislature, a majority of Congressional seats, Senate seats, statewide offices, et al. We don't, because it failed... miserably. You're not going to find many people in here who are going to say Wilson was a positive for California. He did more to improve the fortunes for the CA Democrat party than any Democrat. Now, of course, we got Ah-nold trying to outdo Pete... we just never learn.
Your points are valid. Still, you need to remember, in a state as left-leaning as California, Republicans don't have many good options.
I mean making some concessions to public sentiment in a state that will never elect an unequivocally pro-life Republican to a major statewide office, and recognizing that every Republican governor of California in recent memory has been opposed to wholesale restrictions upon abortion.
I'm also pro-life, and believe that doing away with the gruesome procedure of abortion-which is medically unnecessary in over ninety percent of the women who undergo it-is of paramount importance.
But I also believe that staunching the flow of unfettered immigration coming across our southern border, upholding the letter and spirit of the 14th Amendment and preserving racial equality in all spheres, and standing firm on other conservative principles-that enjoy overwhelming support among the public-are important values.
I don't think weighing competing values is tantamount to sacrificing principle.
As much as I dislike Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe-and abhor their support of abortion on demand-I think that their votes to confirm anti-Roe judges, and to elevate Judges Roberts and Alito to the SCOTUS, take precedence over those positions, and think it would be foolish to consign them political oblivion when-for the time being-they are helping us to reverse one of the Supreme Court's most constitutionally and morally suspect rulings of the 20th century.
And your assertion that Pete Wilson is to blame for the current state of affairs in the CA GOP is absurd on its face.
Without Pete Wilson's intervention the same go along to get along faction that is content with permanent minority status-and yes, most of those people are conservatives-would have decided what districts were drawn for the 1994 elections.
And guess what, the Republicans would have lost seats.
Or at best, not gained very many.
In addition to gaining congressional seats for the Republican Party Pete Wilson actually managed to help the CA GOP briefly retake the state assembly, which had been an unfathomable scenario before he set his mind to doing it.
I'm sorry, but your assertion that it was Pete Wilson who doomed the Republican Party in California-and that if only the advice of Ron Unz, or some other perennial kvetcher had been heeded, things would be alright-is preposterous.
Let me draw an analogy.
If Michael Jordan-at the peak of his career-were to score 50+ points, and give the Bulls a comfortable lead before being removed from the game in the 3rd quarter, and the shooting guard substituting for him then proceeded to lose that lead, and cause the Bulls to lose that game, who would be responsible for the loss?
Would it be the person who was successful throughout the game-and was on the verge of leading his team to victory-or would it be the lackluster player that replaced him, and managed to blow the game?