Free Republic

Is he a rank-and-file conservative Republican? Obviously not, but he never was, and we knew that going in. What so many fail to realize is the remarkable nature of his being elected at all. Some of us are old enough to remember a time when Republicans were competitive not only in that state’s gubernatorial races, but for the Senate seats as well. Those included the terms of Tom Kuchel, John Seymour, and Pete Wilson. But today’s Republicans seem to think of California — and her ginormous chunk of electoral weight — as nothing more than a left coast basket of...

Conservatives who object to moderate Republican officeholders have over the years asked themselves how far they are prepared to go to rid themselves of their intraparty rivals. In the case of California’s senator Thomas Kuchel, the answer was: very far indeed. Kuchel (pronounced “kee-kul”) was among the last of the California progressives, politicians who had been decisively influenced by the middle-class, moral reform movement of the early twentieth century and leading progressive figures including Republican governors Hiram Johnson and Earl Warren. A key progressive reform, which was still in existence when Kuchel first was elected to the California State Assembly...