Sometimes the GOP is its own worst enemy.
Last weekend was the semi-annual California Republican Party convention. There was some activity at the convention that showed how politically incompetent some of our leadership is. First, there was a proposed by law amendment to the state party bylaws that would prevent independents from voting in the Republican primary. I can’t imagine a political strategy that could me more harmful to the Republican Party in California. As I have said many times, we are a minority party in California, and the only way we can win is if our candidates receive support from independents and Democrats. When independents get to vote in our primary, that helps our party pick candidates that are the most likely to win independent votes in the fall; which is an attribute a Republican candidate has to have to win in the general election.. A candidate that only appeals to Republicans can’t win in California. In other states where Republicans have the majority, candidates that only appeal to Republicans can win. But in this state that is not the case. Taking the independents out of our primary is like setting up a screening process to make sure that only the second stringers get in the game. Any person that has any basic grasp of political strategy should understand this proposed by law amendment was an incredibly stupid idea, but we have many leaders of the GOP in this state that doesn’t get this basic strategic concept.
Another thing that happened at the Convention is that the new head of the Republican Party for the County of Los Angeles announced that it was her main goal to ” protect the unborn” in California. In most of LA County the Democrats hold huge majorities. In some districts Republicans only hold ten percent of the voters. The only way a Republican can win in those districts is by getting both Independents AND Democrats to vote for them. Without out Democrat or Independent support they simply can’t win. Considering that ninety percent of Democrats in this state are Pro-Choice, and eighty five percent of Independents are pro-choice that best way to insure we don’t get Democrat and Independent votes is to run pro-life candidates in LA. Yet the head of the Los Angeles Republican party is proposing a strategy that will insure Democrat victories. Republicans can win in LA. Richard Riordan became the mayor of Los Angeles where the overwhelming majority of voters are either Democrats or Independents. But Riordan ran as a pro-choice candidate, and the voters liked his stance on other issues, so he won. But he had to run as a pro-choice candidate to win.
This sort of political strategic thinking is not that sophisticated. It is politics 101. You don’t run candidates that take positions on important issues that are contrary to the views of eighty percent of the electorate. Yet our own party leadership doesn’t understand this seemingly obvious political rule. Sometimes I think we would be better off picking random names out of the phone book to select new leaders for the California Republican Party in California than keeping the current leadership. If you don’t understand basic political strategy and tactics you have no business being in a position to influence decisions of any political organization.
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2 Responses to “Sometimes the GOP is its own worst enemy.”
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Murder is murder no matter what you choose to call it. Pro-Choice candidates are still PRO-MURDER and we as Republicans should not and can not support a pro-choice candidate under any circumstance.
[...] Mark Herrick of the California Republican League shares his thoughts on the California GOP State Convention. The short story? The news is not good. Last weekend was the semi-annual California Republican Party convention. There was some activity at the convention that showed how politically incompetent some of our leadership is. First, there was a proposed by law amendment to the state party bylaws that would prevent independents from voting in the Republican primary. I can’t imagine a political strategy that could me more harmful to the Republican Party in California. As I have said many times, we are a minority party in California, and the only way we can win is if our candidates receive support from independents and Democrats. When independents get to vote in our primary, that helps our party pick candidates that are the most likely to win independent votes in the fall; which is an attribute a Republican candidate has to have to win in the general election.. A candidate that only appeals to Republicans can’t win in California. In other states where Republicans have the majority, candidates that only appeal to Republicans can win. But in this state that is not the case. Taking the independents out of our primary is like setting up a screening process to make sure that only the second stringers get in the game. Any person that has any basic grasp of political strategy should understand this proposed by law amendment was an incredibly stupid idea, but we have many leaders of the GOP in this state that doesn’t get this basic strategic concept. [...]