I am attending the California Republican Assembly Endorsing Convention in, of all places, Bakersfield, California. I haven’t been to Bakersfield in probably 25 years, but it isn’t the sleepy agricultural/oil community it was then.
The CRA is the conservative wing of the Republican Party. As Ronald Reagan called it, “the conscience of the Republican Party.”
The morning session consisted primarily of statewide Republican candidates presenting their platforms and positions to the CRA for endorsement. There are a few contested offices where more than one Republican is running, such as Controller and Attorney General.
The candidate for Lt. Governor, running on the ticket with Gov. Schwarzenegger is Tom McClintock. Tom gave a rousing speech at the lunch today. He made some important points.
First, in the recall election of 2003 where Tom was running for Governor, as was Arnold Schwarzenegger, the two of them got 62% of the vote in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one. The reason, according to Tom, is that Republican principles resonate with the people of California, whether Republican or Democrat. He says that if you run on Republican principles, conservative and moderate Democrats will support you over liberal Democratic candidates.
He further said that Republicans didn’t come out in the 2005 Special Election because they saw that Republicans in Washington were not standing for Republican principles. The measures on the ballot should have won. They were basic Republican issues: 1) The State should live within its means, 2) politicians shouldn’t draw their own districts, 3) parents have a right to know when their minor children are having an abortion.
According to Tom, if we put our positions in “bold colors” and not pale pastels, we will succeed in the State of California because those who are not Republican also have our values. We have shared values with at least two-thirds of Californians.
In connection with the fact that some conservatives are not happy with some of Gov. Schwarzenneger’s fiscal policies, Tom quoted Ogden Nash,
“They have such refined and delicate palates
That they can discover no one worthy of their ballots,
And then when someone terrible gets elected!
They say, There, that’s just what I expected!”
He concluded with the statement that we can imagine better, but can we do better? We must act now to restore that Golden State of California that we once knew to our children and grandchildren.
BEAR TO THE RIGHT 
hi,Interesting how your perception of the California GOP matches the national. We have indeed lost our way, as a national party. The basic difference is the limited role in government vs a large role in government in our daily lives. Ear Marks, No Child Left Behind, and the epitome, the President’s health care intiative, in which he managed to excced the social security unfunded debt by 2 trillion dollars (13 vs 11 trillion). Add to that the unchecked chasm between social and fiscal conservatives, and we are in real trouble. If we had a real opposition, we would have already lost. Curiosly, the way things are evolving, it is we who heed to our core conservative values that have become the de-facto opposition.Great Post.Paul
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I don’t know. It’s hard to believe that Californians are more conservative than they seem. I’ve never been to California, so I don’t want to make any snap judgments. But from a distance, they seem to be one step from progressive Europe
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Paul, we agree 100%
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John,Interestingly, most counties in California voted for George Bush in 2004. The European-socialist types mostly live in the Bay Area around San Francisco, and parts of LA
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As a former neighbor to some of those European-socialist types, all I can add is, well, I miss LA, and California, and hope I can return one day. And not just as a visitor.
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