LATimes: Did the Tea Party Lose California too? (Los Angeles, Fresno: health insurance, house)

[18Montclair]

Absolutely. Californians are not whacky like people in other states who fell for all the tea party drunkeness that was all about hating the President and blaming Obama and Nancy Pelosi for basically everything.

To impress Californians, its not that simple because we don't do the whole revisionist history thing with respect to the economy, wars, spending-we still have the bad taste of GWB in our mouths and try as the GOP may to convince us that its now Obama's fault, we know better.

Whether it's the fault of the tea party or not, the same phenomenon that doomed GOP Senate candidates Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware also sank Fiorina: She was too far to the right for her state's electorate. Republicans upset about the success of Democrats in California should ponder what might have been had they put up former congressman Tom Campbell, a moderate, against incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer instead of Fiorina. My bet is that Campbell would have won.

Did the tea party lose California, too? | Opinion L.A. | Los Angeles Times

Campbell would have won.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Absolutely. Californians are not whacky like people in other states who fell for all the tea party drunkeness that was all about hating the President and blaming Obama and Nancy Pelosi for basically everything.

To impress Californians, its not that simple because we don't do the whole revisionist history thing with respect to the economy, wars, spending-we still have the bad taste of GWB in our mouths and try as the GOP may to convince us that its now Obama's fault, we know better.



Campbell would have won.

yes, different candidates might have won, but I don't think Boxer will ever get beat. Many of us have watched her throughout her career. She always pulls it out at the end. As for Governor, again Jerry is pretty clever and seems to win also. No, Meg wasn't a good choice, but I hardly think that had a lot to do with the Tea Party.

Let's face it, CA for better or worse beats to a slightly different drum than much of the country. Moderate Republicans can hold their own, Arnold is an expample and yet, the state is still in a horrible mess.

Nita

[BacktoBlue]

Absolutely agree.

Tea parties are for little girls and their imaginary friends.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Campbell would have won.

I think Campbell would be hard pressed to win the GOP primary even if the Tea Party wasn't around. Campbell could have given Boxer a better run for her money but Boxer probably could have still pulled it out.

The problem is in California, a successful GOP nominee has to shift really to the right in order to win the primary, because primary voters in the CA GOP tend to be much more conservative than the electorate as a whole. Now usually that wasn't too much of a problem in the past, but since Pete Wilson started using illegal immigrants as a wedge/hot button issue in the mid 1990s, it's become something of a litmus test for statewide Republican candidates since then.

And since 1996, CA has become pretty solidly blue because the GOP has alienated Latinos (the fastest growing community statewide) very badly since that time. Scared a lot of immigrants into stepping up their naturalization AND registering to vote. And that's too bad, because the Republican Party otherwise can appeal to the social/cultural conservatism of many Latinos (religious, family-oriented) and other immigrant communities.

[Majin]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Absolutely. Californians are not whacky like people in other states who fell for all the tea party drunkeness that was all about hating the President and blaming Obama and Nancy Pelosi for basically everything.

To impress Californians, its not that simple because we don't do the whole revisionist history thing with respect to the economy, wars, spending-we still have the bad taste of GWB in our mouths and try as the GOP may to convince us that its now Obama's fault, we know better.



Campbell would have won.

A++++++++++++++++++

Makes me glad I live in a state where the people still have their sanity.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by nmnita

yes, different candidates might have won, but I don't think Boxer will ever get beat. Many of us have watched her throughout her career. She always pulls it out at the end.

Because the Republicans she's run against have not been the best candidates. Bruce Hershensohn, Matt Fong, Bill Jones, and Carly Fiorina - all weak candidates.

Campbell was polling very high against Boxer, and the Dems were more scared of Campbell than they were of any of the other primary candidates. (I probably read more Dem and liberal blogs and websites than you do, and they were dreading a Campbell primary victory because his pro-gay marriage position and likely pro-Prop 19 position would've peeled away many Dem votes.) Campbell would have beat Boxer for sure. I would have voted for Campbell. (Campbell ran in the primary against Hershensohn in '92, and if he'd have won that primary Boxer may not have been a Senator in the first place. Boxer had baggage from the House Bank scandal and Hershensohn was unable to respond when Boxer turned a non-issue - Hershensohn's love of strip clubs, which is hardly unusual or scandalous - into a pseudo-scandal. With Campbell, this would not have been an issue.)

As for Governor, again Jerry is pretty clever and seems to win also.

Agreed.

No, Meg wasn't a good choice, but I hardly think that had a lot to do with the Tea Party.

I'd agree it had little to do with the Tea Party and more to do with the problems of wealthy people who think they can buy high office in CA. All the multimillionaires and billionaires who've tried have failed, even those who've actually held other offices like Michael Huffington and Jane Harman.

Perhaps Whitman should've tried to run for another office besides governor before trying to be governor? Huffington came the closest of any of the mega-wealthy losers, and Feinstein's extremely difficult to beat. He served in Congress before trying for the top job. If Whitman had served in Congress or had served in another government position, she MAY have fared better. OTOH her personality wasn't suited for a legislative position.

Let's face it, CA for better or worse beats to a slightly different drum than much of the country. Moderate Republicans can hold their own, Arnold is an expample and yet, the state is still in a horrible mess.

California's government is broken - I hope Brown can accomplish some change but realistically the state will need a new Constitution to get on the right track. An additional thought - Brown will need to quickly take advantage of his honeymoon while it lasts. I don't see John Perez as being as willing to cooperate with Brown as Leo McCarthy and Willie Brown were ; the term-limited Legislature is a different (and far more dysfunctional) creature than that which Brown had to deal with - today's legislators are more concerned with chasing their next political position than with actually doing their jobs, and the special interests and lobbyists aren't term-limited. I still think he's the only person capable of accomplishing any change in CA but it'll be very tough going, and realistically there's only so much that can be done without changing the structure of CA government.

[Oerdin]

Yes, I'd say they did. They were so wacky and stupid (claiming health insurance reform had death panels, not knowing medicare is a government run program "keep government out of my medicare", mindlessly claiming minor insurance regulation reform was "socialism", etc...) that a whole lot of educated people wanted nothing to do with them. Combine that with the fact that the GOP base put extreme ideologues on the ticket and then did just about everything they could to demonize hispanics, not smart in a state with a 35% hispanic population, and you can see why the GOP sank like a stone. In short craziness and racism might fly in fly over country but not here.

If the GOP wants to win state wide races in this state they will have to find some centrists who are reasonable and don't sound bat crap insane.

[californio sur]

Republicans are doomed in California; if they couldn't win one statewide office during a year where the GOP was destined to pick up seats then they never will do any better than mediocre. The huge problems with Republican is that they are Republicans in state that rightly despises them. It's as if governor Perry of Texas or governor Barbour of Mississippi were running for any office in California. Can anyone image a Californian voting for one of these Republican hicks with their thick Southern accents and all the bigotry that goes with Southern Americans?

The animosity toward Republicans in California is beyond any redemption. And the entire fault and responsibility is with the Republican party when they pass on a moderate candidate like Campbell only because they fear he might be pro-gay! Seriously how dumb and short-sighted can a political party be to not even see reality yet yield to the worst instincts of hatred and prejudice? The Republican party has lost the Latino vote along with Blacks and gays. Stupidity means that they will alien another group like Muslims and find themselves isolated more and more. Let's face it, Republicans are not bright people and will go down in their own ignorance.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by californio sur

Republicans are doomed in California; if they couldn't win one statewide office during a year where the GOP was destined to pick up seats then they never will do any better than mediocre. The huge problems with Republican is that they are Republicans in state that rightly despises them. It's as if governor Perry of Texas or governor Barbour of Mississippi were running for any office in California.

There are offices that Rick Perry could win in California.

I suppose he could win an election for the San Joaquin, Stanislaus, or Kern County Board of Supervisors, or mayor of Modesto or Visalia. He might even get on the Fresno school board. He'd never have a chance at statewide office, though.