California GOP meets for convention after bruising recall defeat

SAN DIEGO –

California Republicans, plagued by their unbalanced defeat in this month’s recall election, have sought to regroup and focus on the next terms at their party’s convention this weekend.

Typically a noisy gathering, the three-day reunion in San Diego was among the darkest in recent memory.

“I wanted to tell people that this is the ‘There’s no other place to go but the convention’,” said the Orange County delegate and former executive director of the state GOP, Jon Fleischman, adding that he couldn’t because the party’s prospects might sink further. due to the ten-year redistribution of Congressional constituencies currently underway.

The convention comes less than two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back an effort to recall him from office by 24 points. The recall election was the GOP’s best chance at winning a statewide post in over a decade.

Still, there seemed to be little public soul-searching. Republican leaders pointed to the Democrats’ overwhelming advantage in voter registration and fundraising.

State Party Chairperson Jessica Millan Patterson said while she was “very disappointed” that the recall was unsuccessful, the effort was a victory for the state’s GOP, including hiring staffing and opening offices in major congressional and legislative districts in the state months ahead of schedule.

They forced Newsom to defend himself, she said, pointing out that anti-recall forces were spending more than $ 80 million and bringing in heavyweight Democrats like President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to push voters Liberals at the polls.

“They had to take out the guns to save her job,” she said in an interview.

Critics noted that over a million fewer pro-recall voters turned out compared to the 6 million Californians who voted for President Trump in 2020.

“The million dollar question is, how do you turn the ship around? Is it even worth it? Can you turn around? Said Ray Perez, vice president of the Yolo County GOP, who criticized state leaders’ messages and communications with voters. “We are not going to win a governor’s seat overnight. Can we gain things that are at hand, which is a seat of assembly. … Honestly, I do not know. I don’t think so, but I want to be wrong.

A panel of GOP lawyers said conspiracy theories on mail-in ballots and rigged ballots had suppressed pro-recall voting.

“There are some really good people out there who have surprisingly accepted this – my vote doesn’t count in California, so I’m not going to vote,” Orange County GOP chairman Fred Whitaker said during a panel called “Jim Crow 2.0 or Common Sense: The National Debate Over Election Fair Laws.” “In any sport, if you don’t go to the field, you won’t win. And politics is one. contact sport is a team sport and we have to get everyone to vote. “

Lawyers didn’t mention names, but those theories were adopted by Trump as well as Tory talk show host Larry Elder, who won the most votes among the replacement candidates in the Sept. 14 election.

Former Rep. Doug Ose was the only major GOP candidate who stood up for recall to appear publicly at the convention. He unsuccessfully pushed for a proposal not to allow the state party to support candidates who supported new taxes.

“I think the party is struggling to identify to voters what they represent,” said Ose, who dropped out of the race in August after suffering a heart attack. He said he found it puzzling that the party did not support his proposal. If the party fails to rally around this type of cohesive message, “it will continue to die”.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who was once widely regarded as the GOP’s top candidate for a statewide post and received the support of 9% of voters, privately met with delegates .

He blamed the recall’s failure on the fact that the race was ultimately becoming an issue of “personalities,” an unnamed dig at Elder, rather than issues that frustrate Californians on both sides of the aisle, such as roaming. , cost of living and crime.

“I believe more than ever that California needs a change, and that when you focus on the problems you can win,” Faulconer, who is considering another race next year, said in an interview. The final weeks of the recall election “did not focus on the real issues we face here in California, and all of those remain. “

The rest of the peloton was notably absent.

“Recovering from the campaign in Key West, Fla.,” Elder, who received the most votes among recall candidates, tweeted from a beachfront bar on Saturday.

Nearby businessman John Cox was also not present, nor was MP Kevin Kiley or reality TV star-turned-Olympian Caitlyn Jenner.

Presidential candidates, who often speak at GOP conventions in California to mingle with state donors, were also absent. The names in bold at this weekend’s meeting were New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and freshman Congressmen Ronny Jackson from Texas and Burgess Owens from Utah.

Sununu, who is considering a race against Senator Maggie Hassan next year, offered advice to California Republicans on how to improve their outlook.

“Create your own brand,” he told about 150 delegates and guests at a Friday night dinner. “You can’t say, ‘We’re not Gavin, vote for us. “”

Charles Moran, a San Pedro delegate who works for Republicans at Log Cabin, said he was awaiting advice from GOP leaders and elected officials, many of whom did not attend the rally.

“You would think there would be a little more representation by the people who represent the state, and there isn’t. Does that mean they think it’s not worth it, or that it’s going to be a machete that they are going to walk in? Moran said. “But anyway, I think people are here looking for answers, and I’m not sure they’re going to find them.”