WHAT IF THEY HAD A PARTY AND NOBODY CAME? An article in the LA Times yesterday chronicles the pathetic state of the California Republican Party. But wait, you say, isn't a Republican you know, governor? Not really. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor, and he is a Republican, but he's about as close as you get in politics to a virgin birth -- a product of the recall vote. He almost certainly could never have won a Republican primary without being governor first (he's just too moderate), and he's practically on better terms with the Democrats than the Republicans in the state legislature.
These should be heady times for the California Republican Party, which has a resurgent, world-famous governor in place whose outsize fundraising capabilities could flood its coffers with relatively little effort.
But the party Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will address at its semiannual convention in Palm Springs tonight is hardly flourishing.
It's broke. It's been embarrassed by scandal. And it's almost entirely bereft of a bench; few members are considered strong enough to capitalize on Schwarzenegger's momentum.
The governor has shown little interest in throwing the organization a lifeline. And some party leaders leave the impression that if one were to come their way, they might just throw it back.
The party has essentially no bench for statewide contests whatsoever and, when Schwarzenegger is termed out of office at the end of 2010, its only plausible candidate is Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner (he's the only Republican currently holding state-wide office) who only managed to get elected by running against the deeply unpleasant and pathetic Cruz Bustamante. Several members of the Republican congressional delegation are under investigation, and all of them are far too conservative to be elected statewide since California's last redistricting created no competitive seats. The party isn't able to recover because it is still dominated by real conservatives who view running candidates moderate enough to actually be elected to be tantamount to voting for a Democrat.
California Republicans' collapse gives us a glimpse of what might be in store for the national Republican Party. Sure, I doubt it'll get that bad for them, but the relative speed with which the state party has torn itself apart should remind us that we shouldn't assume we know what national Republicans will look like in just a few years' time.
--Sam Boyd
