Cal GOP: running in place

22 March 2011 |permalink | email article

A new poll out of California finds little hope Latinos, the nation’s fastest growing electoral graphic, will be attracted any time soon to the Republican Party, Politico reported. Many respondents said they regard the GOP as too conservative and don’t trust it on the issue of immigration reform.

Just 26 percent of those polled had a favorable view of the Republican Party compared with 62 percent who viewed Democrats favorably. Only 22 percent said sticking with conservative values was the path to follow, 32 percent said they would never vote for the GOP and 30 percent suggested moving to the center and nominating less conservative candidates.

The poll found that immigration is “the elephant in the Republican living room: 67 percent of Latinos favored a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, including 51 percent of Republican Latinos. The l question is whether white conservatives are really tuned in.

Republican consultant Marty Wilson, who worked with pollster Bob Moore, said it was hard to find reasons for GOP optimism. In a L.A. Times interview Wilson noted that Republicans emerged from bleak periods in the past with high-wattage stars like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger helped recast the image of the party. “I don’t think it’s going to be mathematically possible to win California unless we do better among Latinos,” he said.

That Republicans could draw just two potential long-shot presidential candidates, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former U.N. ambassador John Bolton to their convention in Sacramento is yet another sign of the state party’s disarray. Barbour repeatedly ducked questions by Calbuzz and the San Francisco Chronicle on issues like oil drilling off the California coast, and a path to citizenship for immigrants living and working in the state illegally.

Nothing better illustrated the point about intraparty rivalries than a failed effort to bar reporters from a long scheduled keynote speech by controversial GOP pollster and Fox News contributor Frank Luntz. He’s the wordsmith who curries favor with the conservative base with play on words like turning “estate taxes” into more scary “death taxes.”

Read ‘em and weep

“Radiation is good for you.” – Right-wing nut Ann Coulter, in her column and appearing on “O’Reilly Factor,” advancing the notion by many scientists that at some level – much higher than the minimums set by the U.S. government – radiation actually reduced the risks of cancer. 

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