Cal Politics: Can GOP Topple Dems?

23 August 2010 |permalink | email article

Republicans are all fired up following their summer convention in San Diego, and confident they’ve put together a statewide slate that will dovetail with national momentum for a conservative sweep in November. It may be easier said than done in California, traditionally a deep blue state where Democrats have a nearly 15-point voter registration edge while the party opposite has plunged to a new low of less than 31 percent. Independents, with 20 percent, could decide key races. 

As usual, state Republicans mimic the party’s national mantra: smaller government, fewer regulations on business and lower taxes.  Democrats counter the GOP always offers a pro-business agenda that penalizes the working class and the middle class.

Delegates were wowed by the presence of two women to head the party’s ticket for the first time in history – gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman, the billionaire former chief executive of eBay who’s challenging former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, and multimillionaire former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who wants to replace Democratic Sen. Barbara, the liberal that conservatives love to hate.

In her lackluster speech Whitman accused Brown of being in the pocket of unions and special interests, while Fiorina, once fired by Hewlett-Packard, connected in casting Boxer as a failure while calling herself an agent of change who would shake up Washington.

Jobs is a big campaign issue, and both candidates may be vulnerable. Whitman plans to fire 40,000 state workers if elected; 25,000 HP employees lost their jobs when Fiorina was CEO. 

Early polls show both the governor’s and U.S. Senate races in virtual dead heats, but rail birds believe the gap may widen soon after the Labor Day.  Significantly, two more moderate Republican governors less popular with the rank-and-file – retiring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former chief executive Pete Wilson, Whitman’s campaign chairman – did not attend.

Quotable

“One of the biggest problems Meg Whitman has is that we all know she’s trying to buy it. It’s not for sale.” Willie Brown, the politically adroit former Speaker of the California Assembly, and San Francisco chief executive, telling Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison the public rejects self-financed candidates like Whitman.

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