Can California be brought back into the fold?
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According to the logic of politics, Leticia Perez should have handily won the heavily Democratic and Hispanic district in Californiaâs central valley, and her failure to do so has Republicans eager to develop a victory template for struggling GOP candidates elsewhere in the deep-blue state and across the country.
Fresno cherry farmer and cattle rancher Andy Vidak, who is fluent in Spanish, said he captured the state Senate seat in last weekâs closely watched runoff vote by connecting with Hispanic voters with a âcommon-senseâ approach that focused on job creation, affordable energy and opposition to big government. He even cooked menudo, a cow-stomach soup and a Mexican favorite, at a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event at the Bakersfield fairgrounds where 10,000 Hispanics turned out.
He got a big assist from other GOP officeholders and hundreds of Spanish-speaking Republican volunteers going door to door, making pitches in Spanish where necessary in the 60 percent Hispanic district. Mr. Vidak also managed to create a little political daylight from hard-liners in his party on the issue of eventually granting citizenship to illegal immigrants.
âWe talked to them in their homes, where they are most comfortable on the issues that matter most to them: improving the economy, lower taxes, less government interference with small business,â Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen said.
Fresno GOP Chairman Kurtis Wiley said he had never seen a party work harder and rally its resources any better.
While Democrats are in the governorâs mansion and have legislative supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, a new kind of GOP leadership suddenly is thinking about making major inroads in California, and they are not embarrassed to say so aloud.
âCalifornia can be Republican again,â said former state Senate leader Jim Brulte, the new state GOP chairman and the first one in recent memory who has real experience in party-building, winning elections and managing fellow GOP lawmakers.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/29/hispanic-win-california-can-be-republican-again/
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According to the logic of politics, Leticia Perez should have handily won the heavily Democratic and Hispanic district in Californiaâs central valley, and her failure to do so has Republicans eager to develop a victory template for struggling GOP candidates elsewhere in the deep-blue state and across the country.
Fresno cherry farmer and cattle rancher Andy Vidak, who is fluent in Spanish, said he captured the state Senate seat in last weekâs closely watched runoff vote by connecting with Hispanic voters with a âcommon-senseâ approach that focused on job creation, affordable energy and opposition to big government. He even cooked menudo, a cow-stomach soup and a Mexican favorite, at a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event at the Bakersfield fairgrounds where 10,000 Hispanics turned out.
He got a big assist from other GOP officeholders and hundreds of Spanish-speaking Republican volunteers going door to door, making pitches in Spanish where necessary in the 60 percent Hispanic district. Mr. Vidak also managed to create a little political daylight from hard-liners in his party on the issue of eventually granting citizenship to illegal immigrants.
âWe talked to them in their homes, where they are most comfortable on the issues that matter most to them: improving the economy, lower taxes, less government interference with small business,â Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen said.
Fresno GOP Chairman Kurtis Wiley said he had never seen a party work harder and rally its resources any better.
While Democrats are in the governorâs mansion and have legislative supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, a new kind of GOP leadership suddenly is thinking about making major inroads in California, and they are not embarrassed to say so aloud.
âCalifornia can be Republican again,â said former state Senate leader Jim Brulte, the new state GOP chairman and the first one in recent memory who has real experience in party-building, winning elections and managing fellow GOP lawmakers.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/29/hispanic-win-california-can-be-republican-again/
