Orange County Republicans were bracing for the primary battle of all time — with Republican Assemblymembers Van Tran and Lynn Daucher preparing to square off against each other this June, for the honor of representing the Republican Party in the general election in the highly competitive 34th State Senate District.

The contrast was between the more moderate Daucher (pictured to the left), who was actually elected to the legislature with the assistance of non-Republican voters back in 2000, the only election cycle when the ill-fated Open Primary measure was in effect, and the more conservative Van Tran, who cut his teeth back in college as an activist with Young Americans for Freedom.

There were a lot of dynamics at play that lead up to Van Tran’s ultimate decision to seek re-election in the 68th Assembly District, leaving Daucher with only one much-less-tough primary challenger, Santa Ana’s Lupe Moreno, a conservative member of the County GOP Central Committee.

So the real question since the close of filing has been whether Orange County conservatives would rally behind Daucher, with Tran dropping around the race.

Perhaps the first sign of this occuring happened today with the announcement that conservative Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (pictured to the right) has given a pre-primary endorsement to his colleague, Ms. Daucher.  DeVore isn’t just ideologically conservative, but he is a standard-bearer for the right in the county after his high-profile primary victory over moderate Cristi Christich in 2004.  Christich was infamous for leading Republicans for Clinton back in the 90’s.

We’ll see if other Orange County conservative’s follow DeVore’s lead — I’m sure they will.  But the key for Daucher in garnering meaningful support from conservatives won’t be endorsements listed on her literature — it will be her ability to embrace themes and issues that excite conservative activists.  That will be her challenge, and that of Jim Nygren, her consultant, in the coming months…

(h/t to FR friend Jerome Encinas for the tip-off)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.