This morning’s commentary will be short, as I have to get ready to go down to the general session here at the California Republican Party’s convention. I was up pretty late (I have vague recollections about a conversation at around 2am with LA Weekly Reporter Bill Bradley and Steve Schmidt from the Governor’s campaign and from there it fades to black).
On a quick note, I will update FR readers that despite the well articulated arguments to the Resolutions Commitee as to why embracing massive government borrowing was a bad idea, the committee members (with the Party Chairman and some Team Arnold mucky mucks watching from the back ot the room) voted to embrace the Transportation and Levee bond measures, and take a "no position" position on the massive education bond measure.
I won’t repeat for the millionth time here why I think that all of the bond measures are poor public policy, but I will spell out that I think that it is a big political mistake for the convention delegates today to vote for these recommended positions. Governor Schwarzenegger, who has planted himself firmly in the political center of the California electorate with policy positions that run the gamut from conservative (absolutely NO new taxes) to liberal (embracing the radical environmental ‘greenhouse gas’ agenda of the left). Centrist California voters will find an appeal to this type of positioning.
However, it is the job of the California Republican Party to help get the most conservative voters to the polls, and do so in a way that creates enthusiasm and not cynicism. The spectre of a Phil Angelides governorship is a tremendous incentive for any conservative to want to vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger. But from my decades of grassroots involvement, I can tell you that there is a national rebellion brewing among conservative voters that is centered in the feeling that government is too big and spends too much. And the GOP embracing these measures sends EXACTLY THE WRONG MESSAGE to those voters. Instead of being the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan, we will send the message that we are the Republican Party of Don Perata and Fabian Nunez, who very much want these bond measures to pass, to aleviate any pressure from the liberal Democrats who control the Capitol to have to actually spend our tax dollars on infrastructure (such as will the Assembly Republican pay-as-you-go proposal that they oppose because it would take dollars away from their social engineering programs).
OK, let me end this brief commentary by circling back to Governor Schwarzenegger. I have a tendency to get a bit myopic when I get really upset about something. Clearly the GOP shifting to the left and supporting bond measures that in the past we always would have opposed has me a little hot under the collar. But let me tell you that I am excited about the prospects of Governor Schwarzenegger coming out of this convention. The Republicans here are very excited and motivated to help him win re-election. His speech to the convention hit a lot of important themes that are motivational to Republicans, and helped to remind everyone about the start contrast between himself and Angelides.
We’ll be penning a longer convention re-cap and we’ll be able to get into more details, but suffice it to say that while Republicans will leave this convention clearly divided over the bond measures, we will absolutely leave here united behind reelecting Arnold Schwarzenegger!
I have to run!
Jon
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