There is no doubt that in the eight years since they arrived on the California political scene, the New Majority has made a significant impact. But what is the New Majority? Who are they? And what are their goals?
Just the other day, I was invited to participate in a "media roundtable" with the leadership of the California New Majority and the Orange County New Majority Chapter. It was an informative session, and so I thought that I would share some observations with FlashReport readers.
The meeting was conducted by four leaders in the New Majority — Tom McKernan, the CEO of the Auto 
Club of Southern California, who is the new Chairman of New Majority, Orange County — Paul Folino (pictured left), Executive Chairman of Emulex Corporation, the Immediate Past Chairman of NM Orange County, Dwight Decker, the CEO of Conextant, who heads up the primary political committee of NM Orange County, and Tom Tucker, a real estate developer and investor, who is the Chairman of New Majority California.
(I did give Folino and Tucker a hard time for bringing me to a ‘media’ briefing — as an elected officer of the State GOP, I felt more like a plant being there with reporters from the LA Times, Orange County Register, the Associated Press and others.)
In advance of writing about the New Majority, I reached out to Tom Tucker and asked if he could pen a column about his organization, which is featured on the FlashReport today.
Let me start by dispelling the an incorrect assumption about this group — that it is just a PAC that raises money and donates it to candidates. Oh, there is plenty of that going on alright. In fact, the numbers are quite staggering. The annual membership dues to be a member of one of the NM’s four existing chapters in Southern California (Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire, San Diego) is a cool $10,000. The year end goals for membership for each of these chapters is 100, 160, 50 and 60 respectively. A little calculator work tells you that would be 370 members, which means a collective annual dues income of $3.7 million! (Double that number to figure out what they bring in during a ‘normal’ 2 year cycle — which we are in now for the first time in several years.)
But as was told to us, the funds that the New Majority itself gives to candidates and causes is dwarfed by the total giving of its membership on top of club dues (they estimated that NM member giving in the last election cycle to have been upwards of a staggering $40 million).
To call their role in the financial structure of Governor Schwarzenegger’s elections (both in the recall and last year) huge would actually be an understatement. They have also been extremely supportive of his ballot measure campaigns. They have also participated in a number of legislative campaigns.
The major initiative that is currently underway is a major investment in policy research in three areas — redistricting, healthcare and energy independence. Tom Tucker talks more about that in 
his column, but the goal of the group is to walk their membership through a comprehensive review of these areas, and the follow that process with political action. As Tom McKernan (pictured right) told us, they are most advanced in this process in the area of redistricting. It sounds like the NM is ready and willing to participate financially to see a fair drawing of legislative district lines, presuming that a cogent and winnable strategy is pulled together by the Governor and Republican legislative leaders. In the other policy areas, they are still in the earlier stages of developing briefing papers. Last week they had Alan Zaramberg of the CalChamber down from Sacramento for a healthcare policy briefing.
Another priority of the New Majority is working to recruit and finance culturally diverse candidates. As they say in their very comprehensive membership recruitment brochure, "The New Majority is actively working to expand the Republican base by providing resources to encourage greater involvement of groups that are not typically associated with the Republican Party."
The leadership conveyed their desire to also weigh in and make a difference in competitive legislative districts where opportunities present themselves.
As a specific example of a local effort, financing voter registration in Central Orange County was cited. For many years now, the Orange County NM has been in a strategic partnership with the Orange County Republican Party. With their very serious financial commitment to voter registration efforts in this area of the County, the only Democrat stronghold, has become much more competitive. This was demonstrated first by the razor thin loss of Republican Lynn Daucher to Democrat Lou Correa in a seat that had previously been a "safe" seat for the party of Hillary Clinton. They point to the election of a Republican to replace Correa on the Board of Supervisors, Janet Nguyen, a Vietnamese American, as a major accomplishment.
In case you were wondering who the New Majority is backing for the GOP nomination for President, the answer is — the nominee! Significant members of the organization are playing lead fundraising roles in the campaigns of Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney, and there is definitely interest by some of their members in the potential candidacy of Fred Thompson. No matter who the ultimate GOP standard-bearer ends up being, there is a great desire to help make sure that a Republican follows George W. Bush into the White House.
It was clear from listening to McKernan, Folino, Decker (pictured left) and Tucker that they see the New Majority as playing a role in offsetting the financial advantage that Democrats enjoy from the monolithic mega-funding of labor unions.
It is significant to note that the New Majority have retained as their political advisors the team at Meridian Pacific. The principals there are well known in California political circles — John Peschong, Matt Rexroad and Tom Ross. John Peschong (whom I know well, as he was the Regional Political Director for the Republican National Committee while I was serving as Executive Director of the California Republican Party) and Meridian team member Helen Silverstov were at the briefing, as was very long-time FR friend Wendy Cantor-Hales, the NM OC’s Executive Director. I should also add that two other FR friends are actively engaged on the staff end of NM efforts — Andy Gharakhani is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County chapter, and Kathy Tavoularis is assisting efforts with the statewide umbrella group.
Looking out into 2009, Tom Tucker shared with us that they have a goal of having at least 500 members statewide. And Paul Folino shared that after the 2008 election cycle, he would be leading an effort to expand the New Majority to Northern California, starting with an effort in the Silicon Valley.
It was great to see the energy and enthusiasm of these leaders, who clearly were very proud of the achievements of the New Majority to date, as well they should be….
If I were a Democrat with any level of political sophistication here in the Golden State, I would start to lose sleep at night, because the New Majority is committed to making California into a red state.
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