Posted on 11/21/2006 6:53:39 PM PST by NormsRevenge
The California Republican Party is conducting an internal audit over why its unprecedented $20 million get-out-the-vote effort didn't produce wins for their candidates on election day. Only Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and insurance commissioner Steve Poizner captured statewide offices for the GOP, which also failed to pick up any new seats in the Legislature. One Republican incumbent, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, was unseated.
Some conservative Republicans are demanding answers from the party. State Board of Equalization member Bill Leonard, who was reelected to his regional seat by a large margin, already has asked for the audit of the statewide effort. He has heard "rumors" that the GOP telephoned voters using scripts written by Schwarzenegger's team that only mentioned Schwarzenegger, that there was "mischief" with literature distributed on door-hangers in neighborhoods, and that the Republican Party may have called non-Republicans to encourage them to vote.
"... what is needed is full disclosure by the CRP leadership, a detailed political audit of how this campaign was waged. The party members, donors and volunteers deserve to know the full truth and the actual numbers."
--snip--
Mike Spence, another Republican activist, said other problems emerged during the get-out-the-vote effort: the GOP sparsely canvassed precincts in eastern Los Angeles County and an outreach program to churches "died wandering in the desert." He also has called for an audit. Spence said the conservative ideology of some Republicans, such as lieutenant governor candidate Tom McClintock, can't account for their losses. If so, he said, why did a moderate like McPherson not benefit from the get-out-the-vote message that swept Schwarzenegger to victory in a landslide?
California GOP chairman Duf Sundheim said he thinks the $20 million effort proved effective, particularly in early voting by mail. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Hey, here in Texas, I got a call from Bill Clinton! Automated of course, but they had pulled all the stops out--in Texas. The main problem? NO LEADERSHIP, no gonads, pure wusses in the GOP, time after time gave ground, never fought for a damned thing that I can remember, not one issue.
They had lots of opportunities to go after some real criminal activity on the Dems side but nope, too cowardly. And now they've sold our troops down the sewer and my son is to be deployed back to Iraq after the first of the year for the second time, I'm telling you, someone will feel my wrath, this country does not deserve these servicemen and women. The GOP wonks needs to be run out of the country and rebuilt from the ground up.
Why would true "Republicans" (read: "conservatives") bother to come out and vote, especially when the "Republican" at the top of the ticket is a Democrat? Add to that conservatives' mentality of "hunker-down-and-just-try-to-survive-in-this-looney-state", together with the surrender-monkey "moderate" (read: "liberal") state Republican party leadership and the answer is pretty stinking obvious. It all boils down to hopelessness.
They need an audit for this??
California's legislative districts are extremely gerrymandered--Democrats dominate the legislature because the Republicans are concentrated in relatively few districts, and those are the seats that Democrats couldn't win if the Republican was a transgendered Nazi serial killer. If you're not of the correct party, you have no chance of winning the election. The interesting fights are primaries for open seats.
Dead in the water.
Orange County and San Bernadino County are Republican counties. They are also conservative counties. Quit trying to pretend that conservatives showed up in record numbers; they didn't. Turnout was pretty light in my (extremely conservative) district.
Sorry, no sale. That stuff has never bothered Democrat voters.
They simply don't care who hands them "free stuff".
***Call for Full Discloure***
By: Bill Leonard on: Monday, November 20th, 2006A state Democrat blog last week had this headline: “CDP Field Operation Defeats $20 Million GOP Elephant.” Indeed, as the above results show, statewide Republican candidates did not fare well. Yet the CRP and the Governor had touted this year’s Victory ’06 effort as the end-all, be-all of voter identification and activation. I had been excited about it. I saw what microtargeting accomplished for the President in Ohio two years ago and was eager to replicate that success in California. That excitement faded as results were tallied.
Accusations have been flying that the CRP’s Victory ’06 was actually Arnold ’06, Period. I have heard that the CRP’s phone banks used scripts written by and for the Governor, leaving the rest of the ticket unmentioned. There are rumors that there was mischief with CRP door-hangars because the Governor and the party disagreed over ballot measures. There is concern that the Victory ’06 GOTV effort focused on voters who may not even have been Republicans. At this point, such accusations remain just that: undocumented statements with a tinge of bitterness following a brutal defeat of most of the party ticket. Therefore, what is needed is full disclosure by the CRP leadership, a detailed political audit of how this campaign was waged. The party members, donors and volunteers deserve to know the full truth and the actual numbers. Specifically, how did the CRP spend $20 million? How many voters were contacted, by whom, where were they, and what message was delivered to them? Can we identify why some of our biggest GOP counties appear to have had a much lower GOP turnout than usual? Did the party organizations there rely on Victory ’06 to turn-out the base instead of their usual, grassroots effort? This Dem blog said the CDP “contacted 521,622 voters and personally visited 424,354 homes to seek their support of the Democratic Ticket.” What are the CRP’s numbers, and can we honestly say that contact from the CRP included support for the Republican ticket?
I guess Chuck Poochigian isn't conservative enough to vote for, then, and that Jerry Brown is the "conservative" preference for Attorney General.
Oh, wait, that's right, Michael Wiener gave Moonbeam $5,600, the maximum donation allowed under state law.
Arnold turned off the base, bigtime!
Well, there are still a few hundred thousand ballots to count, but notwithstanding that, you are wrong.
As of this afternoon's count, San Diego County turned out 101,839 more voters than 2002. Orange County, 105,427. Riverside, 62,884. And San Bernardino, 29,228.
Earlier reports that these counties did not turn out were based on early ballot counts and any conclusions made from them were grossly premature.
On the other hand, the Democrat counties showed substantially greater turnout than the Republican counties. Was that because the Republican GOTV helped their effort by actually targeting Democrats-for-Arnold and Democrats-For-RebuildCalifornia? It sure looks that way.
And, because Arnold turned off the base, they decided to inflict Jerry Brown on themselves, and they decided that Tom McClintock wasn't conservative enough to be Lt. Gov, and Dick Mountjoy was not a good choice to replace Feinstein...
In other words, "the base" is stupid AND crazy.
And that brings to mind a funny coincidence: "the base" translates to "al-Qaeda" in Arabic.
Uh-huh.
I had no one representing me for Governor and that is a dangerous sign.
No, you're saying you did: Angelides. Now I understand why Michael Wiener donated all that money to Jerry Brown.
You don`t seem to understand that sulking makes one pure, or is it pure ones sulk? Can`t decide so lets settle on this, sulking pure ones elect Democrats.
Are you the sort who insists on paying full price for a car because you wanted a 25% discount and the dealer only offered you 10%?
A dangerous precedent was set, a lot of people were not represented this election for Governor. It's like voting for a dictatorship, I have never felt so appalled to vote for a candidate.
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