Posted on 03/09/2002 9:44:44 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
The so-called New Majority - a cabal of liberal Republican fat cats turned out to be an old minority in last Tuesday's GOP primaries - the close to half million dollars they spent trying to nominate left-of-center candidates produced only three winners and 10 losers.
The group, which wants California Republicans to be RINOs (Republicans in name only), blew $277,400 trying to get nine candidates for the state legislature nominated and $150,000 on the campaign of former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, according to the Orange County Register's Martin Wisckol.
Only three of their legislative candidates won and the liberal Riordan suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of newcomer Bill Simon who ran on a solidly conservative platform.
The New Majority's millionaire members insist that the state's Republican party cannot regain its majority status unless it abandons its opposition to abortion and its support of Second Amendment gun rights along with a host of other traditional Republican conservative stands on the issues.
Observers explained the solid defeat the New Majority suffered on the fact that the low turnout - a bare 31 percent of eligible voters - showed that it was those energized by conservative enthusiasm who turned out on the GOP side to protect their party's long conservative stands on the issues, while those favoring liberal positions won in the Democrat primaries.
Jack Pitney, a political-science professor at Claremont McKenna College told the Register: "You have to wonder whether they exercised good judgment in how to spend their money, because these factors were known in advance."
Newport Beach venture capitalist Tom Tucker, the New Majority Chairman had a different take on his group's humiliating defeat - the voters didn't behave the way the polls showed they would.
"The poll models did not work out as well as they should have," he told the Register.
They apparently didn't work the last time around either, the Register reported, noting that last Tuesday debacle was the second time the millionaire's group went ahead full steam to help deRepublicanize their party and lost big.
Two years ago, they tried to take control of the Orange Country GOP Central Committee which runs the party there. Their candidates won a mere eight of the 43 seats up for grabs.
The New Majority's chief opponent, State Sen. Dick Ackerman, bemoaned the group's wasting big bucks on a Quixotic crusade to remake the GOP in its liberal image when their money is sorely needed to help the party win elections.
"Dollars for Republicans are very hard to come by, so we really need their help," Ackerman told the Register. "It would be nice if they used their money in a way that made the most of it."
According to the Register, the New Majority has plenty of money to spend on elections. Over 100 members kick in a cool $10,000 in yearly dues, and its recent primary spending was actually less than half their annual income.
Having seen their candidate for the gubernatorial nomination lose, the group will now get behind winner Simon.
"Our goal is to beat Gray Davis however we can," Tucker told the Register. "We've got to do whatever we can to get Bill Simon elected."
Given their record of backing losers, Simon might be well advised to say no thanks, back the other guy.
Democrats vote for the Democrat no matter what (The NAACP tells the people they take to the polls in their buses to vote for the Democrat). And the lefty voters who do consider themselves informed would never choose a GOP lefty over even a Democrat "moderate".
Could I mention Dubya and Alan Keyes? Or do you consider Keyes a Liberal? George Voinovich in his first race for Governor in Ohio.Dewine in his race for Senator in Ohio. How about Richard Nixon in 1968 and Lincoln in 1860 just to name a few.
The are very few cases where a Conservative defeated a moderate in the primary and went on to win in a liberal state. Reagan in California is about the only example. But Reagan ran as an unrepentant FDR Fan. Reagan did not run in California as a conservative. The Democrats spent the entire campaign calling Reagan a Conservative. Reagan spent teh entire campaign calling himself a liberal. Or don't you think Reagan who in every speech of that campaign emphasized that Franlin Delano Roosevelt was his political hero, was trying to make voters believe he was liberal.
The problem is Conservatives can't win in liberal states. A liberal Democrat can't win in a Conservative state either. The Democrats figured that out decades ago. That is why the Democrats run Zell Miller in Georgia.
Conservatives want to run Conservatives in California, Massachuttes, and New Jersey so they can elect liberal Democrats. Either that or they are just stupid.
I never said nominate the most right wing GOPer there is, but at the same time let's not nominate unabashed left wingers just for the sake of winning.
Pataki is better than Cuomo, but I don't think Riordan would be better than Davis.
What even makes these fifth columnists Republican at all?
The poll models did not work out as well as they should have
Translation: We thought people were stupid.
Heck, the "New Majority" backs candidates that are old-school Rockefeller-style Republicans, cut from the same cloth as Jim Jeffords, Lincoln Chaffee, and going back aways Gerald Ford.
Sounds like Homeland Security czar Tom Ridge.
Dubya better start becoming more conservative real pronto!!!
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