{"id":13212,"date":"2023-08-07T02:09:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T02:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13212"},"modified":"2023-08-07T02:09:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T02:09:14","slug":"california-republicans-struggle-to-find-path-to-legislative-relevance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13212","title":{"rendered":"California Republicans struggle to find path to legislative relevance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Jeremy B. White, POLITICO<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

California Republicans arrived in Sacramento at their lowest point in history after a disastrous 2018 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s only gotten worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Republican state lawmakers have since defected from the party, \nwhile a third is fighting a challenge from party activists. And it\u2019s \nbeen nearly a decade since California had a statewide elected Republican\n \u2014 then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger famously warned in 2007 that the \nparty was \u201cdying at the box office.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As GOP elected officials have dwindled to an endangered species in \nSacramento, where a Democratic supermajority controls the Legislature, \nsome have tried to stave off irrelevance by adapting to the new \npolitical geography. But efforts to moderate views or disavow President \nDonald Trump have largely gone nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The small Republican caucuses increasingly consist of the most \nconservative lawmakers. Republican state lawmakers have virtually no \nleverage after voters in 2010 reduced the state budget threshold from \ntwo-thirds to a majority vote, cutting the GOP out of most meaningful \nconversations. By October last year, Republicans fell to third place in \nvoter registration, well behind Democrats and independents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Party insiders warn those woes could foretell trouble ahead for the \nnational party as the electorate becomes evermore diverse. The routes \nCalifornia Republicans have taken, and the party\u2019s reaction, illustrate \nthe precarious position the party occupies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First came the apostasy of Assemblyman Brian Maienschein \n(D-San Diego), who flipped parties just weeks after narrowly winning \nreelection in 2018 as a Republican. Months later, Assemblyman Chad Mayes\n (I-Yucca Valley) \u2014 an ousted former party leader \u2014 joined the growing \nranks of no-party-preference voters, drawing an immediate challenge from\n the California Republican Party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\n Republican incumbents not only have to worry about Democrats, but also \ntheir own party rivals. Assemblyman Tyler Diep (R-Westminster) is \nfending off a conservative challenger backed by local Republicans who \nbelieve Diep has sold out the party\u2019s values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Republicans, Maienschein is a lost cause \u2014 an opportunist who \nbetrayed voters to keep his seat. But the divergent reactions to Mayes \nand Diep speak to an underlying tension between pragmatism and party \nloyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From GOP leader to independent<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mayes had long tried to charter a more centrist course. As Assembly Republican leader, he tried to confront poverty \u2014 an issue he believed the party had neglected \u2014 then marshaled Republican votes to extend California\u2019s cap-and-trade program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was promptly deposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayes had since become one of the few California Republicans willing \nto publicly assail Trump, who is broadly toxic in California but remains\n popular within the California Republican Party\u2019s base. Mayes explained \nhis decision to leave the party by saying they have \u201cfailed to \nmodernize\u201d and to meet \u201cCalifornians where they were at,\u201d faulting \nintensified tribalism that entails clinging to \u201cthe national brand\u201d \nunder Trump, despite its failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a December interview, Mayes argued that his focus was on \u201chaving a\n seat at the table to work on policies and make lives better.\u201d He noted \nthat whatever the letters next to his name, his voting record puts him \nto the right of some Republican incumbents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That argument does not sway Republican officials who swiftly yanked \ntheir endorsement of Mayes and selected and funded a challenger, San \nJacinto Councilman Andrew Kotyuk, who has since received money from the \nstate party and Republican leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs Republican Leader, my job is to elect Republicans, and \nunfortunately Chad made the decision to not be a Republican anymore,\u201d \nAssembly Minority Leader Marie Waldron said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the party has renounced Mayes, he retains ample support from a\n cross-section of interest groups \u2014 including insurers and agricultural \ngroups \u2014 who appear happy to have him casting votes in Sacramento.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not Republican enough?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, the once-Republican stronghold of Orange County is now majority Democratic and lacks a single Republican in its House delegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against that backdrop, Diep survived the 2018 election in a district \nwith a slender GOP advantage, but his actions since then may cost him. \nLike Mayes, he has publicly questioned Trump over potential deportations\n of Vietnamese-Americans \u2014 a major bloc in his district. More galling to\n conservative activists, he cast the sole Republican vote for organized \nlabor\u2019s priority bill restricting the gig economy and for a sentencing \nreform measure opposed by law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last straw came when Diep testified at an Anaheim City Council \nmeeting in favor of a project labor agreement, using language \u2014 he \naccused Republicans of trying to “demonize the working people” \u2014 that, \nfor conservatives, cemented his unholy alliance with unions who \nsteadfastly support Democrats in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after that speech, former state Sen. Janet Nguyen launched a \nchallenge to Diep with the backing of Orange County Republican \nactivists, seeking to return to the Legislature after losing her swing \nseat to a Democrat in 2018. The Orange County Republican Party pulled \nits endorsement of Diep, and a former Senate Republican leader has \nbacked Nguyen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was called at the very last minute by Republican leaders and \ncommunity leaders who basically felt they had been betrayed by Mr. Diep,\n his betrayal not only to them but to the party,\u201d Nguyen told POLITICO. \n\u201cWhen he ran in 2018, he ran that he is going to uphold conservative \nvalues, he is going to uphold Republican values. Instead, when he got to\n Sacramento, one bill after another, he would vote in lockstep with the \nDemocratic majority agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While voting analyses suggest Mayes has a more conservative record \nthan Diep, the state party is rallying around Diep. Waldron told \nPOLITICO that she is \u201cnot a fan of purity tests,\u201d and while she said he \n\u201cabsolutely\u201d made a bad vote on AB 5, \u201che knew what he was doing when he\n made that vote and decided that the benefits outweighed the risks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Republican Party doesn\u2019t have the time or resources to waste on \nfighting each other,\u201d Assemblyman Heath Flora (R-Ripon), who has \ncontributed money to Diep, said in a statement to POLITICO. He called \nthe race \u201cone of the worst examples of Republican primaries in the \nstate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rewards for tacking to the middle<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A coalition of health care industry and real estate interests is spending money to defend Diep. So, too, is organized labor \u2014 a development that underscores the potential rewards for tacking to the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we feel is the way out of the situation the Republican Party \nfinds itself in today is through paths that members like Chad Mayes and \nTyler Diep have outlined \u2014 who are more moderate and can take on the \nestablishment who has lost touch with working class issues in \nCalifornia,\u201d said Cesar Diaz, a lobbyist for a construction industry \nunion umbrella group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flow of money reflects a disconnect between Sacramento dynamics \nand the voters and activists in members\u2019 districts. Even as Mayes and \nDiep have lost the confidence of core supporters, their willingness to \ndepart from the party line has helped shore up their support among the \ninterest groups that fund campaigns and work doggedly to sway bills. \nMoney can\u2019t replace votes, but it can help swing an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that strategic centrism is exactly what has angered Republicans \nin Diep\u2019s backyard, who say the clash between him and Nguyen is about \nwhat it means to be a Republican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Assemblyman Matthew Harper, who advanced the Orange County GOP\n resolution to strip Diep of his endorsement, cited a need to stop \nbusiness migration towardsympathetic Democrats rather than \nRepublicans. Harper cited the example of a Republican lawmaker who found\n common ground with labor, leading to a rare labor endorsement<\/a> for a Republican incumbent, only to ultimately lose his seat to a Democrat like other centrist Republicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople think they\u2019ve figured out this clever way to maybe get the \nDemocrats off their back by basically capitulating to labor,\u201d Harper \nsaid, but \u201cthese kinds of votes, they undercut what it means to be a \nRepublican, and it usually ends up with them not being in the \nLegislature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He may have eschewed those kinds of votes, but Harper is no longer in\n the Legislature. He lost his Orange County seat to a Democrat in 2018 \u2014\n the type of defeat that would have been unheard of in an earlier era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One ousted moderate Republican from the San Francisco Bay Area, \nformer Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, said \u201chyper-partisanship and a \nhyper demand of loyalty\u201d has increasingly set the tone within both \nparties, pointing to a Democrat challenging centrist state Sen. Steve \nGlazer (D-Orinda). Baker repeatedly voted with Democrats on some \ncontentious bills \u2014 and while she didn\u2019t face a Republican challenge, \nshe was unable to repel a well-funded Democrat during the 2018 wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That made Baker the last Bay Area Republican lawmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf someone goes against their party, particularly if you\u2019re a \nRepublican who goes against your party, it\u2019s not like there\u2019s many \nDemocrats and center-left independents who are going to support you,\u201d \nBaker said. \u201cI think the real test in this climate is going to be how \nmuch people who are clamoring for independent thinking among their \nelected officials are willing to reward it with their vote across party \nlines. That\u2019s the test: not a like or a post on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tug of war is not new for California Republicans, whose leaders \nhave pleaded with them for years to pivot as their grasp on power \nslipped. In 2007, Schwarzenegger warned Republicans at a state \nconvention, mostly attended by the conservative base, that voters “will \nlook elsewhere” if the party did not change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the 2018 midterm wipeout, outgoing California Republican Party \nChairman Jim Brulte warned that continued failure to attract nonwhite \nvoters would spell disaster in California and nationally<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frustrated California conservatives say little has changed. The \nmounting tally of losses has led Mike Madrid, a former California \nRepublican Party official and a vocal never-Trumper, to urge a new \napproach. He argued the party is \u201cholding onto 1980 solutions\u201d and \nostracizing members who moderate in an effort to \u201cinfluence the policy \nprocess even in a minor way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChad was certainly trying to lead in a different direction. I think Tyler is just trying to reflect the realities of California,\u201d Madrid said. \u201cIn both instances, there\u2019s very little appetite among a shrinking base to evolve and adapt into a new century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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