The Republican Party, currently embroiled in a public civil war between former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will attempt to show a united front out west this weekend, when the California faction meets to discuss wresting back the governor’s mansion.
An upbeat California GOP will hold its annual convention in a virtual format with 1,429 delegates, about half are grassroots organizers who collected enough signatures to mount a recall of embattled Gov. Gavin Newsom in a special election ballot. All the signatures have yet to be certified, which prompts scheduling of the election. Replacement candidates will appear on the same ballot as the recall option.
A controversy stems from how best to endorse a candidate who has a sure chance of winning given Newsom’s plummeting poll numbers. A recent UC Berkeley poll has his disapproval rate at 48%.
This week, one of the GOP members suggested that the endorsement should be decided by an executive committee, only to be met with blowback.
“The swamp insiders do not want the grassroots to have a voice or any role to select a consensus candidate,” charged delegate Carl DeMaio, chairman of the Reform California PAC, which has led successful recalls and anti-tax ballot measures. “Instead, they want to anoint their handpicked choice. No surprise, they are the ones who have run the California GOP into the ground and think the only way to win is to back a Dem-like candidate.”
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKER SEEKS TO OUTLAW CANCEL CULTURE
The CAGOP bylaws require a 60% vote of membership to endorse a candidate. During the last gubernatorial election in 2018, GOP candidate John Cox received only 55% of the vote and therefore was not endorsed. He went on to run a low-publicity campaign and received 38% in the election.
However, the CAGOP is cautiously optimistic that it can flip the governor’s seat due to a series of high-profile blunders from the Newsom administration, including a yearlong strict lockdown with ballooning COVID-19 infections that caused businesses and residents fleeing the state, as well as evidence Newsom dined maskless in a swanky restaurant with a large group during lockdown.
DeMaio said Californians are tired of swampy GOP politicians like the type found in Washington. Trump garnered more than 6 million votes in the state during the last election.
“You can’t have someone whom grassroots isn’t excited about, that will be a deathblow for any chance for us to win this recall,” he said. “I am sending a message loud and clear to the Sacramento swamp: Butt out. Let us take it from here.”
Sacramento County GOP Chairwoman Betsy Mahan, who authored the proposed amendment, withdrew the item Thursday after a large protest ensued.
“We have over 100 candidates. The expense and organization of throwing together a convention is difficult,” Mahan said. “There was some concern about intent [of the amendment], so I just decided to pull it back.”
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Mahan said everyone in the party is working incredibly hard on the recall, but in the end, only one thing matters.
“I want to make sure that we do the recall and we actually win,” she said.
