It’s a Hard Knocks Life -- Being a Republican in San Diego These Days
There’s reality, and then there’s whatever space it is that the few remaining coastal California Republicans inhabit these days. They may not be buying into GQP activism, but they’re just as delusional in thinking they’re still relevant.
In the old days --before the Former Guy-- these folks were easy to find in elected office; they won by running as fiscal conservatives with a sympathetic ear on environmental matters. There was a lot of stuff --like race-- they didn’t want to talk about and some stuff they did--like the burgeoning craft beer industry.
A Monday New York Times story on the Republican Party’s growing irrelevance in major population centers started out by updating us on former Mayor Jerry Sanders’ status these days, namely that he no longer pledges allegiance to the GOP.
These days, Mr. Sanders said, Republicans are out of touch with diverse metropolitan areas. He said Republicans appeared to lack “real solutions” to issues like crime, and lamented the party’s exclusionary message that drives off young people, Hispanics and gay voters in cities like his.
“I don’t think the right has kept up with the times,’’ Mr. Sanders, 70, said in an interview. He said he renounced his party affiliation on Jan. 7, the day after the mob attack on the Capitol.
Across the political map this year, Mr. Sanders’s diagnosis of his former party appears indisputable: In off-year elections from Mr. Sanders’s California to New York City and New Jersey and the increasingly blue state of Virginia with its crucial suburbs of Washington, D.C., the Republican Party’s feeble appeal to the country’s big cities and dense suburbs is on vivid display.
Sanders wasn’t the only one to dump the party following the Capitol insurrection. More than 4700 San Diego Republicans changed their party registration post Jan 6, as did 33,000 Californians.
Via Voice of San Diego:
Sanders didn’t say whether he officially changed his party registration. But if he did, it would make him the latest prominent Republican leader to leave the party. District Attorney Summer Stephan dropped her party affiliation after winning election as a Republican.
Mark Kersey left the party in 2019 to become an independent when he was still on the San Diego City Council. That same year, Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, who’d been elected as a Republican, announced he was switching parties and becoming a Democrat. He won re-election as a Dem against a Republican challenger in 2020. Former Councilwoman Lorie Zapf left the party after failing to win re-election in 2018.
La Mesa City Councilman Bill Baber left the GOP as did his former colleague, Kristine Alessio, who cited a “lack of ethics.”
Watching former Mayor Kevin Faulconer bob and weave in response to questions about his fealty to the Dear Leader is almost sad. How many times can he say that he voted for Trump’s economic policies and keep a straight face?
I mean, what policies would those be? The pipe dreams of Peter Navarro? The grift of Wilbur Ross? The asleep-at-the-wheel tenure of Ben Carson? Jared Kushner’s insights about reopening the country in April 2020? The never right prognostications of Larry Kudlow? The trickle-down tax savviness of Steve Mnuchin?
Faulconer’s gubernatorial campaign is headed nowhere, as incumbent Gavin Newsom has successfully regained traction as a reasonable guy who knows what he’s doing. And the rest of the GOP field is wandering the foothills and gated communities looking for the MAGA vote.
San Diego’s former mayor has no chance with 60% of Republicans buying into the fairy tale about President Biden winning only because of fraud.
These days the remaining party faithful fall into two camps: delusionists and grifters. Sometimes they overlap.
Still active on the political map for Republicans is Carl DeMaio, who was on KUSI recently promising rallies alongside Paula Whitsell, chair of the Republican Party of San Diego County, to energize the Recall Newsom effort.
KUSI’s “news” department ran what was basically a four minute ad following a El Cajon rally, touting the 200 people who showed up.
DeMaio wrapped himself in the recall movement’s flag, even though his Reform California organization directly gathered all of about 700 signatures supporting the recall. As with all things related to the one-time city councilman, many believe he’s in it for the fundraising. And let’s not forget his ego.
The real organizers of the recall told Voice of San Diego that they didn’t submit many Reform California signatures for verification because the address on the form was different than the one they were using.
Sarah Garcia, who organized volunteer efforts for the recall in Riverside, and drove around the county to pick up petitions, said she grew frustrated with DeMaio when she saw people congratulating him on Facebook, when Newsom acknowledged that the recall was headed for the ballot. It looked like stolen valor, she said.
“He hadn’t donated anything, or as far as I knew even helped,” Garcia said. “So I went back and said to him: ‘You did nothing, stop taking credit for it.’”
Reform California said that it sent out only one email blast with the altered address, and changed it back to the certified petition once asked. From there, neither it nor anyone else could say how many of the submitted signatures came from Reform California’s overtures, since the petitions were sent directly to the recall’s P.O. box.
While DeMaio hasn’t settled on a GOP candidate (rumor has it he favors the undeclared ex-DNI leader Richard Grenell), he’s leading the fight to make sure Faulconer suffers under the RINO brand.
Another grassroots GOP effort in San Diego happens every other Saturday on the Pacific Beach boardwalk. The flyer for this week’s event bemoans the fact that they couldn’t get more than 30 people last time out. Twitter blurbs for the events include hashtags like: #DemocratsAreFascistRacistCommunists, #UnitedStatesMustAnnexChina, and #OpposeMandatoryVaccines.
All this is not to say non-Republicans in San Diego and California can rest easy. The one chance they can win involves the rest of the electorate staying home on election day.
Forget the Newson “Wheel of Fortune” TV ads; voters need to reject this so-called recall movement in the strongest terms this fall. And then we need to start educating ourselves about the choices we’ll have to make in the 2022 elections. Lots of not-really-a-Democrat candidates are going to emerge because the Republican brand is so foul.
Hey folks! Be sure to like/follow Words & Deeds on Facebook. If you’d like to have each post mailed to you check out the simple subscription form and the right side of the front page.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com