Category: CRA

I’m a glutton for punishment.  I left the CAGOP and here I am giving them advice… of course they won’t listen as I am now an outcast in their eyes.  I know this for fact, as I have lost a couple friendships over it, of course they don’t see it my way, they see it as quitting.  I see it as sending a message, something they will not/refuse to do.  Frankly if I lose your friendship over my political party of choice eat my nuts.

Here is how to fix your Party…. don’t listen you might actually start winning seats again.

1.  Admit you are weak kneed: this is the first step; you have no fight in you. You are all a bunch of donkeys braying about “the good ole days.”  You enjoy your conventions each year and talk a great game about opposing the chair or certain candidates, but it never comes to fruition as none of you are brave enough to call the question or make a motion.
2. Get the G-d D**m endorsements in the voter guide:  You love to blame the chair for this; bull.  You are long in the tooth and mostly graying/balding, you guys know the ropes/rules etc.  Get your act in gear, a voter guide that maybe no one reads is your excuse.  I was looking at races with many candidates on the GOP side looking to get castrated in November, at least endorse one and get it in the damn guide!
3. Get out to parts of the state not friendly to you.  This is obvious but I feel I must point it out.  Some voters/people in this state have never even heard from a Republican, and as such have no way of refuting the Lefts lies about your Party, It won’t be fun, but if you show up, there will be curious folks.  Even more so now with the homeless/crime/inflation issues.  Stop preaching to the choir, if you are blind, I’ll fill you in, the Republican Party is shrinking drastically in CA.
4. End the consultant class:  Aaron Park takes a W here; he was really right and still is.  These consultants have a franchise territory they are gifted by the Party and as a result, they get to play god in the primaries.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the safe GOP state senate seat we lost as a result of the party/consultants playing there.
5. Vet the candidates you endorse:  Aaron takes another W.  He pointed it out perfectly about the embrace of being pro-choice.  The consultants gas these clients up prior to their client meeting your group, the message changes depending what room they are in.  Rather than asking if life begins at conception… ask what 3 things they would push for in Sacramento/DC.  Ask what committees they want to sit on.  Throw them off their game and get them off their talking points (and yours) Trust me, if they sound like Sean Hannity, they are likely a Democrat in disguise. I know so, as the CRA has endorsed several questionable GOPers in my day.  Or just keep asking if they love Reagan, are they prolife, or do they want to ban same sex marriage?  Heck that playbook has worked great for the last few decades, huh?
6. Term limits for county chairs, and state party chairs:  This is a no brainer. Sadly, I hate term limits as it causes a massive shuffle of elected officials every so often, but its needed.  The state party has the same faces just in different places.  The county parties have folks that I swear have been in charge for a couple decades.  Move on, get a life, let someone else lead the fight.
7. Quit bringing up Reagan for G-d sakes.  Reagan likely wouldn’t get the nomination in your party today as he would be seen by you as a liberal squish.  Keep in mind, most under 36, give or take, have zero memories of “the Gipper.”  Move on, you sound like a person who peaked in grade school for josh sakes.
8. Drop the social issues:  Put them on the back burner, as I mentioned earlier, you are preaching to such a limited universe NASA may need to start exploring it soon to find out if it actually exists.  Gay marriage is law of the land, abortion is up to the states, rest assured CA is not banning abortion anytime in my lifetime.  Emphasize what you can do, not what you want to take away.
9. Stop calling yourself “true conservatives or the conscience of the Republican Party.”  Many of you opposed Trump in the 2016 primary to the extent that you wanted a brokered convention AKA the “original stop the steal” so you could put “Lyin Ted” Cruz as the nominee.  You didn’t just make yourselves look like idiots, you proved it beyond a reasonable doubt … to the entire country btw.  But its ok, Donald once gave money to democrats….as I am sure no GOPer y’all endorsed ever has.  Harken back on the 4 years of the Donald’s term, you will see the most conservative president since Reagan.  And to think you opposed it.  I’d bet a good bunch of money most of you voted Biden or stayed out of the last election just because of what he did to your idol Ted.  Rather than blow out the people who don’t pass your “conservative” litmus test grow the party.
10. Actually, stand for something:  This will be hard as you would rather use words like “repeal” or “wait ‘til we take over.” If you have no plan, you get no votes.  Yes, raising copious sums of money off a Hillary presidency would have been great, but the country would have been a disaster…. much like it is now.
11. Remove the crazies:  This will be the hardest part.  CAGOP and its affiliated groups are seen by most as a haven for whack jobs because a few apples have been allowed to spoil your bunch.  When you let crazy take the center stage, or don’t isolate it, your entire group gets the crazy label.  I doubt many of you see crazy in your party, so I’ll point you toward it: Jorge Riley and any associate.
12. Send a message at the convention:  I know this will be hard to do, as it would out you as a true conservative and a rabble rouser, but if you really hate Jessica Patterson, here’s is a thought; during her speech, stand up in unison and walk out of the chamber.  You say the vote to re-elect her was close…. it really wasn’t, but rather than do nothing, a.k.a. the usual, show a pulse.  The liberal newspaper writers covering the event will have a story to write about and you can tell your story about her as a failure as chair!  You may just make a difference, and you would send a message.  She may not hear it, but her officers will, and people who are part of the problem will sense unrest brewing among the natives.
13. Hold 1 convention: it’s an insult to working people, having to find transportation, housing, and meals for multiple conventions a year where nothing gets accomplished.  Rather than catch up about the good ole days of trying to deny Donald the nomination, you could laser focus on growing the party.  Actually, never mind…. keep whacking Donald.  But it’s cheaper to do this at a local speakeasy than at Knott’s Berry Farm or Palm Springs, just my $.02.
14. Lastly Reflect on just how conservative you are:  It ain’t much.  You hated Donald, look at what he did; tax cut, 3 judges on the court, ended Hillary.  Yet you cheered on the houses of Congress who opposed him.  Only after his first 3 years did you decide you liked him.  Who is the true conservative?  It’s no one in the CAGOP.

The Chief

The rumors are true, this past week I re-registered to “Libertarian.”  If you know me, you already know I am a Libertarian, but I caucused with the GOP.  I only voted for 1 Democrat in my life prior to this election, that was Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli.  I am not going to grandstand and claim the party left me. 

Truth is there is no Republican Party in California.

For years the party has been in a free fall.  Tribalism took over and poof, we are now a super minority.  I see that Chad Mayes, the former GOP leader, is still in the Assembly as an independent.  Mayes is known for being a sorta Republican who loves tax hikes.  Would be nice if the GOP could beat him, but why bother.  Frankly he fits in perfectly.  On each vote there is inevitably 3-4 GOP members who vote with the Democrats so it can be called a “bi-partisan bill.”  Barf.

The party brand is toxic here.  Just look at Sac DA Anne Marie Schubert. She used the party to get elected, then dropped us afterward.  She got obliterated running for AG, but the point is, she used us until it was no longer necessary.  Ditto for Pat Hume, the lazy EG councilmember, who will get slaughtered in November because he never wants to put in the work.  The GOP endorsed him, but he refuses to use the logo.  He was in a 4-way race with 3 Democrats, and if he achieved 50% plus one, he could have won outright.  Hume also supported the tax measure on the ballot, and supported the sales tax increase a couple cycles ago.  But that’s ok…. he is a Republican!

The county party here is a joke.  I mean Sue, Terry (RIP) and others were a circus, but this crew is a straight up joke.  I got an email the night before Election Day saying Sac County GOP recommends you vote this way.  Yup, I got my ballot 6 weeks prior at least, and had already returned it.  We do all our voting by mail in CA, these idiots just do not get it.  It told me to vote Barnes for sheriff, he lost, write in Sue Mason for her race, and that if I couldn’t drop my ballot off someone could come pick it up.  Yeah, read that again, the GOP called that ballot harvesting a couple cycles ago.  Good luck trying to sue over that now.

The top 2 primary has killed off all non-democrat parties.  I don’t even need to say anymore here.  Too bad the GOP supports it.  I think a lawsuit involving all non-democrat parties gets the top 2 overturned.  Congrats on being on the wrong side of history GOP!  In November I get the choice of Stephanie Nguyen or Eric Guerra in one race, and Dave Jones and Angelique Ashby in the other.  Neither race features a GOP.

The GOP had zero endorsements on my voter guide.  See the troll blog for more on this disturbing factoid.  Bonus, the GOP voters are crying as very few of their “candidates” made it through to November.  Shocking I say, shocking.

Recruiting failures.  Let’s look at BOE district 4, a former GOP seat, there stands a very high likelihood 2 Democrats make the run-off.  5 GOP folks split the vote, allowing this debacle. In SD 4, 6 GOP folks allowed the Democrats to both advance to a run-off.  Minority leader Scott Wilk (a GOP) spent money on one of the Democrat candidates that won in this highly Republican area. Face it, minority and leader are two words that never belong together. Idiocy rains supreme here.  The GOP has one option to win in November, Lanhee Chen is the best chance.  I have it on record that in a couple statewide races the establishment GOP recruited a challenger just to deny someone the chance to be in the top 2.  WTF?

So, to conclude, the GOP is dead here, so I won’t be wasting anymore of my time on it.  I still vote GOP as the lesser evil, but I cannot continue supporting a party that is lost.  It’s sad.  I voted for Democrats; Steve Glazer (he lost), Dave Jones, and Steve Ly this time around.  I won’t be doing that anymore unless the GOP requires it.  In the races between Jones and Ashby, Nguyen and Guerra, I will have to.

See Ya,

The Chief

Folks let’s take the library model from part one of this article and apply it to another body, the Republican Party.

Imagine a Republican Party that has no Central Committee elections. Instead, with a few exceptions, the Chairman appoints all the district representatives. If you think such a scenario is farfetched, its not. Oh, said Chairman rules with an iron fist and allows no new business from the floor. Instead, any new business must be approved by the Executive Committee which is composed of the Chair and a few close and likeminded friends. Anything they don’t like is automatically dead-on-arrival. Oh, members of the public are not notified about Committee meetings and will often not even be allowed in the room to watch the proceedings. Those few lucky enough to get on the Committee must pay dues (typically north of $100 per year) or they are barred from voting.

Lest you think the above is a bad dream, its our reality in California and has been for over a decade.

Folks in Republican strongholds such as Idaho better take notice because your turn is coming unless you stay vigilant.

So how did we get here? It took only two things: namely, Charles Munger Jr. and the San Diego bylaws.

First Mr. Munger. Charles Munger Jr. is the son of a mega-billionaire. Jr’s dad is described on Wikipedia as, “Charles Thomas Munger (born January 1, 1924) is an American billionaire investor, businessman, and former real estate attorney. He is vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett; Buffett has described Munger as his closest partner and right-hand man. Munger served as chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation from 1984 through 2011. He is also chairman of the Daily Journal Corporation, based in Los Angeles, California, and a director of Costco Wholesale Corporation.”

His son, Charles Munger Jr. is a California physicist that lives in Palo Alto.

As of 2015, Munger Jr. had spent 78 million in California politics.

Munger is the architect of the “jungle primary” in California. He was also one of the principal funders of the 2010 ballot measure, Proposition 14, that created a top two primary system. Under this system, the top two vote getters, regardless of party, then face-off in the November General Election. The argument to pass this measure was that it would allow moderates (or centrists) in both parties to dominate at the ballot box. Look at how far to the Left politics has gone in California since then. We were sold a bill of goods; the real result was the death of the Republican Party in the State.

Republicans died for two reasons.

First, Democrats held the majority of offices in the state when this measure was passed. If you live in Rio Linda or under a bridge, you might not know that in most cases, Democrats handpick their candidates in smokey backrooms long before the filing date for an office is opened. In short, the fix is in before the process even begins. Having already picked a candidate, they don’t tend to waste funds fighting amongst themselves in primary elections. Republicans can do nothing cooperatively and usually field many candidates in a given race which defeats any chanced of advancing to November. This allowed Democrats to systematically pick off weaker Republicans. The net result is that Democrats have succeeded in reducing Republican numbers in the Legislature each election cycle. They also, were able to redraw political districts that made Republicans a minority in almost every electoral district in the State. Since passage of Prop 14, Republican registration has declined to the point that they are now in danger of being the number three party in California. No-Party-preference is close on their heels. (Voter registration as of 04/08/22, Dems 46.75 %, Rep 23.92 %, & NPP 22.77 %)

This disparity has resulted in Democrats holding a super majority in both legislative houses—actually much more than two-thirds of the seats in each house.

The second reason that this killed the Republican Party was via a decision by the association of county clerks. They, along with the Secretary of State, decided that it was unrealistic to have partisan ballots for the General Election when in many districts, both parties were no longer represented in the General Election. They decided if Republicans (or Democrats) wanted to continue Central Committee elections that the Parties would have to pay for the printing and distribution of ballots. They wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars per county to continue printing ballots. Of course, the parties balked at the bill that they were threated with and stopped having Central Committee elections. Yes, the Legislature could have forced the bill on taxpayers, but the Parties wanted to be rid of average people getting on the Committees, so they did nothing. Grassroots activists were thus cut-off by both parties and have no access to representation in county committees and thus no access to the state party apparatus. This leaves the current crop of elected officials running the state parties in perpetuity.

Concurrent with the implications of the top two primary being felt was the introduction of the San Diego bylaws. These were model bylaws for running central committees which were first adopted in San Diego and a few other Committees in southern California. They decided that the Central Committee was a private organization and thus not open to anyone but members. Even in the days when central committee elections were going the way of the Mastodons, if you were duly elected, you were not allowed to vote or participate in central committee business without paying dues. It was literally a type of poll tax. The fact that you were elected by voters in district was irrelevant. I know. I was one of the people that they refused to seat.  Furthermore, the bylaws, as they were implemented, vested all power in the Chair and the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee cleared everything in advance of the general meeting including endorsements, resolutions, speakers, etc. Oh, under this scheme, meetings were no longer publicized, and members of the public were often barred from attending. It’s a private club, remember?

So how did Munger get his hooks in the Republicans?

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Charles Munger Jr. began dabbling in Republican politics when Arnold rose to power. He liked Arnold and was a big supporter. His big opportunity happened like this: on his way out the door, Arnold stripped the Republican treasury and left the party over four million dollars in debt. (In his second term as governor, Arnold raised money for himself but not the Party.) Into the midst of this fiscal vacuum, Munger rode in like a white knight and started buying influence and central committee seats. Munger paid the party’s debt and started funding almost exclusively RINOs candidates. He ran whole slates of candidates for county committees and persisted until he ran the State Republican Party. 40 or 50 thousand dollars in a Central Committee election goes a long way in getting a slate elected. It just so happened that central committee elections ceased about the time he gained control of the party. Surely this was coincidence.

In summary, Munger was responsible for the top two primary which has resulted in Democrats controlling all levers of power in California and has resulted in California veering far to the Left. Concurrently, he oversaw the decline of the Republican Party by forcing conservative voices out of the Party. The cessation of Central Committee elections, when combined with the San Diego Bylaws, sealed the Party from grassroots influence and made local committees good ‘ole boys clubs where only “the right people” could become members.

Concluding Remarks

For those in other states, learn from us in California or you will get seduced by the dark side and loose your grassroots access to the party as well. If the Establishment can, they will do this to you too.

I know that pockets of the Boise area of Idaho are adopting their own version of the San Diego bylaws—or at least some of its principles; especially, the Executive Committee Command and Control structure. Bad move. I also know that many elections, meetings, and activities are poorly or selectively publicized in hopes of controlling the outcome.

Sorry to tell you, but Democracy in any form, even a Representative Republic, is not about efficiency but about letting all voices be heard and then decide, as a group, what is best for the people that you represent. Its not to have a slick, one hour, carefully scripted meeting followed by another hour eating shrimp cocktails and drinking adult beverages at the local watering hole while reliving past victories.

Having competitive Central Committee elections is a vital part of a healthy committee. Then after you get elected, find a way to work with other people when you can and respectfully disagree when you can’t. Its easy to make and take things personally. Don’t. Its unhealthy for you and the committee.

Lastly, don’t demonize the RINOs in the group. They are made in God’s image too. You need to show them with actions that Conservatism works—at least to the extent that it conforms with biblical teaching. Show them you can disagree with them without hating them. Love the hell out of them and you just might bring a few into the light.

Heed this warning: if you steamroll the moderates like we did in California in the 1990’s, when the tables are turned (2010’s), they will find a way to lock you out from ever taking over the party again. Conservatives took over the California Republican Party for a time and then lost it. When the Munger moderates took over, they promptly sealed all points of access to the party that conservatives had previously used to gain control. When forced into a corner, moderates would rather defeat Conservatives than Democrats. If you don’t deal with them honorable this will happen to your state’s Republican Party too.

Anything that restricts rank-and-file members of your Party from getting involved in the activities of the County Central Committee is bad. Open and well publicized elections and committee meetings are necessary to have a vigorous organization.  When you decide to ignore or cancel elections or think the Party is a private organization, then have broken faith with voters. At that point you have become just another enemy of the people not their advocate.

Learn from California or share its fate.

Oh, just to prove my point, right after I posted this, I saw this article from another website. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being funneled into Idaho politics from out of state PACs to thwart Conservatives. These folks are pro-abortion, pro gun control, and hoping to block any influence or support of candidates that like President Trump.

REVEALED: Anti-Trump Shadow-Money Fueling Idaho Politicians — Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Pouring in from Out-of-state