By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
It’s customary for county chairmen to give their report after elections and their plans of things to come. Usually I would deliver this report in person to the local Republican organizations, but it doesn’t hurt to share it here with Post Scripts readers. In fact you can tell your friends you read it here first!
The first obvious congratulations goes to Larry Wahl for his victory over Jane Dolan. Of all the local races we’ve had in a long time, this was one of the most clearly defined battles between a conservative and a liberal, and local voters went with the conservative choice. Being a June election, Dolan didn’t have the heavy liberal student votes in town to skew the results (which is a good argument for having Chico City Council elections in June). The Butte Republican Party is especially proud to have played a role in Larry’s candidacy. We may not have carried him over the finish line but we helped produce a real ground game.
We were sorry to see Erny Spears not make it. Elections against incumbents never favor a first timer, but maybe Erny will come back in a future election.
Congratulations to Doug LaMalfa. He and Rick Keene ran tough campaigns and Doug won fair and square. The Butte Republican Party will give Doug our full support in the general election and we look forward to working with him as our new State Senator.
I’m excited about Carly Fiorina’s chances at taking out Barbara Boxer this year. Although Chuck Devore clearly had the proven conservative voting record (and was a fellow army reservist), Carly did really well with the Sarah Palin endorsement, and made it absolutely clear that she is a pro-life, pro-gun conservative who deserves our support.
I’m not as excited about our top of the ticket votes. California Republicans will now be running Meg Whitman and Abel Maldonado for Governor and Lt. Governor. Although democrats are more fearful of us running a woman and a latino who are both centrists, I’m concerned with the long term affects on our party. Look at what Arnold Schwarzenegger has done for us the last few years and tell me I’m wrong. The irony is that, while Whitman/Maldonado may hurt the Republican Party, their opponents Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom will kill what’s left of our state’s sickly economy. As a county chairman it’s my duty to support and promote them and so I will, but this is one of those moments where my duty and my conservative beliefs are very conflicted.
Finally, I agree strongly with Jack about the passage of Prop 14. I don’t think voters realize the confusion and disenfranchisement this will bring to California elections. Prepare yourselves for general elections in the north state between two republicans and no one else. The same thing will happen in San Francisco, just with two democrats. In each case though, it is likely that more moderate candidates will win, further blurring the lines between the parties and creating more confusion for voters. I’m afraid California voters are going to get the government they deserve, not the government they need (very much like Obama and America).
This fall promises to be exciting for local Republicans as we have three conservative candidates for the Chico City Council, and a chance to save our state from certain economic doom by repealing AB32 with the California Jobs Initiative. Not to mention a real chance at taking out ultra-leftist Barbara Boxer (shown below) in the US Senate. I anticipate a lot of fired up conservatives going to the polls to TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY!!!