California GOP update

Outgoing Governor Schwarzenegger says federal lawmakers should take a lesson from California on climate change:

California is just one of 50 states, but its economy, measured individually, is the eighth-biggest in the world, larger than that of Spain, Canada, Brazil, Russia, India or South Korea.

Such economic clout makes California ideally positioned to take the lead on energy policy and environmental issues like climate change, even as the United States as a whole has failed to make much progress on either front.

At least that’s the view of California’s departing governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is touting his state’s environmental credentials in the aftermath of an election that featured the resounding defeat of a ballot initiative that would have suspended the state’s landmark climate change and renewable energy law.

A California GOP recovery program

In the wake of the disastrous showing by Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and the rest of the California Republican Party ticket, the leaders of the Golden State GOP should recalibrate their politics and policies to become relevant once again.

The state's Republicans are now so trapped in their ideological hall of mirrors that they have become a distorted caricature of themselves. The midterm election demonstrated that they utterly fail to reflect the impulses of the vast majority of California voters, who tend toward fiscal conservatism and social moderation.

Many Republican values have a wide following: smaller government, lower taxes, reduced regulation, economic growth, individual freedom and law and order, to name a few. The California GOP should fight for these ideals. But it needs to incorporate them into a platform that begins with a realistic growth agenda. Investment in roads, bridges, dams and/or levees, ports, water projects, redevelopment projects and schools and universities — all of these things and more are wholly consistent with their philosophical worldview.

California's Ailing Republicans: A Dying Breed?

Republicans are relishing the coming of a new day on Capitol Hill. But across the country in California, the party of Nixon and Reagan is drifting toward obscurity.

The latest sign of imperiled health: In a year Republicans notched big victories in Congress, governor's offices and statehouses around the nation, California Democrats made a clean sweep of eight statewide contests on Nov. 2. Democrats padded their majority in the Legislature, where the party controls both chambers and no congressional seats changed parties.

California counted more registered Republicans in 1988 than it does today, even though the state population has since grown by about 10 million. Setting aside the politically ambidextrous Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose celebrity eclipsed his Republican registration, the California GOP counts only a single victory in 21 statewide contests since 2002 – that of insurance commissioner in 2006.