Support group needs to 'CRAFT' a less-scary GOP brand

"The problem is clear: Republicans have been largely uncompetitive in statewide races," said Paul Folino, a major financial supporter of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and executive chairman of Emulex Corp., a Costa Mesa high-tech company.

"Hard to believe . . . since 1998 Republicans have won less than 20% of all statewide races."

No, that's not hard to believe at all. And the one big winner, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is barely a Republican, at least by today's rigid-right party standards.

Folino is a founding vice chairman of a new group called California Republicans Aligned for Tomorrow, or CRAFT. The group's chairman is another generous Schwarzenegger and GOP donor, Larry Dodge, chairman of American Sterling in Orange County, a banking and insurance firm. Both are frustrated with the party's dead-end direction in California. So is the group's executive director, Duf Sundheim of Palo Alto, a pragmatic and moderate former state party chairman.

"Like any good business or athletic team, to win on a consistent basis, a political party needs a deep talent pool," said Sundheim, a former Stanford football player. The group's goal, he told reporters, "is to create a deep and lasting farm team of qualified Republican candidates to run statewide."

Former Gov. Pete Wilson, another member of the group, says: "We're looking for people who are bright and attractive and articulate -- in short, electable.

"A lot of people who might be first-rate candidates and office holders are not encouraged. And therefore, if they think of running at all, they don't think about it very long. They think, 'What chance have I got? I have no name ID.' This is an effort to find people who have done a good job as mayor or D.A. or have some clear qualifications. We're not looking for people who fit an ideological template."

So the group, stocked with some very rich GOP contributors, will be out recruiting, advising and training candidates it deems to be potential winners. But it'll avoid the word "recruit." The preferred verb is "encourage."

"Recruit" connotes "select," Wilson says. They don't want to be seen as party pooh-bahs anointing nominees.