California Gop

A plan to keep dozens of domestic-violence shelters from closing sailed out of the state Assembly late Friday night with nary a no vote. Yet hours later, the bill lay in the legislative trash heap, one of many lost to politics as lawmakers reached the deadline for completing their work this year. Republicans in the Senate blocked more than 20 bills -- all needing GOP votes to pass, many approved by the lower house with bipartisan or near-unanimous support -- to leverage a trio of unrelated demands.

After years in which California Republican lawmakers took their marching orders from out-of-state anti-tax groups, some GOP candidates are now refusing to sign no-tax pledges. It's a welcome development. The candidates should be applauded for their independence. The difference between today and two years ago is stark, as Times staff writers Michael J. Mishak and Anthony York reported Saturday. Back then, candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the Assembly and state Senate weren't serious contenders unless they signed the so-called taxpayer protection pledge, which was enforced by Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform.

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.

SACRAMENTO — Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher coulda been a contender, to borrow the classic Marlon Brando line from "On the Waterfront. " He could've been somebody. He still could, conceivably — somebody who wins the prize of high public office, a senator, a governor — but it apparently won't be while wearing the Republican colors. He tossed them. We'll never know, but many believed the San Diego legislator — young, photogenic, articulate, an Iraq combat vet — had the potential to help lead the California GOP out of the darkness, out of its deep funk.

Re "State Republicans Pick Conservative Leader," March 1: Is it not a curious twist on Barry Goldwater's praise of extremism in defense of liberty that state GOP leaders now define being a "moderate" as too extreme for them? MICHAEL D. REAGAN Riverside John McGraw, the new state GOP chairman, said that the party had to "get back on message and be a party that gets the message out." Alas, he couldn't say what that message should be. In case he's still up a tree on the message, I have a suggestion: Take his cue from either of the brothers Bush or one of several other savvy GOP governors.

Reporting from Sacramento -- After years of sitting on the bench, watching much of the state's business being conducted with little regard for their input, California Republicans in recent months had an opportunity to share the reins of government. Now, that appears to be gone. The Democratic governor and legislative leaders offered the GOP a rare chance to shape key policies — and mitigate several that were forged on the other side of the aisle over more than a decade. GOP legislation was suddenly on the front burner.

The incoming mail at the Texas Capitol is so crammed these days with "Dear Governor Bush" letters from around the country that a missive from California's Republican congressional delegation to the potential presidential contender got scant attention. But the March 4 letter to Texas Gov. George W.

Republicans gathered at a boisterous state party convention this weekend brushed aside November's defeat and looked to economic issues and the state budget debate as rallying points for a party struggling to rebuild. Though the party's registration has fallen to 30.9% of Californians and Republican gains nationally stopped at the state line, activists here contended that their agenda of cutting spending, curtailing labor's power and halting Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan could prove appealing to voters driven by economic concerns.

More than two-thirds of the Republicans in the Legislature took a hard-line stance Wednesday against Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan, forming a new group and pledging to block the governor's efforts to let voters extend tax hikes. The unusual effort highlighted the deep partisan divisions in the statehouse as Brown and lawmakers race to pass a state spending plan. So far, 22 of the 27 GOP Assembly members and eight of the 15 GOP state senators have signed on to the new "taxpayers caucus.

Two words aptly describe the current condition of the California Republican Party: weak bench. Insiders can count on one hand--maybe one finger--the party's potential candidates for governor or U.S. senator. The credible names tend to stop at Bill Jones, secretary of state. Well, here's one more suggestion, perhaps for the next Senate race: Mary Bono, 39, congresswoman from Palm Springs. She has star quality and political viability.

With his competition focused on the chilly Midwest, Newt Gingrich wooed California's Republican faithful Saturday, banking on a Republican contest so chaotic that the most populous state in the country could actually matter when voters go to the polls in June. "You cannot follow the recent Republican practice of writing off our largest state and imagine that you are going to run an American campaign," the former House speaker told delegates to the state party convention, meeting outside of San Francisco.

Alternatives to burial Re "Replacing trees with stones," June 17 Where is the forest in "Forest" Lawn? I think the Hollywood Hills cemetery is missing a business opportunity in choosing to cut down a forest of oaks, sycamores and walnuts to make way for more casket burial plots. Many of us baby boomers seek an alternative to the environmental impact of traditional burial. Forest Lawn President and Chief Executive Darin B. Drabing says it is a human impulse to say "remember me. " Personally, I would prefer that my grandchildren walk in a forest and remember that I was thinking of them when I rejected a casket in the ground for a living tree (a small plaque would do)

A top House Democrat sees raw opportunism in Republican outrage over President Obama’s blueprint for a Middle East peace agreement. Rep. Howard Berman of California, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, singled out Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, though he said Republicans more broadly are using the dust-up to try to make inroads into a Jewish community that typically votes Democratic. “The Republicans, in their never-ending quest to try and persuade Jews to shift their voting, have jumped on this to try to exacerbate that split,’’ Berman said in a Thursday morning interview.

Always a Marine Re " 'Dark Horse' Marines saluted," April 30 You quote Lt. Col. Jason Morris as saying: "These Marines did what Marines always do. They took the fight to the enemy and they won. " Morris said it all. I enlisted in the Corps in 1942. I was pulling a handle in a factory, and I was bored. The Marines promised action, and that they gave me. I also wonder if the Corps molded ordinary men into extraordinary ones, or whether only special men joined?

Reporting from Sacramento -- After years of sitting on the bench, watching much of the state's business being conducted with little regard for their input, California Republicans in recent months had an opportunity to share the reins of government. Now, that appears to be gone. The Democratic governor and legislative leaders offered the GOP a rare chance to shape key policies — and mitigate several that were forged on the other side of the aisle over more than a decade. GOP legislation was suddenly on the front burner.

Republicans gathered at a boisterous state party convention this weekend brushed aside November's defeat and looked to economic issues and the state budget debate as rallying points for a party struggling to rebuild. Though the party's registration has fallen to 30.9% of Californians and Republican gains nationally stopped at the state line, activists here contended that their agenda of cutting spending, curtailing labor's power and halting Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan could prove appealing to voters driven by economic concerns.

From outside its borders, California is seen as a dependable Republican state. It has voted that way for 20 years of presidential elections. Democratic voter registration is at a 50-year low. But in truth, Republicans in California are still a minority party. And a self-absorbed one, too, judging by the gathering of 1,800 activists in the capital for the GOP's off-year convention this weekend. With a 1988 campaign already under way, leaders here urged presidential candidates to stay away.

Reporting from Sacramento -- The most powerful players in California's deep-blue Legislature these days may be a clutch of Republican senators known as the GOP Five. Amid party-line warfare over Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget, they have bucked Republican leadership ? and risked their careers ? to wheel and deal with the Democratic governor, who needs two of their votes to pass his plan. Nearly every other Republican has snubbed Brown, largely because his spending blueprint includes billions of dollars in extended taxes.

More than two-thirds of the Republicans in the Legislature took a hard-line stance Wednesday against Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan, forming a new group and pledging to block the governor's efforts to let voters extend tax hikes. The unusual effort highlighted the deep partisan divisions in the statehouse as Brown and lawmakers race to pass a state spending plan. So far, 22 of the 27 GOP Assembly members and eight of the 15 GOP state senators have signed on to the new "taxpayers caucus.