Back to square one

Editor:  The results from the Nov. 2 mid term election were an eye opener in many respects but one thing has become perfectly clear, the California Republican party needs to be completely scrapped and rebuilt from scratch.

The entire country sent the Democratic Party in Washington a very loud and clear “Stop What You’re Doing” message by giving control of the House of Representatives to the Republican Party. The GOP also won in many Senate races, Governor’s races and gained control of a number of state legislatures by riding on a massive anti-incumbent wave fueled in part by the Tea Party. However, that wave hit a huge breaker here at the California border where the Democrats all but swept the state.

There are two main reasons for the big Democratic win. First, even the top Republican, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, was not immune to the anti-incumbent sentiment.  And for good reason. Under Schwarzenegger, California is contending with higher unemployment than the national average and tens of billions of dollars of debt. Schwarzenegger promised to clean up California and put the state back on the right track, but he has clearly failed to do so. Like any incumbent seen to have failed, he was rightly voted out.

The second reason was the failure of the Republican leadership, which said nothing in opposition to Schwarzenegger’s policies. In the voter’s mind, that meant an approval of him and his failed policies.

The tacit endorsement made it very difficult for anyone running on the Republican ticket to win, and Meg Whitman certainly wasn’t the candidate to overcome that burden. Voters in California clearly did not want a third term for Schwarzenegger, a fact the Jerry Brown campaign clearly understood. Hence the Brown ad showing Meg Whitman echoing, word for word, the same sentiments of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The strategy transformed Brown, a professional politician if there ever was one, into the voice of change while Whitman, seeking her first public office, was seen to represent the old, failed leadership.

Conclusion? The state GOP leadership, such as it is, needs to be fired immediately. The Republican party needs leaders, not cheerleaders. The party must define what it stands for, and promote candidates that best represent those standards. It must stop trying to be all things to all people, re-establish its foundation and hold its members accountable.

For the state GOP to allow an old retread and lifelong politician like Jerry Brown to waltz into the governor’s mansion for his third term and send back to the Senate a less than popular Barbara Boxer for her fourth term is inexcusable. The Republicans are now back to where they were eight years ago, before the recall election when the Democrats completely ran the state of California. In other words, we’re back to square one.

Dan de la Torre
Sonoma