HispanicVista Columnists

The California GOP: Bankrupt, Incompetent, Drowning
By Raoul Lowery Contreras

Several months ago the San Francisco Chronicle exposed California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring for hiring a shadowy Australian immigrant to be Chief Operating Officer of the Party. I also detailed the scandal in widely published articles. When they appeared, Nehring’s fellow radical ultra-conservatives screamed in pain and anguish.

They accused me of lying about and smearing Nehring and his intimate circle. Nehring’s crony successor as San Diego Party Chairman (Tony Krvaric) a recent immigrant from Sweden isn’t even civil with me even as I offer the Party FREE television time on my station.

The truth, of course, is that I was right when I wrote that Nehring had hired an Australian man who had been ordered deported, who had been jailed by Immigration and who has attempted two fraudulent marriages to American women in attempts to become a permanent legal resident.

The man was an illegal alien with absolutely no California political or Republican experience of any sort to even be a precinct walker, much less the Chief Executive of the State Republican Party. Except, of course, that he is an intimate friend of Chairman Ron Nehring and Nehring’s boss, Washington D.C.’s Grover Norquist of Jack Abramoff scandal fame.

Then there’s the possibility that Party Chairman Ron Nehring himself is a federal lawbreaker.

Where is the certified I-9 Form he was required to file with the Federal government when he hired the Australian? Did Nehring see the man’s "Green Card" as required by law? Nehring says he can’t remember if he saw it or not. The man was an illegal hire.

Then there is his Federal law breaking possibilities in 2003. That Fall Nehring hired a Canadian citizen to work for the San Diego Party during the Recall of Governor Davis campaign (of which I was an Official Spokesman).

Nehring says the Canadian came to San Diego because he wanted to help in the Recall of Davis. After volunteering for a month, Nehring says he was so impressed with the foreigner that he hired him. Question, did the Canadian have a work visa, or a Green Card?" Did Nehring file an I-9 form on the Canadian as required by federal law? Did he see a work visa or Green Card? If he didn’t, this was an illegal hire of an illegal alien.

If Nehring didn’t file I-9 Forms with the INS/ICE on either of these foreigners, Nehring is a Federal law breaker subject to heavy fines and prison if convicted. Additionally, couldn’t Nehring find any Californians or any American citizens to work for the Party?

Then, came news that the State Party was broke in December going into the 2008 election year. I wrote about that and posited that major donors not only had turned off the dollar spigot but that they were insisting privately that Nehring had to go.

Again, San Diego Party Chairman Krvaric blasted me for being a liar and for smearing his close friend and patron, Ron Nehring. Another close intimate, Duane Dichiara of the San Diego Party wrote in the FlashReport Blog of Party Vice-Chairman Jon Fleischman that I was a "pro-illegal immigration activist and all around gad fly" and that he doesn’t "know what money people (Contreras) knows well enough that they will return his call…"

I suggested that Governor Schwarzenneger had abandoned the Party under Nehring by not assigning his chief fundraiser, Marty Wilson, to help the Party. I do know Marty Wilson, a real moneyman, and he has been occupied raising money for other causes of the Governor, but not the Party.

Breaking news out of Orange County affirms, validates and confirms my projections from months ago that major Republican donors are abandoning the Party of Ron Nehring and demand his resignation. They are not so private now. Nehring intimate Dichiara can read about them in newspapers like everyone else.

According to the Orange County Register and the Associated Press (AP), a major donor is "pressuring the California GOP to overhaul its operations, depicting Chairman Ron Nehring as an ineffective, insular manager apparently more concerned with promoting conservative purity than electing Republicans."

The Register: "In a four-page letter (January 31) to Nehring obtained by The Associated Press, Larry Dodge outlines a litany of complaints against the state party, from sinking registration numbers to suspect expenditures by party officers."

Dodge wrote: "The registration gap (with Democrats) is widening, contributions are drying up, key posts have been left open for a year, staff is being laid off and there is a never-ending string of reports which is causing long-term damage to the image of the party."

"Immediate comprehensive action is required," Dodge writes. "The stakes are too high, the problems too deep, to do otherwise."

In view of John McCain’s February 5^th romp over Mitt Romney and the Senator’s efforts to unify the Party "The scalding missive," writes the OC Register, " could signal an emerging revolt against the chairman, mirroring the party's broader struggle to unite bickering factions in a presidential election year."

The Register: Dodge "strongly hints in the letter that he may withhold a $3 million check he was planning to write within days to retire the state party's long-standing debt. That would be a devastating financial blow in the midst of the 2008 election season."

He is not alone, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken oblique note of the Party dying under Nehring and his intimate circle of incompetents by declaring: "We are dying at the box office." The statement refers to shrinking statewide Party rolls. Nehring’s stewardship has seen 170,000 Republicans disappear from voter rolls.

Note: Redundant as it reads, the Governor has not assigned his chief fundraiser Marty Wilson to help the Party.

The AP, "As of last month, the state GOP's main account had a balance of $3.2 million but $3.4 million in unpaid obligations. The party's federal account - used to finance activities that support congressional candidates - listed a balance of $34,000 but nearly $460,000 in debts." The Party is broke, technically it is Chapter 7 bankrupt.

Not to be alarmist, but we are in the 2008 campaign to elect the next President of the United States. We have a presumptive nominee nine months before the election. We have reasons to believe that the nominee can win because his supporters include a huge cohort of Democrat Hispanic voters (25% of all California Democrat voters), of which a large portion may be inclined to vote for him in addition to our normal Republican base.

In Arizona, 70% of all Hispanic voters voted for McCain’s last reelection. On January 29^th 83 percent of Florida Hispanics voted for McCain. Hispanic voters are fond, very fond, of the Republican candidate for President.

In other words, McCain puts California in play, the shrinking, incompetent Nehring-rundown Party notwithstanding.

It is time for the Governor to take charge to save the California Republican Party. He must publicly demand that Chairman Nehring and the entire Party Board of Directors resign immediately. They must be replaced by elected officials who know how to win elections and finance people who can raise money. We only have 239 days to Election Day.
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Contreras’ books are available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com

Contreras’ books are available at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com