HispanicVista Columnists

An Impotent California Republican Party
By Raoul Lowery Contreras

The California Republican Party can’t fund some political activities just weeks before the Presidential Primary in February. It has no money.

Some months ago, the Party faithful were shocked when it was revealed that new State Chairman Ron Nehring had hired illegal aliens for top state Party positions. Nehring diehards publicly decried my efforts and those of the San Francisco Chronicle that exposed the dry rot in the Party.

Many of the state’s newspapers ignored the story and printed nothing about it until Ron Nehring’s illegal alien Australian hire for Party Chief Operating Officer resigned in shame and was replaced by a well-known American.

Stories published world-wide mocked Ron Nehring and his illegal alien hires (one Australian and one Canadian) and some even quoted this writer, a veteran of almost 50 years of statewide California politics about the Party’s forthcoming money problems.

Funny thing, the tight circle of State Chairman Ron Nehring’s friends circled the wagons and defended him by challenging the MSM (Mainstream Media) and me. Nehring-San Diego ally Duane Dichiera, for example, posted comments on the Flash Report of a state Party leader Jon Fleishman that suggested I have no sources within the financial hierarchy that normally supports the Party. He implied that my views on immigration affected my relationship with people I have dealt with for over four decades. More about that later.

Now comes the announcement that the Party is cutting off county parties from funds they used to hire staff. Only $260,000is involved but that’s only the tip of the red ink statewide.

State records: California GOP was $1.7 million in debt at the end of October. In its separate federal committee account there is also a deficit of $430,000, records show.

The Orange County Register quotes state Party official Jon Fleishman: "I don't know how to sugarcoat this," Fleischman wrote in (an) e-mail. The party "is going through a very fiscally challenging period. I was forced to vote to end a program that I believe is a good one, simply because we are faced with a situation of limited resources," Fleischman wrote in an e-mail."

During and after the Nehring illegal alien disaster, Republican heavy-hitters cut-off the Party. In August two of them did agree to roll over a $3 million 2006 debt by February.

Radical conservative Nehring supporters blame President Bush's immigration plan for the financial shortfall. Bad news for them, most major California Republican donors also supported the Bush plan. These are called "Good Government" Republicans. Those who try to blame these guys for the financial aftermath of the Nehring disaster apparently aren’t aware that the blame lies firmly on Nehring’s shoulders and the man behind him, Washington D.C.’s Grover Norquist, an arch-conservative activist closely associated with criminal convict lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

So, no money in the bank, the February Primary just weeks ahead and the California primary in June and the Nehring troops are blaming President Bush’s immigration reform plan for their deficiencies.

Where, one must ask, is the Governor? He is busy raising money, tons of money, having just set a statewide historical record for raising money. He also supports comprehensive immigration reform.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn’t raised a finger to help the state party run by Ron Nehring. The Governor could raise enough money in two evenings in Beverly Hills and Rancho Santa Fe to pay off the Party debt and to bring in enough new money to fund all its normal activities. But, he hasn’t.

Asked about the Ron Nehring problems, the Governor sent word through a staffer’s e-mail, "The governor has a good working relationship with Ron," signed Julie Soderlund. His top fundraiser Marty Wilson is absent from the scene and isn’t commenting.

Neither is President Bush who sets fundraising records for responsible state parties.

The political drought that started with Hispanic voters abandoning the California Republican Party over the Republican-sponsored illegal Proposition 187 in 1994 that only three Republicans (Schwarzenneger, Bill Jones and Steve Poizner) have overcome since 1998 -- will continue.

Ron Nehring, Grover Norquist and their gang have wrung the California Republican Party dry of every dollar and of every ounce of responsible support from major donor Good Government Republicans. The California GOP is limping into a political year stripped of money, power, attractiveness and, for all practical purposes, is politically impotent, perhaps fatally so.

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