The Battle We Must Fight

California is a solid red political state – if you leave out the Bay Area and Los Angeles County.

These two “black holes” have dragged us as a state into the liberal Democrat quagmire regularly during the 21st century. Election returns make it clear that Republicans must address one of these black holes to win statewide in California on more than an occasional basis. We don’t have to win the targeted black hole, but we must be able to pull 40% of the vote.

Republican oriented entities do not have nearly the resources of our opposition, and trying to deal with both of our black holes at once is far beyond our capabilities. Your continued presence in California is the strongest indicator that you haven’t yet given up on the Golden State. So if you’re staying here, and are a Republican who understands the importance of the political battle we are involved in for the future of our businesses, our children and grandchildren and our very country, how do you select which black hole to tackle?

The chart below shows the number of registered Republicans in the expanded eleven county Bay Area (Alameda,Contra Costa, Solano,Napa, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey) as compared to Los Angeles County. Please note that while Republican registration has declined in both areas, the decline has been faster in the Bay Area.

In this century, Republican registration has declined by 143,500 in Los Angeles County but by 216,665 in the Bay Area. That amounts to 73,165 more Republicans lost in the Bay Area on a smaller population of under seven and a half million compared to Los Angeles County’s ten million people.

The current critical mass of Republicans is much larger in Los Angeles County at just over one million registered GOP voters today versus three quarters of a million for the entire eleven county Bay Area.

The Bay Area region has eleven Republican county central committees with minimal functionality and inter county coordination. Los Angeles County has one functional county central committee headed by a competent Chairman.

The Bay Area has the Northern California Lincoln Club, which is not involved in the party mechanics of voter registration and GOTV efforts. Los Angeles County has the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs (LACLC), a network of business and professional leaders who regularly meet in eight component chapters covering all areas of the county. LACLC has worked closely with the county party in the recent past and still has the ability to work directly with them as desired.

LACLC has also taken the leadership role in this century in Republican voter registration. Working with the state and county parties, the Lincoln Clubs have put together their own voter registration network that registered over a quarter million new Republicans and is directly responsible for the continued existence of one million GOP voters in Los Angeles County.

The overwhelming electoral and demographic verdict is that the Republican Party must compete in one of its two political black holes in California to make a comeback. Failure is not an option for those of us who continue to have our families and businesses located here.

Which one do you pick?