While Republicans got trounced nationally, they held their own locally this year. By and large Republican were able to keep their seats in Orange County despite the Presidential numbers moving the Democrat’s way. John McCain only got 50.2% to Barack Obama’s 47.6% in this supposedly “Red County.” While much was made of all the new Democrats that got registered in Orange County, with the exception of Labor’s voter reg program, much of this was naturally occurring all over the country, and any OC group that tries to take credit for the new Democratic voters is disingenuous. I was recently listening to a McCain staffer lament on all the money they spent on voter reg to no avail. As an aside, the McCain staffers blamed much of their fate on Bush and the financial crisis, as well as the phenomenal ground campaign that Obama had.
Back to the OC, I have also heard from Republicans that they are definitely afraid of the demographic trends that are shifting in favor of Democrats in north and central Orange County. White Republicans are aging and being replaced by younger Asians and Latinos who are not as politically conservative and more likely to vote Democratic.
Why were the Republicans able to survive relatively in tact the Obama wave?
And why did all the excitement for Barack Obama not translate into moving the numbers on local races?
1. The OC GOP has a large infrastructure with the New Majority, the Lincoln Club, 7 or 8 full time staffers at the OC GOP and a network of consultants and pollsters who work with down ticket candidates. They also have a blog in the Red County/ OC Blog that operates as a propaganda machine for their opinions and thoughts.
2. The Orange County Democratic Party does not have the infrastructure or the talent running the show. While they have made some progress in the past two years it is still amateur night as compared to the Republicans. They are cash strapped and get mired in infighting instead of concentrating on their main job, which is to win elections.
3. Infighting- Will we know all the tremendous infighing amongst Republicans, they still have the infrastructure to overcome any personal disagreements. While it is shocking how they turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of politicians like Mike Corona, Ken Calvert, and Dana Rohrabacher they don’t have so much ground to make up as the Democrats do so they can continue to flourish.
From talking to my sources Democrats are great at infighting.
Also, the Central Labor Council despises Lou Correa, and most of the electeds think the Democratic Party of Orange County is a useless joke. Many are upset that Frank and Melahat spent much of the summer raising money for Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi to the detriment of local candidates. Many locals candidates found that they were on their own for their races with the exception of receiving some labor money.
Often it is “He hates that guy and wont work with him” which leads to things not getting done and blah, blah, blah………………..
4. Culture of Losing- Democrats
Also, many of the Democratic/Labor offices are not used to winning and working hard to get things done. I was talking to someone who has worked with a lot these groups and what they said was that laziness pervails. During the summer when things should get going on campaigns union leaders were going home at 3 or 4 in the afternoon to beat the rush hour. Democratic Party workers were coming in late in the morning. Coming to work late and leaving early doesn’t lead to winning. On the other hand, my friends who worked on the Obama campaign said they would start their day at 9am and finish at 11 at night, seven days a week.
Also, my sources tell me that there is a profound lack of sophistication in the OC Dem turnout/campaign model. The naive lawn sign, let’s go to a lot of meetings and read liberal blogs culture prevails in the party and amongst Democratic campaigns. Lawn signs don’t vote. Hanging out and talking at meetings doesn’t win elections, and reading blogs by a bunch of fellow liberals will not make your campaign a winner. It is shocking to see what bad advice comes from people who have never won an election who are now in the party/labor decision making structure.
Additionally, what my Democratic friends have noticed is that Democratic electeds and leaders in the party tend to cozy up to Republicans quite a bit. They endorse Republicans for office, hang out with them for lunch and go to each other’s parties. While there is nothing wrong with being polite and working together on projects, endorsing and kowtowing to the Republicans is not what should be going on. It is a loser’s culture that pervades the OC Democratic structure.
The Democratic/Labor leadership should get it together or step aside, as their failure to capitalize during this Democratic year is on their hands. It may take a new generation of leaders and staff to get things done and change the culture.
5. Yet Republicans are and should be worrying- The demographics and the national climate appear to be going the Democrats way and the OC GOP has to stop complaining about immigrants and only being the party of angry white men. Luckily for the Orange County Republicans, the Democrats in Orange County were not ready to capitalize in this environment, but I would not count on being lucky forever.
—The OC Shadow—-
I wonder who will be going after Melahat and her job. I know there are a few people looking to take her position over. one in particular is salivating at the prospect of taking over Melahats job just for the sake of taking over Melahats job and the salary that comes with it.
While, I would like to see Melahat go the way of the Dodo, along with her salary that gained us nothing but alot of salary obligations with nothing to show for it, I shutter at the thought of this person taking aver as it is just an effort to legitimize herself and gain a paying job with no plan in sight.
While I don’t know who is in line for the ED job at that party, I can only hope it is a consensu maker free from the infighting and gossip mongering that pervades the Labor/ Democratic structure.
Fascinating insight!
I have heard that Melahat is angling for a position with the state party. Good for her.
No decent operative will apply for any position at the DPOC until Frank leaves and they elect a new chairperson who is willing to work at raising money, building alliances, etc.
I think Lindsay Hopkins has been wonderful. Is she still around?
Melahat should go to DC with the Obama admin. She raised 2.1 million for him here and thus kept 2.1 million from going to local races here in OC.
Vern, I dont know too much about Lindsay. I would suggest that George Urch would be a good ED because he can build the consensus between labor and the Party and avoid all the BS that comes with it. I think that he would be able to raise the money that is sorley needed as well. George was the ED for the party a long time ago. Im not sure he would be willing to come back if Frank is at the helm though. I think we can all agree that Frank needs to go. And I think we can all agree that Melahat needs to go as well. And I think we can all agree that Misha needs to stay out of the party operations completely.
Seriously, the truth hurts and this is coming from someone who knows. Raising money and building alliances is exactly what did not happen with the DPOC. And you can never know who to trust, it’s obscene really, damned if you follow their advice damned if you don’t. There is so much conflicting advice, etc.
Vern-
Did Lindsay H. tell the folks at the Cook campaign what they wanted to hear? Or did she tell them what they NEEDED to hear in order to be on the right path to win?
I don’t know what Lindsay told the Cook campaign. My positive impression of her is from four or five encounters that had nothing to do with Debbie. I always found her to be real positive, professional, and energetic, and hope she is staying at the DPOC. (What was she, Melahat’s assistant or something)
You guys should be aware that I posted a question to Chris Prevatt on the Liberal OC. I copied a question about his use of a stereotype that he used to exploit Aloha the homeless woman in Santa Ana. I asked him to answer directly the questions about his shameful use of stereotypes of homeless people in making a joke. I am a liberal democrat and I was very disgusted by the post. I pasted the questions below so you know what I am asking himt to answer. Know that he deleted them from the blog the Liberal OC. I don’t think that is very Liberal. Do you?
I pasted the below post from an earlier post on the Orange Juice with questions that I think Mr Prevatt should answer.
2. Chris Prevatt, on November 24th, 2008 at 7:40 pm Said:
Jose S.
“As a matter of fact I did help Aloha when I saw her. She also told me that she had no problem with my posting her picture on TheLiberalOC. She was however none too happy with “that Planning Commissioner” (Sean Mill) who reposted it in order to go after Thomas Gordon in a personal feud.”
Chris,
I wonder then why you felt you had to “help” Aloha if she was compensated by Thomas at the time he took the picture and you posted it?
The fact is that you recognize that you exploited her. But like I said before, I believe you were manipulated and influenced. Regardless, you held up to ridicule, a woman who is homeless with a sign the said “Will Kick Bustamante’s ass for Food” The Will do X for food is a stereotypical epithet used to ridicule the homeless. You were used by Republican Thomas Gordon to hold a homeless person up to ridicule by using a stereotypical epithet known collectively by society at large as a point of ridicule for the homeless. That is tantamount to any number of stereotypes attributed to the gay community or any other minority group or vulnerable population.
This is evident by the fact that Thomas is apparently sending money to put Aloha up in a motel for the night. A “Homeless By Choice” person according to Vern Nelson. I find that statement just odd as it would usually be uttered by a Republican commenting on the state of the homeless.
You should understand that just because a person is complicit in others exploiting them does not make it ok. Take for example how you were used and manipulated by Phil Becerra, and Janet Nguyen. Or how you were used as a pawn to wage a war against Edgardo Reynoso for Melahat by proxy through Hoa Van Tran.
“She was however none too happy with “that Planning Commissioner” (Sean Mill) who reposted it in order to go after Thomas Gordon in a personal feud.” Chris Prevatt
Chris,
Aloha has never met Sean Mill. I’m sure any homeless person would be happy to say what ever you ask them to after you and apparently another person for reinforcement come to them and give them money and other aid.
The fact that you were used and manipulated by Phil Becerra to post this picture taken by Thomas Gordon does not negate the fact that this woman was exploited. My friend Vern Nelson puts forth a valiant effort to steer the focus of disdain for this act by the perpetrators to one of adulation by the fact that this crass act resulted in a host of guilt buying efforts by you and Thomas. But this effort by Vern is simply because he is sick and tired of all the personal squabbles being waged here on this blog. I don’t blame him. It must be wearying for him.
That’s a strange, long comment, Adrian. Why is so much of it copied from old Paul Lucas comments? Can we stop talking about Aloha-gate?
PS Your comment is up now at the Liberal OC. Twice. They’re just not as on the ball over there approving comments as we are. And I don’t know why they put up the duplicate comments of impatient commenters like they did to you – is it to embarrass you, or do they just not see any reason not to?
Vern,
I think that Adrain just copied the whole post and pasted it.
I really enjoyed this column and it made a lot of sense to me (aside from the Adrian M. rant…..gee, have much of an axe to grind? Seriously, dude, keep it short and actually make a valid point).
It really used to be so easy to be a Republican. They were/are organized. They knew/know how to focus in on the win. The GOP could be counted on to deliver the goods on election day. They have some great slogans of fiscal prudence and keeping government small and nonintrusive. You could pretty much vote the party ticket and feel good about them all winning. “Contract for America”? Brilliant sales job!
However, the party has definitely deteriorated. It stands only for the super rich and that portion of the population makes up a very small group. So in order to dupe voters into voting against their own self-interest and ultimately against the good of the country made up of that majority, they need an army of cronies and religious societal parasites who benefit from GOP favoritism in the form of appointments and financial perks. That’s the entire party structure at this point. A group of undeserving people who still are assuming that they have a grip on special treatment and other entitlements at the expense of the greater public. The standing GOP has not yet gotten the memo.
The GOP used to be slick at getting majority votes before the internet and when they had essentially bought up all the media. However, thanks to George Bush AND the instant information sources of the internet, the GOP is being exposed for what it has become – a party that serves very few and at enormous expense to the majority of us.
I love that Sarah Palin is the “new face” of the Republican Party. The GOP party majority still think they can afford to float out this kind of politician – inept, underqualified, non-curious, uber religious, arrogant, vindictive – and expect a win. I love it. It is the rotting chicken around the neck of the GOP, part II. The sequel to the Bush double term.
Who knows what levels of selfishness the Democrats will go, now that they will be in the majority in House, Senate and holding the Presidential office? I’ll be watching them, is what I know for sure.
The People are taking the country in a much-needed new direction. We’ll see if the Republicans can pull out of their death spiral in the coming decade.