California’s Plummeting GOP Registration
Going into the 2010 election cycle — the last election in which candidates will run in districts drawn in 2001 – the biggest story is the plummeting Republican voter registration throughout California.
Not only is the current statewide Republican registration of 31% a historic low, but for the first time there is not a single congressional, state senate or assembly district that has a majority Republican registration.
Back in 2001, when the redistricting mapmakers gerrymandered the 80 assembly districts in an attempt to keep the status quo of 50 safe Democratic districts and 30 safe Republican seats, five of the assembly districts had solid Republican majorities and an additional five had a GOP registration of between 48 – 50 percent. Today, it’s zero majority districts and only two with GOP registration over 48 percent (Jean Fuller, AD32; Jeff Miller, AD71).
California Comeback Could Begin in Nevada
California Republicans announced a road trip yesterday. They plan to head to Reno, Nevada to hold a hearing about why businesses choose to leave California. Nevada is a good place to look for such businesses in exile.
The Republicans will not only have former California business people testifying at their hearing; Nevada’s governor and some of its legislators will also be in attendance. I imagine there will be a few zingers fired California’s way from that crowd. But, they have a right to crow – California businesses move out of state because of poor policy choices by our state’s lawmakers.
Not only can the condition of chasing businesses from the state be turned around, it must be turned around. The answer to solving California’s budget problems is to free up the job creating power of business. And the best way to do that is to encourage ENTREPRENEUR CALIFORNIA, a place where the entrepreneur can thrive without the burden of difficult regulation and high taxes.
Quiet Conscience Makes One Strong
In many ways, our great country is now at a crossroads. Will we continue to build on the values that helped to make us great, including a reliance on our native ingenuity, creativity, and work ethic? Or will we get soft and look evermore toward bigger government to take care of us?
Today we are facing daunting challenges to our economic way of life. So it’s naturally important for our general feelings of economic confidence to believe that government is “doing something” positive about the situation. But this also brings upon us the risk that we, and the government, will see government as the solution to all of our problems. And that is a dangerous course to take for our future, and for the future of our children.