Orange County has given birth to and/or nurtured its share of people and organizations that have powerfully impacted the Republican Party — for good or ill.
Richard Nixon was born here, and Ronald Reagan’s political home base was here.
The state’s two leading GOP groups — the Lincoln Club of Orange County and the New Majority — also originated here.
The Lincoln Club was formed in the wake of the bitter 1962 gubernatorial primary between Richard Nixon and Joe Schell. The purpose was to "build Republican strength by lowering the intensity of intra-party warfare and making party politics more orderly and business-like."
The New Majority was born in the wake of Dan Lungren’s lopsided 1998 defeat and dedicated to "bringing a Republican majority to California by lending the necessary resources to candidates who support fiscally responsible government and an inclusive Party."
In April I was invited to attend a small media lunch with Tom Tucker, chairman of New Majority/California, and Paul Folino, chairman of New Majority/OC, where they talked about TNM’s past and their plans for its future, gave us (me, Jean Pasco of the LA Times, Martin Wisckol of the OC Register, Alicia Robinson of the Daily Pilot and Michael Lyster of the OC Business Journal).
TNM’s painful entry into politics with an ill-fated and ill-informed attempt to take over the Republican Party of OC Central Committee is well known in GOP circles. A lot of political observers dismissed them as dilettantes and expected they’d pack it in after that attempt ended in an embarasing disaster.
To their credit, TNM plowed ahead, reached out without rancor to conservatives and have worked hard to build of the GOP. For example, the OC GOP’s recent closure of the registration gap (notwithstanding instances of registration fraud at the close of the drive) is due entirely to a registration program funded by The New Majority.
According to Tucker and Folino, TNM is already the most prolific GOP fundraiser in the state: since 2002, $30 has been raised by TNM and its members.
TNM established a Los Angeles chapter in 2004 (of which my good friend Andy Gharakani is the executive director). According to Tucker and Folino, their goal is to establish 7 more chapters in the next four years — each chapter with about 150 members (the OC chapter is at 200 members and LA has 85 members).
They Inland Empire is currently in the making. At the time of the media luncheon, they had signed up about 2 dozen members after two recruitment lunches. They were planning a May 25 event with former Governor Pete Wilson to kick-off fthe formation of a San Diego chapter, and Bay Area and Silicon Valley chapters are next on their agenda for launching.
The New Majority/California was recently formed as an umbrealla group to coordinate the various clubs and to manage The New Majority brand."
Obviously, if their plans are successful, TNM will command serious fundraising firepower. Let’s assume they are successful in establishing 7 chapters of 150 members each. Annual dues are $10,000. That’s $10,500,000 right there. According to Tucker, they’ve been ablethus far to fund-raise 3.5 times the annual dues from each member, leading him to confidentaly predict they’ll be able to rasie at least $25 million a year. That is an enormous amount of political capital.
The New Majority is already a significant player in GOP politics, and if their expansion plans come to fruition TNM will be an 800-poubd gorilla.
The question is, to what end will this weight be thrown around? Arnold Schwarzenegger entered state politics via Prop. 49 not long after TNM’s formation, and support for Arnold heavily defines The New Majority’s identity.
As Paul Folino said at the luncheon, "Arnold Schwarzenegger and Prop, 49 really rallied us. He was someone who shared our point of view. He is hugley important to The New Majority’s growth. The Governor has accelerated our progress by five years — if it weren’t for him, I’m not sure we could have opened up two new chapters in two years."
I think The New Majority has been a very positive force in California Republican politics. Critics knock them for being more "pragmatic" than conservative, but it’s that same pragmatism that led TNM to quickly abandon battling conservatives as a counter-productive enterprise, and decide to work with conservatives to build a bigger GOP.
At the same time, as long as The New Majority is planning four years out, they also need to think about their organization’s overarching purpose post-Arnold. In a state where politics is dominated by labor union, casino tribe and trial attorney dollars, The New Majority’s fundraising prowess is desperately needed. But just as desperately needed is a hard-edged commitment to battling for expressly for liberty and limited government that matches the ferocity the aforementioned liberal interest groups devote to expanding the power and scope of government (except for the casino tribes, who are really just concerned with expanding their own power and scope).
More on that topic later…
Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?
Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.