Republicans’ voter registration ranks continue to slip, with no-party preference voters now outnumbering Republicans in 13 counties and more than a third of the state’s cities, state numbers released this week show.
Since last fall, independent voters have overtaken Republicans in Humboldt County and in Burbank, Dublin and several other cities. No-party preference voters outnumber GOP registrants in 172 cities, according to Monday’s report from the Secretary of State’s Office.
Independent voters outnumber Democrats in 14 cities, but not in any county, the records show.
The dirty little secret that the rest of the country doesn’t understand is that the California GOP doesn’t need to be a hot mess, it chooses to be. For the last couple of years, Republicans have held more than half of the elected positions in the state, despite the party’s leadership constantly whining about shifting demographics. So the notion that people in the state won’t vote for Republicans is simply false.
The big problem with the California Republican Party comes in the bigger elections, where it has been embracing moderate, “electable” and largely self-funded candidates for two decades now.
None of whom have won elections, by the way.
This parade of unelectable electability is wearing thin with even the most hardcore Republicans in the state (“Present”). It has done done damage that is approaching the irreparable stage quickly. Sadly, even with the evidence in plain sight of what’s happened here, the national party is embracing the same penchant for self-inflicted wounds.
I know many outside of California love to take the, “Who cares? Let it burn,” approach to the goings-on in this state, but Republicans do that at their own peril. Do we really want to concede the largest bloc of electoral votes every presidential election? This is the reason the GOP has to focus its entire strategy on fourteen people in Ohio every four years. The party will be skating on thin-margin ice until it fixes this problem.
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