GOP brand pronounced dead in deep-blue California (consensus of dems & gop)

[Liberal_in_LA]

The Republican Party, as a brand, is dead in California.

That's the eye-opening consensus of a crowd of political observers, lawmakers and strategists - Democrats and Republicans - gathered at a UC Berkeley symposium this weekend to mull over California's defiantly blue status in the wake of a conservative tide that swept the nation in November.

Many of the 200 attendees at the two-day Institute of Governmental Studies conference appeared surprisingly unified on one issue: that, barring dramatic upheaval, the GOP's prospects may be doomed in the voter-rich Golden State.

"Republicans, as a brand, are dead," Duf Sundheim, the former state GOP chair, told the gathering Saturday.

Exhibit A: Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, who had racked up a string of election victories in nonpartisan offices. But Cooley lost the 2010 state attorney general's race to San Francisco Democrat Kamala Harris. Why? "He had an 'R' after his name," Sundheim said.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/22/BAB31HD2T1.DTL#ixzz1BuMXkR7a

[Merlot]

1. Why? "He had an 'R' after his name," Not because he was corrupt or anything.

And we have Debra Bowen to thank for our clean elections - she decertified the dibold machines.

[tibbiit]

2. Pukes were dead as a brand after

Nov 2008.
tib