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California politics: Will the GOP become a third party?

Bruce McPherson, 68, who is a former California Secretary of State, centrist legislator, and current candidate for the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, has re-registered as an independent, or “no party preference.” In doing so, McPherson has followed the lead of other former Republicans who have become independents, including Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher of San Diego and Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks. Republican attacks on Fletcher after his defection actually INCREASED the candidate’s voter appeal, according to Matt David, Fletcher’s campaign manager and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s communications director. Fletcher’s defection hurt him with regard to party fundraising and volunteer help.

McPherson’s move reflects the preferences of millions of Californians as reported in the L.A. Times:

More than one-fifth of registered voters, 21.3%, are listed with no party preference, according to the Secretary of State. That’s double the 10.7% in 1996 and more than quadruple the 5% in 1972.

In the last 16 years, the GOP’s slice of the electorate has fallen from 37% to 30.2%. The Democrats’ share also has declined, but less precipitously — from 47.1% to 43.4%.

Voters are reacting to the EXTREME polarization of the Democratic and Republican parties, which was seen LONG ago in California and has been seen more recently, in Washington, D.C. McPherson says:

“I walk precincts door to door and people tell me they’re looking for an independent voice,” McPherson says. “They see partisan politics as paralyzing the governing process. They see no movement or communication. They’re frustrated and fed up.”

“But I’m not going to do Republican bashing because the left wing of the Democratic Party is guilty of the same thing. It’s ‘my way or the byway.’ Republicans want to shut down things and Democrats want to pay for everything.

“There’s no middle.”

Well, it is certainly hard to argue with THAT! The inability of EITHER of the major political parties in California to compromise for “the common good” is, IMHO (“In My Humble Opinion”) responsible for much of the state’s economic woes. Another factor is political “grandstanding” and wasting of time on emotional issues (like gun control) instead of dealing with real financial problems.

In McPherson’s part of the state, Santa Cruz (one of the “leftest” parts of the “left coast” 😉 ), the GOP has ALREADY become a third party!

Santa Cruz County has the fourth-highest Democratic registration percentage in the state, 54%. McPherson’s supervisorial district is 48% Democratic, with slightly more independents, 23%, than Republicans, 22%.

Since “politics makes strange bedfellows,” McPherson’s abandonment of the GOP immediately GAINED the support of Santa Cruz County Treasurer Fred Keeley, a liberal Democrat and former fellow legislator, who said, “The Republican Party left him a long time ago. He’s an old-school Republican, but the party wandered off on social issues. He’s not a social bigot.”

Matt David, the GOP consultant, agrees:

“In California, the Republican Party has done tremendous damage to its brand with its positions on immigration and gay marriage,” David says. “Add to that the no-tax pledge.”

“You can be fundamentally opposed to a tax increase, but to sign a pledge never to vote for a tax doesn’t allow you to have honest negotiations with the other side.”

The GOP consultant adds, “A Republican committed to public service who wants to serve the state in an elected capacity is absolutely going to have to consider running as an independent, given the damage done to the Republican brand.”

Although McPherson does not remember ever voting for a tax increase in his 11 years in BOTH legislative houses in California, he never signed a pledge to vote that way.

Maybe the GOP, nationwide, could learn a lesson from this, before the party itself becomes irrelevant.

Come to think of it, maybe Democrats could learn a lesson, too, from the decreasing percentages of people who identify themselves as EITHER Republican or Democrat.

-Bill at

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