2014 saw an Election for an Assembly seat in Ventura County. The lead candidate was a conservative Pastor—who had enough support to keep the District Republican. In fact, the two Republicans received a total of 30,000 votes in the primary to the Democrats 24,000. Yet the campaign being run by the GOP opponent, Mario De La Piedra, was really Mario smearing McCoy—to assure Irwin win the General Election. He was touted by his campaign as a highly successful insurance agent—later we found out his office was his bedroom. No one had heard of this 24 year old before the election—nor since—it is like he was a ghost. One of his campaign strategists, and it was said friend, was Jessica Patterson, who helped give this GOP seat to the Democrats. No one cried or whined about this. No one denounced Jessica Patterson, now the Chair of the California Republican Party was being integral in turning this GOP seat—had been held by Jeff Gorrell—into a Democrat seat.
Now she is crying and whining that Guv Newsom is HELPING HER candidate and the CRP endorsed candidate, Senator Brian Dahle, get into the number 2 spot, moving him to the November election. Maybe she is upset that AG Bonta is noting the one active Republican in the race, Eric Early, is a conservative. His opponents are an NPP candidate, Sacramento NPP DA Shubert and the never before heard of, but now known as a known NO TRUMPER Nathan Hochman—the Mario De La Piedra of this election—also endorsed by the CRP.
From a CAGOP email sent Tuesday by Patterson: “ “California Democrats’ widespread disinformation campaign to save at-risk candidates proves they are running scared in the midterms. The party’s top accomplishments include surging crime, an affordability crisis and gas prices topping $6/gallon, so attempting to confuse Republican voters is clearly the only play they have. The California Republican Party has endorsed an accomplished field of candidates, and Democrats’ dishonest and pathetic political games will not be enough to save them this November.” – CAGOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson”
Politics is a tough game. Maybe if she used the Party to register voters, the GOP would have a better chance in November. Maybe if she built the Party using the County organizations and political clubs throughout the State, November would look better. She needs to be a leader—not upset that politics is tough. BTW, I am a supporter of Joshua Hoover, who is a friend and a great Californian, veteran and Republican. I know Perrine and understand why he was kicked out of the Sacramento GOP.
By JEREMY B. WHITE, LARA KORTE and JUHI DOSHI, Politico, 5/24/22
THE BUZZ: For a rumble in the jungle, it’s best to pick your sparring partner.
In the years since California adopted a top-two primary system — which allows the highest vote-getters to advance to the general regardless of party — campaigns have perfected the art of strategically elevating the opponent they’d most like to face in November. That often takes the form of “attack” ads that actually serve to elevate a desired, further-right foe among his conservative base. Another cycle has brought a fresh round of machinations and accusations. Depending on whom you ask, it’s the type of disingenuous and cynical tactic that toxifies politics for most voters — or it’s just savvy strategy.
Republicans gathered yesterday to decry Democratic Assembly member Kevin Cooley’s move on this front. The moderate Democrat looks vulnerable to a challenge from Capitol GOP chief of staff Joshua Hoover in a D+5 district during a Republican-tilting year. But a mailer from Team Cooley doesn’t mention Hoover. It spotlights Republican Jeffrey Perrine as “a pro-Trump patriot who calls himself an ‘anti-establishment’ conservative,” noting Perrine got booted from a local GOP organization without clarifying it was after Perrine was outed as a Proud Boy. Cooley “is playing with fire,” Hoover warned. He is “better than this,” Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher added.
Allies of Attorney General Rob Bonta are following a similar script.Few analysts think conservative Republican attorney Eric Early is best positioned to ride public safety concerns to unseating Bonta — no-party-preference Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert is seen as the bigger threat, or Republican former U.S. Attorney Nathan Hochman. Hence a labor-funded, pro-Bonta PAC spending nearly $750,000 so far attacking Early, including with spots that call Early a “Trump Republican” who will “end Obamcare” and for whom “protecting the Second Amendment is everything.” Another pro-Bonta PAC has run radio spots nominally stumping for Bonta while characterizing Early as the “pro-Trump, pro-guns, pro-life” candidate.
So it goes. A primer on earlier iterations: Gov. Gavin Newsom “assailing” Republican John Cox in 2018 for standing “with Donald Trump and the NRA,” sidestepping well-funded Democratic challenger Antonio Villaraigosa and going on to crush Cox in November. National Democrats in 2018 “attacking” Assembly member Rocky Chavez for backing a gas tax increase, after which Republican BOE member Diane Harkey made the general and lost by 13 points. A 2020 mailer promoting an obscure Republican in the open, heavily Democratic CA-53. Real estate players spending around $175,000 in the last primary boosting the scandal-beset Democratic former Assembly member Steve Fox, who in November didn’t come close to knocking GOP Assembly member Tom Lackey from a D+11 seat.
