Written by: Stephen Frank
During the recall election, Democrat’s launched numerous TV ads encouraging people to vote no. However, none of them claimed Newsom had done a good job as Governor. Instead they smeared the Republican Party, the candidates and the intelligence of voters—seriously, did anybody, except for Newsom, see the Trump name on the ballot?
Tom Del Beccaro (chairman of Rescue California), wrote on Newsmax, saying that now the recall election is over, Californians chose the status quo. This means the issues that propelled the recall, like crime, homelessness and loss of jobs likely will get worse.
Republicans want to be relevant in California, they need to become the party of solutions for what troubles California. Republicans should learn from their successes with statewide initiatives. California is somewhat unique in that it has a thriving political process that allows its citizens to place initiatives on the ballot.
Those initiatives can become law and even amend the California Constitution. Despite dwindling Republican voter registration, California voters have been partial to initiatives supported or opposed by Republicans for decades. In November of 2020, California voters turned down a massive property tax increase, turned down a return to a racial quota system, voted against cashless bail, rejected expanded rent control and reversed a law pushed by Sacramento Democrats that sought to force Uber and Lyft to make all their drivers employees.
Del Beccaro is right—we provide ballot measures the people can support—such as educational choice—and then our candidates tie their opponents to the failed schools or failed policies we are trying to fix. We can win, but we need to create a new way of thinking and Tom Del Beccaro has started us on the right path.
Photo from: AFP via Getty Images
