CRA on the 34th & 35th SDs

The California Republican Assembly on the 34th and 35th SD races on not much you haven't read in here already, and long before now:

Two up-coming State senate races are causing conservatives heartburn.  The 34th Senate district is held by termed out Democrat Joe Dunn. This will be the top target for the GOP in 2006.  The 35th District is held by John Campbell comes up for grabs assuming he wins the special election in December for Congress.

Now the leadership seems to be looking at two candidates for these offices that would be harmful to the movement.  In the 34th District they are trying to convince Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, a moderate republican to run. One other possible candidate is Assemblyman Van Tran, a conservative assembly and the first Vietnamese immigrant elected to the legislature. The district contains portions of Garden Grove and Westminster that have large Vietnamese populations.

In the 35th. Assemblyman Tom Harman has announced. He hails from Huntington Beach and while his voting record is getting better, he too is a moderate.  Both Harman and Daucher shouldn't even be in the Assembly. Both lost GOP Primaries, but were nominated by Democrats that crossed into Republican primaries during the failed experiment in "Open Primaries". These types of primaries were thrown out by the US Supreme Court. But we were stuck with the nominees.

Now our fearless GOP leaders in Sacramento are pushing these Open Primary babies on to us in the Senate. When will they wake up and realize this a conservative party and should be represented by conservatives.

We've been pushing for Tran against Dunn for months.  We posted that in Should Van Tran Adjust His Target? on 6/30, in Memo To Van Tran: Run For the 34th SD on 8/16, in Dunn and Dumber on 8/30 and in State Senate Switcheroo on 10/24.

Tran could run for the 35th too, but the possibility of unseating a liberal is just too tempting. 

Comments

[Fullerton Conservative]

Sen. Dick Ackerman is the driving force behind the Daucher candidacy in the 34th. He hates Van Tran and does not care that Daucher is a liberal. Ackerman has also been actively trying to recruit an opponent to Supervisor Chris Norby. In the 35th, don't be shocked if he endorses Tom Harman. Yes, it means he is supporting liberals over conservatives. But to Ackerman, it's all personal.

[yrfromwoodbrige-go warriors]

Van's announcement will settle things. Daucher won't want a contested primary just to fight Umberg. Van, we need you to step up.

[reality check]

Van Tran can't beat Umberg. Ackerman understands this and therefore is reluctant to put the party's money behind VT (can we all say "Bill Jones"?). As leader, A will be measured by whether he picks up or loses seats - it's about time we started to think practically given our state house seat count (miserable - thanks CRA and, apparently, "Lurk"). "Hatred" has nothing to do with this.

[Fiscal Hawk]

What the hell is Reality Check smoking? Van Tran can't beat Umberg? Freaking Umberg got so many skeletons in his closet that the Democrats are looking at possibly running another candidate for the 34. Ackerman is a fool for not backing Tran who can now raise more money as an incumbent and has a lock on the Asian voters of that district.

As a leader, Ackerman almost loss his job to Jim Battin, is not raising a lot of money for the party, and was punk out of the Congressional race by John Campbell.