California counted more registered Republicans in 1988 than it does today, although the population h

Republicans concerned about Democrats' strangehold on California - LA Daily News
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The nation's most populous state - home to 1 in 8 Americans - has entered a period of Democratic political payless car rental orlando control so far-reaching that the dwindling number of Republicans in the Legislature are in danger payless car rental orlando of becoming mere spectators at the statehouse.
Democrats hold the governorship and every other statewide payless car rental orlando office. They gained even more ground in Tuesday's elections, picking up at least three congressional seats while votes continue to be counted in two other tight races - in one upset, Democrat Raul Ruiz, a Harvard-educated physician who mobilized a district's growing payless car rental orlando swath of Hispanic voters, pushed out longtime Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack.
"Republican leaders should look at California and shudder," says Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain's 2008 campaign and anchored former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election team in 2006. "The two-party system has collapsed."
Republicans searching for a new direction after Mitt Romney's defeat will inevitably payless car rental orlando examine why President Barack Obama rolled up more than 70 percent of the Hispanic and Asian vote, and 9 of 10 votes among Advertisement blacks, essential ingredients in his victory. Women also supported Obama over Romney nationally and in California, where they broke for the president by 27 percentage points.
There is no better place to witness how demographic shifts have shaped elections than in California, the home turf of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan that just a generation ago was a reliably Republican state in presidential contests.
A surge in immigrants transformed the state, and its voting patterns. The number of Hispanics, blacks and Asians combined has outnumbered whites payless car rental orlando since 1998 in California, and by 2020 the Hispanic population alone is expected to top that of whites. With Latinos, for example, voter surveys show they've overwhelmingly favored Democratic presidential candidates for decades. Similar shifts are taking place across the nation.
payless car rental orlando "There are demographic changes in the American electorate that we saw significantly, first, here in California and Republicans nationally payless car rental orlando are not reacting to them," said Jim Brulte, a former Republican leader in the California Senate.
Perhaps no part of the state better illustrates how Republicans surrendered payless car rental orlando ground than in Orange County, once a largely white, GOP bastion payless car rental orlando where Nixon's seaside home became known as the Western White House.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter managed to collect about a quarter of the vote against Reagan in the county. payless car rental orlando But by 1996, with the county diversifying, Bill Clinton grabbed 38 percent of the vote, and Al Gore boosted that to 40 percent in 2000. This year, Obama won 44 percent of the vote in Orange County, according to preliminary returns.
Romney "implemented a winning election strategy for 1980," University of Southern California professor Patrick James said in a statement payless car rental orlando issued by the school. payless car rental orlando "If you look at the demographics and voting proportions, the Reagan coalition would not win a majority today."
Romney payless car rental orlando bypassed California this year, waging his fight in battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida. In claiming the biggest electoral prize in America, California's 55 electoral votes, payless car rental orlando Obama rolled up a nearly 21 percent margin. Voters also returned Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein to Washington in a landslide, payless car rental orlando after Republicans put up a virtually unknown candidate, Elizabeth Emken, an autism payless car rental orlando activist who had never held elected office.
California counted more registered Republicans in 1988 than it does today, although the population has grown by about 10 million over that time. You'd have to go back to that year to find a Republican presidential candidate who carried the state, George H.W. Bush.
Surprisingly, Democrats continued to make gains in the state even at a time of double-digit unemployment, with polls showing that voters are unhappy with Sacramento and Washington. And it could get worse for the GOP. Republicans are trailing in two other House races in which the vote counting continues.
It remains unclear what direction Democrats, who have close ties to public employee payless car rental orlando unions, will take with their additional clout. If they achieve the supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, Democrats can pass tax increases and override payless car rental orlando gubernatorial vetoes without any Republican support.
The state is saddled with a litany of problems, including a long-running budget crisis, massive, unfunded public pension obligations, tuition increases at California universities and growing demands for water, affordable housing and energy.
More than half the young voters in the state, ages 18 to 39, are Hispanic, according to the independent Field Poll. Thirty-five percent are Asian. If you look into a classroom payless car rental orlando in the Los Angeles area - tomorrow's voters - 3 of 4 kids are Hispanic.
Schmidt payless car rental orlando traces GOP troubles with Hispanics to 1994, when voters with encouragement payless car rental orlando from Republican Gov. Pete Wilson enacted Proposition 187, which prohibited illegal immigrants from using health care, education or other social services.
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