He brushed off his prickly relations with the state's GOP establishment, a rump subject to Democratic dominance in Sacramento. For Donnelly, his surge in the polls shows he is in tune with constituents fed up with what they see as dysfunctional, bloated government. “Tone down the crazy,” conservative pundits counselled.īut in California the grassroots call the shots, making the Tea Party a resilient force. Calls to reoccupy the centre ground swelled last November after Tea Party-backed candidates lost in Virginia and the moderate Chris Christie triumphed in New Jersey. Republican leaders have talked of expunging extremism, perceived or real, since Barack Obama turned Mitt Romney's anti-immigrant stance into a stick in the 2012 presidential race. “I expect Democrats nationwide to be mentioning Tim Donnelly a lot.” That scenario would abort GOP efforts to rebuild in California, where it has foundered since Arnold Schwarzenegger's stint as governor, and resonate beyond the state, he said. “Brown could use him as a bogeyman, say he's anti-hispanic and motivate hispanics to turn out and hurt other Republicans running for office.” “Personally I'm backing Neel Kashkari, he's the fresh face we need and will stand a better chance against Brown.”ĭonnelly's rhetoric on immigration could mobilise the Democratic base, said Pitney. “Some of our members worry about his impact on latino voters but others are very impressed by his stance on other issues,” said the group's president, Errol Valladares, of Donnelly. The California Republican National Hispanic Assembly is split over whom to endorse. “We will get the same anarchy and corruption that all these people are fleeing.” “If we undermine the rule of law we will lose this republic,” he said. That was far behind Brown, on 57%, but way ahead of his GOP rival Kashkari, on 2%, suggesting a Brown vs Donnelly runoff in November.ĭonnelly said he had more latino support than any other Republican in the state, despite his opposition to a general amnesty for undocumented people. Stephen Colbert skewered him on The Colbert Report in 2007, when he was a fence-building border activist, and John Oliver, then with The Daily Show, mocked him in 2011, after he was elected to the state assembly.Ī poll earlier this month, however, gave Donnelly 17% of likely votes in the June primary. “I love California,” he says, “and I hate what Jerry Brown has done to it.”ĭonnelly is an easy target for liberals. Since running for the gubernatorial nomination he has focused on crumbling infrastructure, shoddy schools and the flight of businesses to lower tax states. He has voted against bills on minimum wage and transgender rights, wants to abolish the Air Resources Board which regulates air quality, and calls state welfare programmes a form of slavery. The concern for the GOP, said Pitney, is that a Donnelly candidacy would tar Republicans running for other state offices – and the party's image beyond California.Ī former Minuteman who led militia-style border patrols, the Golden State's GOP frontrunner favours Arizona-style laws against illegal immigration, which he has linked to gang violence, and opposes driving licences and public financial aid for undocumented people. “Brown would have to commit a major felony with a minor farm animal on TV to lose,” said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna college. “We have to remember that if people don't like us they won't vote for us.”įew doubt that Governor Jerry Brown, a Democratic incumbent with 59% approval ratings and a $20m (£12m) campaign war chest, will squash whichever Republican runs against him in November. “We're making it very difficult to be likeable,” he said. Latinos, women and young people, in particular, are likely to recoil should Donnelly clinch the nomination, said Lionel Sosa, a Texas-based GOP media guru who advised Ronald Reagan, both Bushes and John McCain. But it has alarmed some GOP activists, who fear the impact on efforts to rebrand the party. Such rhetoric has powered Donnelly past Neel Kashkari, a better-funded and centrist rival who languishes in the polls. The very first thing we should do is stop rewarding illegal behaviour, stop incentivising it.” “I don't blame them for coming here when we're giving them all kinds of free stuff. Americans believe that government is the biggest threat to our future.”Ĭalifornia and the US needed to secure the border and deter illegal immigrants, added Donnelly, 47. “The Democratic party has been hijacked by Marxist progressives. When you become a champion of the people they'll follow you to the ends of the earth,” he told the Guardian during a campaign stop this week.Īmerica's biggest state was hungry for his promise of smaller government, he said. The state assembly member from Twin Peaks – a remote, rural community – has roused grassroots conservatives with broadsides against taxes, illegal immigration and government regulation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |