GOP Hopes Less Lott Means a Lot More to California Republicans

Lott, Schmott. The political plight and mutterings of a Mississippi mossback have little relevance to the lives of people out here in California. Except that:

The flap had all the signs of another setback for the California Republican Party. And this reverse, unlike most, wasn’t even self-propelled.

The blow was blunted because Trent Lott surrendered his position as Senate Republican leader rather than fight on awkwardly until canned by colleagues. Even more damaging for the party -- particularly in California -- would have been his somehow clinging to the post and remaining the dominate face and voice of the GOP in Congress.

“We lost a guy we could have kicked around for a while,” notes Darry Sragow, an L.A.-based Democratic strategist. “Lott would have wound up in every Democratic speech as long as he was in a leadership position. We would have never let him off the hook. If we had, we would have been committing political malpractice.

“Trent Lott is the personification of everything wrong with the Republican Party, especially in California. There’s nothing like a good foil in politics.”

A good foil, for example, like former Gov. Pete Wilson, whom Democratic pols skillfully demonized among Latinos after he aggressively promoted the anti-illegal immigration Proposition 187 while running for reelection in 1994.

In recent years, the California GOP has tried to “reach out” to minorities, with only minimal success, after nasty campaigns pushing Props. 187 and 209. The latter, in 1996, quashed affirmative-action programs based on racial preferences.

Ironically, voters approved both measures by wide margins, but Republican politicians became so skittish of the fiery issues they’ve avoided them ever since. So the GOP lost twice. First it alienated minorities -- then failed to follow up on issues that aligned it with the broader electorate.

But the last thing California Republicans needed now was for the Senate GOP leader in Washington to be pining, seemingly, for the good old days of Dixie segregation while crowing that his state once backed a racist for president.

Many Californians -- white swing voters as well as people of color -- suspect conservative Republicans of intolerance anyway. The comment that rolled off Lott’s lips at Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday fete merely fed their suspicion.

“The Republican leaders I talked to were deeply disturbed,” says state GOP spokesman Rob Stutzman. Lott’s capitulation Friday was “welcome news.”

Allan Hoffenblum, a former GOP consultant who publishes the Target Book, which handicaps political races, notes that only white males have been supporting Republican candidates in recent statewide elections. “If any group needs a different face,” he says, “it’s California Republicans.”

That new face may be President Bush’s, many think.

Although too conservative for most Californians on such gut issues as environmental protection, abortion rights and gun control, the former Texas governor has been a godsend for the GOP on reaching out to minorities.

“Bush is popular [among Latinos], Republicans are not,” says Harry Pachon, a Claremont Graduate University professor and president of the Tomas Rivera Institute. “That’s what our surveys show.”

On the 10th anniversary of the L.A. riots in April, the president accepted an invitation to speak at a round table in South-Central L.A. “I was impressed. He really exceeded my expectations,” says Operation Hope Chairman John Bryant, an event organizer. “First and foremost, he showed up.”

In subsequent dealings with the White House, adds Bryant, an African American, “I don’t get the sense I’m talking to Republicans. I’m talking to reasonable people.”

Investor Gerald Parsky, Bush’s main man in California, says, “We’ve been on a mission to change the dynamic out here so we can win in ’04 (after losing badly in 2000). Everything’s oriented toward demonstrating that we are inclusive....

“Certainly the president’s swift and direct statement [denouncing Lott’s comments] was illustrative of how strongly he feels.”

“That was just beautiful for George Bush,” says Bryant.

But “it’s no silver bullet” for the California GOP, asserts Assemblyman Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria), a Republican rising star. “We’ve got our work cut out. The California Republican Party isn’t what it used to be.”

It’s still better off, however, than if Bush hadn’t throttled Lott and defused a Confederate cannonball.