LAT: GOP Moderates From O.C. Recruiting in L.A. County

[question everything]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-newmajority18feb18,1,3152843.story?coll=la-headlines-california

GOP Moderates From O.C. Recruiting in L.A. County
By Jean O. Pasco
Times Staff Writer

February 18, 2005

A group of wealthy, moderate Orange County Republicans, formed five years ago to supplant the party's powerful cadre of social conservatives, has a new target: overwhelmingly Democratic and liberal Los Angeles County.

(snip)

The group also sealed its clout by becoming the state's largest donor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who counts its members among his earliest political mentors.

(snip)

It's one thing to tackle internal GOP politics, and quite another to make a dent in the power structure of Los Angeles County. Most of the county's legislative seats are as entrenched for Democrats as Orange County's are for Republicans.

With that in mind, the group has endorsed Schwarzenegger's proposal to take the redrawing of legislative district boundaries out of the legislators' hands, which would make some Assembly, state Senate and congressional races more competitive. The governor has pledged to qualify an initiative for a fall special election, along with other changes, if the Legislature doesn't put a measure on the ballot by March.

(snip)



Currently, most districts are so imbalanced in party registration that winners are essentially determined in party primaries, which tend to attract fewer voters and those driven more by ideology. Often, the legislators who emerge are liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans who find little common ground in Sacramento.

(snip)