California GOP Undecided for Governor; No Endorsement

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

The California State Republican Party Convention is currently going on in San Diego, and the Republican Party is divided when it comes to governor.  The top two choices are John Cox, who, while endorsed by pro-life organizations, voted for Gary Johnson in the Presidential Election (Johnson is pro-abortion and pro-open borders); and Cox is a Chicago transplant that has no “native” love for California, and plenty of love for power and position (and is spending his own money to push his views in this race).  Then, we have Travis Allen, born and raised in California, his record and political ratings with various organizations clearly makes him the most conservative candidate on the ticket, and he supported Candidate Trump throughout the 2016 campaign.  He has the fire, a viable plan for restoring California, and the political experience in Sacramento to take on the establishment.

The establishment, who stupidly believes we must be moderate to win in California, which is a betrayal of the Republican Platform and the voters, fears Travis Allen, and his very conservative message.

In today’s vote regarding endorsement of the gubernatorial candidates, the first vote regarding endorsement had John Cox at 55.3% and Travis Allen at 40.5%.  60% is needed for endorsement.

A motion was put into play to allow a re-vote for the purpose of allowing people to change their vote based on what they saw regarding the first vote.  To suspend the rules and allow a second vote, it requires a 60% approval.  When it went to the floor, 59.4% was tallied as being for yes, not enough to allow the re-vote by a mere .6%.  Therefore, no endorsement.  The fear by many is this puts out a message of division in the California GOP.  Endorsing a bad candidate for the purpose of not showing division is a bad strategy.  Don’t get me wrong, those people are right that the lack of an endorsement shows division in the party, but it also sent a message to the establishment that they can’t bully their way into control.  The division exists because the conservative platform of the party is being discarded and bullied by leftist infiltrators into the California Republican Party, and “funding-guy” Charles Munger who has been using his money to influence the party in a way that is not in line with the platform.

As a friend once told me, 75% of the party dislikes Munger, but 75% will also defend him because of the fact that he paid off the State party’s debt.

In the long run, Munger and his minions hate the conservative nature of the party, and are playing games with well-placed “bought” delegates and proxies, and a well-strategized campaign of manipulation, to get their way.  Today, however, the conservatives held firm enough to keep Munger’s guy, John Cox, out of receiving the GOP’s endorsement.  It’s a minor victory for conservatism in California, but it is a victory.

Now, it comes down to the fight in the streets over the next 30 or so days as we approach the California Primary on June 5th.  With the top two primary in place (Munger, by the way, also killed the effort to StopTop2), the hope is that Gavin Newsom is far enough ahead of his rivals in the Democrat Party that he pulls so many votes from the leftists that the numbers for Chiang and Villa-La-Raza will be low enough to allow the top GOP candidate to pull off the second spot.  John Cox is ahead in mainstream media polls (of which also told you Hillary Clinton was a shoe-in in 2016), and Travis Allen has overwhelmingly been winning endorsements of county parties, and all of the polls at the major conservative events and clubs (United I.E., Redlands Tea Party, etc.).

I believe that John Cox is the Kashkari of this race.  Kashkari entered the 2014 race for Governor of California with the support of the Bush family and Mitt Romney behind him.  The leading republican at the time was Tim Donnelly, a truly conservative candidate, and the fears of a conservative leading the GOP race put enough fear into the establishment that they shoved Neel Kashkari into the race to stop Donnelly.  The plan worked, Kashkari beat Donnelly in the primary, and then lost to Jerry Brown in the general election the following November.

Cox, like Kashkari, is not expected to win.  He’s in there to make sure the conservative doesn’t.  That said, if somehow Cox does pull off the number two spot and is on the ballot in November, even though I support Travis Allen, Cox would get my vote because even John Cox is better than any of the Democrats (especially Gavin Newsom).

One other scenario could emerge, as unlikely as it may be.  If the Democrats split the liberal left vote evenly, it is possible, though very unlikely, that both Allen and Cox could wind up on the ballot in November.

If that happened, the Democrats would be the greatest “Stop Top Two” warriors out there.

– Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary