California GOP not the party it was in Ronald Reagan's day

[mfcorey1]

As the Republican candidates for president arrive today in Simi Valley to debate at the Reagan Presidential Library, they will find the Republican Party in California in decline, its registration falling and its remaining members older and more conservative than in Reagan's time.

It wasn't always so hard to be Republican in the Golden State. Republicans Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and Dwight Eisenhower all carried California, and Republican presidential candidates took the state nine times in 10 tries between 1952 and 1988. Reagan and Richard Nixon went from California to the White House.

But in the years since George H.W. Bush won California – the last Republican presidential candidate to do so – the party flailed, losing ground to Democrats as Latino registration increased and white, non-Hispanic voters' share of the electorate fell.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/07/3889550/california-gop-not-the-party-it.html#ixzz1XGJzhJ1Y

[LonePirate]

1. Hopefully this California trend will spread to the rest of the country.