Primary Results Boost Republicans in CA

Make no mistake, thanks to so many people pulling together in campaigns across the state, Tuesday's election results show the Republican Party is on the field in California and running up the score in a very competitive environment.

Here are a few key developments from Tuesday's polling.

Republicans kick off the general election campaign with a decisive win as the Democrat-led recall of Senator Jeff Denham goes down in flames. Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill, Assemblyman Tom Berryhill and I joined Jeff at his victory headquarters Tuesday night as the results came in: in a Democrat district, in a Democrat state, in what we're told is supposed to be a Democrat year - 76% of 12th district voters rejected the Democrat recall campaign.

Republican Tom McClintock is headed for Congress following his nomination in the 4th Congressional District last night. Democrat cubicle-jockeys back in Washington are trying to tell the press that they have a shot in this district in November. They don't. As Republican donors and volunteers unify behind Tom McClintock, we're going to see Republican dominance of this seat continue for years to come. In San Diego, Duncan D. Hunter decisively won our nomination in the 52nd district, another open seat.

While Nancy Pelosi and Congressional Democrats have zero pickup opportunities in California, Republican Dean Andal is well positioned to defeat ultra-liberal Jerry McNerney in the 11th district.

Assemblymember Mimi Walters won the Republican nomination in district 33, making her certain to succeed Senator Dick Ackerman. Other Assemblymembers heading to the Senate include Bob Huff, John Benoit and with all of our support, Greg Aghazarian and former Assemblyman Tony Strickland.

The Assembly primary results are too lengthy to detail here, yet several new Republican women's caucus members are on their way to Sacramento, along with veterans like Nathan Fletcher (district 75), John McCann (district 78) and Abram Wilson (district 15). Gary Jeandron ran unopposed in the 80th district to succeed termed out Assemblymember Bonnie Garcia. In the hotly contested 15th Assembly District, San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson won the nomination in a very competitive four way primary.

In San Diego County, the wheels completely fell off the Democrat cart as former Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith (R) placed first in the race for City Attorney, beating incumbent Democrat Mike Aguirre. The two will face off in November. In the race for San Diego Mayor, 88.9% of City voters cast ballots for Republican candidates despite a 30K registration advantage for the Democrats. Incumbent Mayor Jerry Sanders was re-elected.

In Ventura County, Chairman Mike Osborn reports that while Democrats made a big deal of becoming the plurality party, more Republicans turned out to vote than Democrats, and Senate nominee Tony Strickland received about 3,000 more votes in the primary than his Democrat opponent (results). The world is not run by those who are just registered, but by those who turn out.

With the primary behind us, the general election campaign is now in full swing. Given what we together accomplished Tuesday night, we can achieve great victories in November for this great cause that unites us.

In our Presidential contest, we have a clear choice between the ready-on-day-one-leadership of John McCain, or Jimmy Carter's second term with Barack Obama. Our downticket state and local races are equally important to putting our Republican ideas into action here in California.