Leaders in the state party are concerned about local elections, particularly in one important Orange County state Senate race.

But President-elect Donald Trump fanned the flames by tweeting California was one of three states with “serious” voter fraud. His Sunday tweet followed another sent hours earlier claiming that he’d “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” 

Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California – so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias – big problem!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016

So far, Trump has offered no proof to his claims, which were dismissed in great detail by PolitiFact California. Secretary of State Alex Padilla immediately sent a press release disavowing the claim: “It appears that Mr. Trump is troubled by the fact that a growing majority of Americans did not vote for him. His unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in California and elsewhere are absurd.”

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California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte told party officials in an internal email obtained by CalWatchdog that the state has a history of “anomalies” that “deserve further scrutiny.” Brulte added that he believed “most of the government officials charged with ensuring voter and ballot integrity are good people who want to do the right thing.”

Brulte cited several incidents throughout the years, but came back to a recent election in Orange County — which ultimately gave Democrats a legislative supermajority — where voter turnout “increased in some cases up to 30 percent over the 2012 election.”

The Orange County Registrar of Voters attributed the spike in turnout percentage to a cleanup of the voter roll. 

Orange County’s history

California Republicans point back to a 1996 congressional race in Orange County, were 624 non-citizens voted after having registered illegally, according to a congressional investigation. In that race, the Democratic challenger, Loretta Sanchez, defeated the Republican incumbent, Bob Dornan, by less than 1,000 votes.

“That was before online registration, late registration, a boom in illegal residency, driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, and other trends,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, a member of the Republican National Committee from California. “Logically, the numbers are much higher today and the state seems deliberately to make it difficult to verify eligibility to vote and also takes little to no interest in preventing fraudulent voting.”

Ways to improve?

Dhillon said Republicans are concerned that the current online voter registration system doesn’t track the computer’s ISP address, which helps detect fraud, and that users can self-verify citizenship with a driver license number, which are issued to non-citizens.

Dhillon said Republicans believe new voters should verify citizenship, not just check off a box. 

Nothing to see here

But the Secretary of State’s office holds that there’s no problem. A spokesman told CalWatchdog that the SOS “already conducts routine security assessments of our systems,” but declined to give specifics.

Many election law experts say there is no evidence of widespread problem voter fraud. Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, said Trump’s claims did not happen and “lack any evidence or grounding in reality.” 

An investigation into what happened in Orange County may be worthwhile, Levinson said, but added that increased turnout itself isn’t enough to allege voter fraud.

“There are plenty of reasons this election cycle as to why people in Orange County would be motivated to go to the polls.” 

By CALWATCHDOG STAFF

• CA Republicans diversifying
• What can be done about mass shootings?
• Tragedy averted in Santa Monica
• Recalling a judge is harder than it looks
• Daylight savings time in Legislature’s crosshairs 

Good morning!

With a little luck at the ballot box, Republicans in the Legislature are set to expand on their increasingly diverse delegation, a far cry from the “Party of Old White Men” it’s been thought of by some for years.

And while Republicans have the primary goal of holding the relatively few seats in the Legislature they already have, increased diversity would show a modernizing party that could expand is electoral appeal. 

“Our party does not engage in the identity politics of the left, but we have placed an emphasis on recruiting and supporting the best candidates for every district,” said CAGOP Vice Chairwoman Harmeet Dhillon. “In our culturally rich state, that candidate is often someone with a minority background.”

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• The tragic shooting in Orlando yesterday left Americans again wondering if there is anything to be done to curb mass shootings, but sadly there’s not, reports The Orange County Register.
• Apparently unrelated to the Orlando tragedy, an Indiana man armed with three assault rifles and chemicals used to make explosives was arrested in Santa Monica on Sunday, with a gay pride parade as his ultimate target. The San Jose Mercury News/AP has more.
• Calls to recall the judge who sentenced a Stanford University athlete to six months in jail for sexual assault have only increased since the controversial verdict last week. But recalling a judge is more difficult than it seems, reports Capitol Weekly.
• A bill to abolish daylight savings time in California gets its first committee hearing today. The Sacramento Bee has more.   

Assembly:

• In at 1 p.m. Multiple committee hearings.

Senate:

• In at noon. Multiple committee hearings.

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mflemingterp

New followers: @PoliticalRTer @CupOfPolitics

With a little luck at the ballot box, Republicans in the Legislature are set to expand on their increasingly diverse delegation, a far cry from the “Party of Old White Men” it’s been thought of by some for years.

And while Republicans have the primary goal of holding the relatively few seats in the Legislature they already have, increased diversity would show a modernizing party that could expand is electoral appeal. 

“Our party does not engage in the identity politics of the left, but we have placed an emphasis on recruiting and supporting the best candidates for every district,” said CAGOP Vice Chairwoman Harmeet Dhillon. “In our culturally rich state, that candidate is often someone with a minority background.”

Diverse candidates

In a district that includes much of Bakersfield, termed-out Republican Shannon Grove appears set to be replaced by Vince Fong, of Chinese descent. Fong won the primary with 60.8 percent of the vote in the largely Republican district.

Dante Acosta is poised to replace termed-out Republican Scott Wilk in a Republican-leaning district that includes Simi Valley and much of north Los Angeles County.

Acosta, of Mexican descent, came in second in the primary behind Democrat Christy Smith, who won 44.8 percent to 35.9 percent. However, Acosta split a majority of votes among two other Republican candidates.

In a largely Republican Orange County district, termed-out Don Wagner may be replaced by Harry Sidhu, who came to the United States in 1974 from India. Sidhu split a 67 percent majority of the vote among six Republicans and came in second behind the lone Democrat.

Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang, who was born in Taiwan, is running to replace Bob Huff, the only termed-out Senate Republican, in a competitive district that straddles Orange and Los Angeles counties. Chang faces longer odds than the others, as she advanced to the general with two Democratic candidates splitting a 55 percent majority of the vote.

If Chang does win, she’d increase diversity in the Senate Republican caucus. And filling her seat in the Assembly could be Philip Chen, of Chinese descent. Chen, like Acosta and Sidhu, was the second-place finisher in the primary behind a Democrat, splitting the vote with four Republicans in the Republican-leaning district.

“As an immigrant myself, I am proud to see more and more Republican candidates that other Californians with diverse backgrounds can identify with when they visit the polls,” said Dhillon, who was born in India. “This trend increases voter turnout and enthusiasm.”

Does it even matter?

California is a huge state, filled with diverse pockets. It’s often said that as the demographics of the state changed, the Republican Party failed to keep up.

Since becoming CAGOP chairman in 2013, Jim Brulte (along with Dhillon and other party leaders) has tried to change that trend in candidate recruitment. As he said in 2015: “In a neighborhood election, the candidate who most looks like, sounds like, has the shared values and shared experiences of the majority of the people in the neighborhood tends to win.”

In 2014, California Republicans sent a relatively large delegation of women to the Legislature, with a large Asian bloc that included Chang. In 2016, they’ll aim to expand on that with Acosta, Chen, Sidhu, Fong and Chang. 

“Under the leadership of Jim Brulte, California Republicans have done yeoman work in recruiting candidates who look like their constituents,” said John J. Pitney, Jr., a Roy P. Crocker professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. “It’s a smart move: monochrome does not fit California, and in the long run, this strategy could help the party rebuild its strength.”

But, Pitney cautioned, the effect Trump — the presumptive nominee who has a tendency to say things sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly viewed as racist — will have at the top of the GOP ticket is unclear.

“The problem is that people tend to see political parties through the prism of presidential candidates,” Pitney said. “Trump could ruin much of California GOP’s progress.”

“There were three Assembly seats that were lost because we got lazy,” Brulte said shortly after taking the helm as chairman of the California Republican Party in March 2013. “Leaders lead by example, and we have to be in the precincts working, standing shoulder to shoulder with our volunteers.”

Now that’s he reclaimed those legislative seats lost to laziness, Brulte is asking state party delegates to reelect him to a second two-year term as leader of the state’s rebuilding minority party.

“We can build upon our successes this year,” Brulte wrote to party delegates, according to a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times. “Working together we showed what our party could achieve. We need to build upon that success … because our state, our counties and our cities are too important to leave to those who do not share our philosophy.”

The 2014 election marked the first time in 20 years Republicans defeated a Democratic incumbent. The state party prevented a Democratic supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature as it made inroads with solidly Democratic regions of the state. For years, Republicans have been without any state or federal elected officials in the Bay Area. That changed in November with Catharine Baker’s win in the 16th Assembly District.

CA GOP vice chair “relieved” at news

CA Republican Party Vice Chair Harmeet Dhillon, who also announced plans to seek another term on the board of directors, said Monday she was “relieved” that Brulte was interested in keeping the job.

“He has turned this party around, and it has been a privilege to be one of the many people on his team,” Dhillon wrote on her Facebook page. “We worked hard and applied a disciplined focus to achieve the goals we accomplished last month. But California needs more. We need a vibrant two-party system and a marketplace of ideas. We need lower taxes, less regulation, innovation, job growth, a respect for life and a respect for the rule of law, starting with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We need freedom from government. We are far from these goals.”

A first-generation immigrant, Dhillon has served as one of the party’s main advocates in its effort to court non-traditional GOP voters. She’ll finally have some help with the recent election of four Asian-American Republican women to state and local offices in Orange County.

CA GOP finances up, registration down

When Brulte and Dhillon took over the helm, the state party was deep in debt. Now, as of Dec. 1, according to state campaign finance disclosure reports, the California Republican Party has $1.48 million in cash on hand. This year, state Republicans have raised $19.2 million — more than double the amount in 2012.

In addition to stronger finances, the party has made a serious effort to broaden its appeal. State delegates, who have traditionally felt excluded from the party, described this year’s spring convention as a “blockbuster” step forward in terms of inclusiveness. Once relegated to the margins, the California Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian Republicans, hosted a hospitality suite that was packed the entire night.  Other changes included an ASL interpreter on hand for deaf and hard-of-hearing delegates.

“We’re pushing the party outside of its comfort zone,” Brulte said of the shift in tone. “And we’re already seeing the benefits.”

But there’s still work to be done, especially in the area of voter registration. For yet another year, Republicans saw their voter registration numbers dwindle to just 28.2 percent. Republicans have watched their share of the electorate consistently decline from 35.6 percent in 1998, according to Capitol Weekly.

Will 2015 Spring Convention avoid party drama?

With the party’s two top leaders seeking reelection, state Republicans hope to enjoy a low-key spring convention and avoid the negative headlines that plagued its most recent gathering in Los Angeles. Coverage of the party’s September convention focused on internal emails by party leaders that were leaked to the press.

Those emails included Brulte’s blunt criticism of Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, the GOP nominee for state controller who failed to endorse Neel Kashkari’s campaign for governor. Swearengin lost anyway to Democrat Betty Yee, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Brulte, a former minority leader in both the California State Senate and Assembly, was elected chairman of the California Republican Party with 90 percent of the vote in 2013. But don’t expect either Brulte or Dhillon to rest on their laurels.

“In the coming days and weeks I will be reaching out to state party delegates and volunteer groups, seeking their support in the quest to continue this service,” Dhillon said.

The Spring 2015 Organizing Convention will be held from Feb. 27 to March 1 in Sacramento.

“We’re pushing the party outside of its comfort zone,” California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte said in advance of the convention. “And we’re already seeing the benefits.”

So did the party’s convention mantra prove to be more than just a slogan?

GOP groups, activists and delegates, who’ve traditionally felt excluded from the state party, describe last weekend’s convention as a “blockbuster” step forward in terms of inclusiveness and creating a broader, more accepting party.

Log Cabin Republicans “Blockbuster” CA GOP Convention

“This convention was blockbuster for Log Cabin,” Charles Moran, chairman of the California Log Cabin Republicans, said of the 2014 spring convention. “The last few years, things have been increasingly getting better for us as we’ve grown and the Party leadership has been more willing to engage with us. But, this convention took that to a whole new level.”

Once at the margins, California’s chapter of the the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian Republicans says that it is on the path toward an official charter from the GOP, a thought unheard of just a decade ago. The group’s annual luau-themed convention hospitality suite was packed the entire night, despite being right across the hall from the suite of Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Hesperia, the conservative running for governor.

Then again, the two aren’t mutually exclusive: many Log Cabin Republicans, and their supporters, are conservative backers of the Tea Party star.

“The mix of people in our suite really does show the diversity of Log Cabin — roughly half the folks in our suite were wearing Donnelly stickers, and the other half Kashkari stickers,” said Moran, who added that gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari, a moderate, was the first candidate at the Log Cabin’s doorstep. “I really can’t think of another place in the convention where there was this much intermingling of the two camps.”

Small accommodations for overlooked groups

It wasn’t just gay and lesbian Republicans that felt more welcomed by the nearly 1,000 delegates and activists at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport. Other groups, who have felt that the GOP wasn’t communicating with them, noticed a change in the party’s desire to communicate. Literally.

At convention after convention, unlike their Democratic counterparts, Republicans have failed to provide an American Sign Language interpreter to accompany convention speakers. That’s now changed.

This year’s spring convention, for the first time in recent history, included an ASL interpreter for deaf and hard-of-hearing delegates.

Consider it a small change that shows the party is serious about its promise to “Rebuild, Renew, Reclaim.”

“We had a request from a delegate, and we want the party to be accessible to all,” party spokesman Mark Standriff said of the change.

Allen Wilson, a state party delegate who is hard of hearing, said he’s been asking the party for years to provide an ASL interpreter. Eventually, he stopped asking.

“I truly thank Chairman Brulte and Vice Chairman Dhillon for making this accommodation,” said Wilson, who is active in Republican politics. “The Deaf and Hard of Hearing struggle everyday on challenges for jobs, education and equal access. We don’t want a handout but acknowledgment of our challenges should come with empathy not sympathy.”

The Hearing Loss Association of America estimates that roughly 20 percent of Americans, 48 million people, report some degree of hearing loss. That number includes a third of Americans over the age of 65 who report some hearing loss.

CA GOP Vice-Chair Harmeet Dhillon: More people heard our message

California Republican Party Vice Chair Harmeet Dhillon, who received complaints from friends that felt excluded from full participation in political events, said she’s proud to see the party make the change.

“I’m proud that our party is really trying to reach every interested voter and activist by making them welcome at our keynote lunch through the inclusion of sign language interpreters at our convention,” Dhillon said. “Today more people were able to receive [former Secretary of State Condolleezza] Rice’s inspirational message about liberty, global responsibility and educational opportunity for all Americans, rich and poor.”

All of the party’s changes are getting noticed by national leaders and the media. Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus told the Bay Area’s KTVU that it’s providing financial support to help the party rebuild. “The RNC national party is spending real money here to help the GOP rebuild itself and we’re starting on the ground,” he said.

“These events have felt like those post-soccer game parties where the team that lost 10-1 tries to convince itself that the next contest will be better,” wrote Steven Greenhut, California columnist for the UT San Diego. “The buzz among convention-goers was that there actually was a buzz.”

If, as many party bosses privately hope, Kashkari wins a place in the Top Two primary election in June, expect the buzz to continue. Top Two produces two winners, the likely other one being Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who then face off in the November election.

“The first candidate at our doorstep was Neal Kashkari, who gave an impassioned plea for the party to modernize, grow the tent and get with the times,” said Moran of the Log Cabin Republicans.