Republican lawmakers in swing seats along with party operatives and campaign consultants already are preparing for the challenging task of holding those seats in the 2016 election — when the higher turnout during a presidential year favors Democrats.

“Republicans hold the advantage among high-propensity voters, while Democrat strength is centered in lower-propensity voters,” said Wayne Johnson, one of the state’s top GOP political consultants. “2016 will be a higher turnout election, therefore it is a more favorable environment for Democrats.”

GOP ran efficient 2014 campaign

Following the election, Johnson’s firm, which does work on behalf of Republican legislative campaigns, crunched the numbers on seven competitive legislative races. That analysis found legislative Republicans ran an efficient operation in 2014 that capitalized on the state’s low voter turnout.

“By relying on propensity formulae, the Republican caucuses were far more efficient in their spending,” Johnson said.

Looking ahead to 2016, Republicans will need to be even more efficient in their campaign spending overall. That’s because in 2014 Republicans were aided by a decreased turnout among women and minority voters that traditionally vote for Democrats.

“The Democrat advantage among women and minority voters shrank significantly among those who actually voted in 2014,” pointed out Dr. Val Smith, polling and research director at The Wayne Johnson Agency.

GOP lawmakers work their districts

GOP lawmakers that represent swing seats are aware they’ll need to improve their standing with a broader electorate. That’s why they’ve prioritized working their districts by recognizing community leaders and filling their calendars with community events.

Earlier this month, Assemblyman David Hadley recognized Rosalinda Garcia, an active community volunteer and the chief programs officer for the Pediatric Therapy Network, as the 2015 Woman of the Year for the 66th Assembly District. Later this week, he will host a breakfast meet-and-greet with members of the Harbor City Harbor Gateway Chamber of Commerce in Torrance.

The first-term Republican lawmaker has yet to draw a challenger, but after winning by less than 1 percentage point in 2014, he’ll be one of the Democrats’ top 2016 targets.

OC Rematch: Sharon Quirk-Silva vs. Young Kim

In Orange County, former Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, who lost by 9 percentage points to Republican Young Kim in 2014, already has announced plans for a 2016 rematch. This past Monday, Quirk-Silva formerly launched her campaign for the 65th Assembly District at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration and fundraiser in Fullerton.

“I have thought seriously about this decision and know that my work for decades in our communities has focused on education, on supporting working families, and on building great communities,” Quirk-Silva posted on Facebook. “I realize the challenge I have ahead of me, but I am ready to work tirelessly to let the voters know that there is a choice in this district, a choice that matters.”

Orange County’s liberal activists relished Quirk-Silva’s announcement and the opportunity to send her back to Sacramento.

“Sharon Quirk-Silva had perhaps the best freshman term of any assembly member who won the 2012 race,” wrote Dan Chmielewski, a blogger at the LiberalOC.com. “Her loss to Young Kim last November was more a result of terrible voter turnout than a reflection on the job she did.”

The 2014 contest was one of the most expensive races in the country, with spending topping $5 million.

Baker benefits from ongoing Democrat Senate special election battle

In the Bay Area, Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-Pleasanton, could benefit from a prolonged special election battle for State Senate. Last November, Baker held off Democrat Tim Sbranti by less than 3 percentage points, after a bruising three-way primary battle that included moderate Democrat Steve Glazer. Bad blood from the primary affected voters’ opinion of the Democratic nominee in the general election.

Glazer is currently leading in a special election for the 7th Senate District. As CalWatchdog.com has reported, the race is headed to a run-off, in which Glazer will face off against Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord. That means more nasty campaigning by Democrats in Baker’s area.

Baker has largely risen above the fray and focused on a moderate agenda in Sacramento. She’s helped solidify her reputation as a committed public servant by declining per diem payments and a taxpayer-funded vehicle.

Thus far, no Democrat has filed a statement of intent to challenge Baker in the 16th Assembly District.

“Around the globe, blue is identified with conservative, free market parties, while red is identified with social democratic parties,” points out Shawn Steel, a former chairman of the state party who now serves as its representative on the Republican National Committee. “It is why conservative-leaning Democrats in Congress were called ‘Blue Dogs.’ Everyone knew what it meant.”

Steel is among a group of Republicans that have introduced a resolution calling for the California Republican Party to adopt blue as its official color in branding materials. The informal coalition of “Republicans, Red No More” says that it’s time to conform to proper historical and international standards for political ideology, correct a 14-year-old mistake by the mainstream media and, in the process, confront “the idea of a hopelessly divided nation.”

The group has some high-profile backers, including two members of California’s congressional delegation.

“Should the Republican Party choose its own principles and symbols, or should we let the national media do that for us?” asked Rep. Doug La Malfa, R- Richvale, in an email to delegates. “Well, the answer should be obvious.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, pleads, “Will you join with me in taking back our Reagan Blue?” He was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan.

No Red States and Blue States

Think the whole color conundrum is trivial? Wayne Johnson, one of the state’s most successful political consultants, believes that the media’s emphasis on red states vs. blue states increases public cynicism about the political process.

“The very notion that there are ‘Blue States’ and ‘Red States’ not only signals to people that their votes are a meaningless formality, it also feeds the idea of a hopelessly divided nation,” said Johnson, the president of The Wayne Johnson Agency. “Both assumptions also happen to be profoundly untrue. There isn’t a state in the union that couldn’t go Republican or Democrat in any given election given the right candidate and the right timing and issues.”

Last month, California Republicans proved that to be true: the right candidate, Councilman Kevin Faulconer, with the right timing, a special election, won a decisive victory in San Diego by focusing on right-of-center issues. Without compromising the party’s core conservative values, Faulconer sought to minimize the divisive red vs. blue rhetoric and build on a “theme of inclusion.” And as the UT San Diego noted, “He even used blue campaign signs.”

Bush vs. Gore: NBC News, New York Times and USA Today’s color-swap

Faulconer’s blue signs were a departure from recent norms, but not historical traditions. Dating back to at least the 19th century, the United States has followed the international standard of associating blue with right-of-center political parties and red with causes that lean left. That tradition, Johnson says, “reached its zenith in 1980 with the landslide election of Ronald Reagan.”

“In 1980, David Brinkley described the nearly all-blue map of the Reagan landslide as a ‘suburban swimming pool,’” said Johnson.

That all changed in 2000, when a trifecta of media powerhouses flubbed the traditional political colors. Among a slew of mistakes in its election night coverage, NBC News used red to fill in the map of states won by George W. Bush and blue for those won by Al Gore. Two days later, the New York Times and USA Today repeated those colors in their first color-coded maps of the vote. The graphics editors for both papers have said there wasn’t much thought put into the decision. However, the ensuing drama and Supreme Court case helped solidify the colors in the public’s mind.

“For weeks, the maps were ubiquitous,” observed Jodi Enda in her history of the controversy for Smithsonian Magazine. “Perhaps that’s why the 2000 colors stuck. Along with images of Florida elections officials eyeballing tiny ballot chads, the maps were there constantly, reminding us of the vast, nearly even divide between, well, red and blue voters.”

International standard: Red for left, blue for right

Elsewhere around the world, from the red Social Democratic Party of Croatia to the blue Tories in the United Kingdom, countries that never experienced the mainstream media mistake follow the historical norms.

Ilkka Ahtokivi, president of the International Association of Political Consultants and a prominent European consultant, says that the United States stands alone in its political colors.

“Blue is often considered the traditional color of center-right and free-market parties around the world,” said Ahtokivi, where the conservatives in his home country, Finland, have been using blue since its foundation in 1918. “It has always seemed counter-intuitive that in the U.S. the center-right party is assigned the color red, while the center-left party is assigned the color blue.”

As American parties have departed from the international norms in color usage, there’s arguably been a decline in party ties with other nations.

“It was during the 1980s that our relationships with conservative and free-market parties really began to blossom,” said Johnson, who has served as an American representative on the Board of Directors of the IAPC. “The close ties between Reagan and Margaret Thatcher strengthened the association of American conservatism and Thatcher’s Blues.”

CA GOP Convention Resolution: The first step

But, it isn’t just the prospect of global cohesion that has some California Republicans seeking to go from red to blue. There are also subtle consequences as the state party courts new immigrants. According to a report released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau, a quarter of the nation’s foreign-born residents live in California. That’s 10.2 million Californians who were born in another country, where blue means conservative and red means liberal.

Steel, who backs the change from red to blue, has led the party’s effort to expand political support among minority voters, especially Asian Americans. “They should be coming to our party en masse,” Steel told the Los Angeles Times last December.

For new voters that hail from anywhere else in the world, it becomes an issue of clarity.

“Let me begin by saying that the symbols we choose as a party pale in comparison to the principles we embrace,” Steel wrote in his message to delegates. “Yet, symbols are nevertheless important. It is a visual shorthand that people around the globe understand.”

A decade ago, political analyst Clark Benson similarly argued that it’s an issue of clarity.

“The key issue here is not the color chosen for the maps. The key issue is how states, or areas, are described,” Benson, publisher of Political Data Analysis, wrote in 2004. “What is needed is a return to clarity. Texas is not a ‘red state,’ it is (at least now) a generically Republican state. New York is not a ‘blue state,’ it is a generically Democrat state.”

Not everyone is optimistic that the colors can be corrected.

Glen Bolger, one of the Republican Party’s leading political strategists and pollsters, defied the dominant color choices for years. Until 2012, he used red for Democrats and blue for Republicans in his presentations, but finally threw in the towel due to the frequent confusion.

“I don’t know that it will ever go back,” said Bolger, a partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies.