Joins Asm. Nathan Fletcher as GOP exiles
by Brian Leubitz
Bruce McPherson was never really the vote that Republicans wanted to have to count on, but, he was a fairly reliable Republican. Well, a moderate Republican, of the sort that is currently getting pushed out of the GOP across the nation. Well, count McPherson as one of the exiles.
The man long known as the only Republican who could get elected in Santa Cruz is no longer a Republican. Bruce McPherson said Tuesday he is dropping his GOP party affiliation and listing no preference, joining a growing bloc of California voters who’ve renounced party identification.
“That’s who I am,” McPherson said. “During my years in the California Legislature, I was widely recognized as the most independent voice in either the Assembly or the Senate. Now more than ever I think we need leaders who make decisions for the community and the people, not what’s best for the party.” (Merc News)
McPherson is currently running for a Santa Cruz county Supervisor seat, and will likely be elected in the run-off in November if he hasn’t already. (The votes are still being counted.) And in Santa Cruz, he’ll still be pretty conservative for the County. But in the end, he’s what he always was, a California Forward kind of guy.
As for the CA GOP…well, follow the registration numbers.
I live in the district Mr. McPherson wants to represent. And, along with others, I worked hard to defeat him. Despite a money advantage over his closest opponent by a factor of 7–raising the most money ever for a supervisor’s campaign in the county’s history–he didn’t make it to 50%.
So he’s trying this ploy to make voters think he’s really a moderate. His record says differently. Here’s what one local volunteer group said about him:
McPherson does not represent the people of the 5th district, or even live within its historical boundaries. He does not represent the 99%. Instead he represents the 1% who profit from Republican policies, lives in a mansion in exclusive Pasatiempo Estates, and has a long history of strategic leadership AGAINST our Santa Cruz values under cover of a dangerously friendly “moderate Republican” smile…
As California Secretary of State, he certified the easily hacked Diebold voting machines, and he disqualified 40% of newly registered voters in Los Angeles (mostly Latino) as part of national pattern of Republican voter suppression.
As a state legislator, he refused to help his Felton constituents (FLOW) win back control of their water supply from German multinational company, he voted AGAINST state laws expanding domestic partner rights, outlawing bullying in schools, and other GLBT rights, he received a 50% rating from Planned Parenthood – identified as “leans anti-choice”, and he voted against state laws banning sweatshop conditions in state contractors’ workplaces.
As editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Bruce McPherson campaigned…
against preserving Wilder Ranch,
in favor of developing Lighthouse Field, and
in favor of building a nuclear power plant in Davenport
He’s a Republican, in other words, for a reason. Do you think he’ll represent YOUR values and interests?
My own research also indicates that, as a state senator in 2002, he accepted $15,000 in campaign donations from the phone company, a multinational oil company, and the prison guards’ union–and passed all of it along to an unsavory, right-wing group called Capitol Ministries that advocates legislating “according to the Jesus of scripture.”
Bruce McPherson may have ticked a different box on the voter registration form. But that doesn’t mean the man who actively worked for Carley Fiorina and Meg Whitman has changed his stripes.
But, as usual, the media is just repeating what he says instead of doing any actual journalism and finding out this sort of thing for themselves.
Breaking news for Bian Leubitz, who says “McPherson… will likely be elected in the run-off in November if he hasn’t already. (The votes are still being counted.)”
1. He hasn’t already. There will be a runoff.
2. November will be a different election. November voters are not June voters.
Brian, like Bruce, you may be in for a November suprise.