OK, this is pretty hilarious. Remember when Larry Dodge, the guy who was going to retire the California Yacht Party’s entire debt, threatened to withhold three million bucks unless the party overhauled its inept operations? Well, I guess he got his answer, because now he’s starting up his own organization outside the party.
A who’s who group of California Republicans will announce on Wednesday the formation of a new political organization whose mission will be to recruit and elect GOP candidates to statewide office in California.
The group will be chaired by Larry Dodge, the wealthy Republican donor who has been unhappy with the organization of the California Republican Party accusing the party of lacking “professional management.”
Former California GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim will serve as executive director of the group, which is calling itself California Republicans Aligned for Tomorrow (CRAFT).
This is a party defined by giving tax breaks to yacht owners, and so its richest donors build a new group called CRAFT… which is another word for yacht. You can’t make up this stuff, folks.
The Yacht Party’s richest members have such little faith in their party organization that they decide to build a new one, in the fleeting hope that somehow THAT was the problem, and not a set of policies that Californians almost unilaterally reject.
I must say that the Courage Campaign must be flattered over this imitation, the difference of course being that they are committed to empowering members from the bottom up, while CRAFT sounds pretty top-down to me. In fact, it’s unclear that this is anything but a money-laundering organization that can be more flexible than the state party. All the same players are involved.
Among those set to announce the group’s formation on a Wednesday conference call include both GOP legislative leaders, Assemblyman Mike Villines and Sen. Dave Cogdill, Party chairman Ron Nehring, former Gov. Pete Wilson, Rep. David Dreier, the chair of the California Republican congressional delegation, freshman Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner.
Six old white guys and one old white guy (George Runner)’s wife. CRAFT diversity fever – catch it!
In the spirit of comity, I’ll offer one word of advice: don’t kick off your conference call by noting how much your candidates totally suck.
The new group notes that since 1994, Republicans have won only four of 24 possible statewide elections in California.