![](\"http:\/\/s20.postimg.org\/4hlprc60d\/PPIC_party_data.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIf you are a Republican, the only thing I suppose you can hang your hat upon is that you still just as well with white voters as the Democrats do. Except that with the growth of the minority voters, that simply isn’t enough anymore. The “which party is more concerned with voters like you” question also went to the Democrats. Solid majorities of blacks (86%), Latinos (73%), and Asians (64%) choose the Democratic Party. Whites are divided (37% Republican Party, 41% Democratic Party).<\/p>\n
And the overall 56% unfavorable rating is no way to win an election, except in the most right-wing districts. All this amounts to what we saw in the 2012 election, with Republicans falling below the 1\/3 threshold for relevance.<\/p>\n
Now, that is not to say that California voters are thrilled with the Democratic Party. In fact, some folks are looking for another option:<\/p>\n
A majority of likely voters (59%) say the two major parties do such a poor job representing the American people that a third major party is needed, while just 32 percent say the Republican and Democratic parties do an adequate job.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, I’ve always felt that California is ripe for a centrist party to make big gains, mostly by taking traditional Republican voters and some of the moderate Democrats. The work of getting there is an extremely high hurdle, creating a real third party in today’s climate almost requires a billionaire to swoop in to fund it. And even Michael Bloomberg hasn’t built up any kind of infrastructure to really grow a third party. The two-party structure is just so ingrained at this point that most of the third party talk has usually stopped at the talking.<\/p>\n
All that being said, whether the new CRP chair Jim Brulte can do anything about these numbers is the biggest question about the CRP, but his base might really be a bigger obstacle to future growth than any individual policy or messaging point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GOP faces credibility and demographic issues<\/i><\/p>\n
by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n
I left one set of numbers off the previous PPIC poll post, mostly because they deserved to be called out independently. Namely, this party data is deeply troubling for the future of the Republican Party:<\/p>\n