Republicans eye
liberal California

Every six weeks the Republican Party chairman travels to California, a large and solidly Democratic Party stronghold. With Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor and the state's most conservative areas growing rapidly, Republicans are sensing an opportunity. Democrats have won the last four presidential contests in California and maintain overwhelming majorities in the congressional delegation and legislature. But Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman insists GOP prospects are improving, thanks to demographic changes and Schwarzenegger's star power. "There's tremendous opportunity here because of the governor and his leadership and because of President Bush and his leadership," Mehlman said in a recent interview. Mehlman nonetheless faces steep challenges in making his party competitive in California. But analysts have noted several population shifts that suggest potential for Republicans to expand their reach. California is home to nearly 37 million people--one of every eight Americans--and is projected to add as many as 11 million more in the next two decades, roughly the equivalent of the state of Ohio. But while population growth is slowing in left-leaning coastal areas like Los Angeles and San Francisco, it is accelerating in more conservative regions such as the Central Valley and the Inland Empire area east of Los Angeles. The state's large Hispanic population, long staunchly Democratic, has become somewhat less so in recent years. Bush won 32% of California's Hispanic vote in 2004, up from 28% in 2000. Schwarzenegger won about a third of Hispanic voters in the 2003 recall election even though Democratic lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante, a Hispanic, was also on the ballot. In his outreach to ethnic minorities, Mehlman said he stresses the party's commitment to economic self-reliance and traditional family values. Still, most analysts believe Republicans have a long way to go to repair the party's image among Hispanic voters, after a 1994 ballot initiative promoted by GOP governor Pete Wilson to deny social services to illegal immigrants. Since then, Hispanics have lined up solidly with Democrats. Schwarzenegger may have complicated Republican efforts to recruit Hispanic voters with his criticism of the federal government for lax border controls and his praise for the so-called Minuteman Project, a controversial civilian patrol that has helped capture hundreds of illegal immigrants in Arizona. Bush has denounced the group as vigilantes. Schwarzenegger's immigration comments aren't the first time he has publicly broken with Administration policy. He also supports gay rights, legalized abortion, and stricter gun control laws and has cut sharply to the left of the Administration on environmental issues. Mehlman said he's comfortable with the nation's best-known Republican governor taking positions at odds with the Bush administration, and he downplayed a magazine interview last month in which Schwarzenegger said growing the Republican Party was not part of his mission. "We're a big party, and we're a party where people will disagree on some issues while agreeing on what it means to be a Republican," Mehlman said. (AP)