I need to add a separate comment about Mr. Caruso’s assertion he has no idea what happened to the Republican Party in California. He certainly knows. For Bari’s benefit, here’s the Readers Digest version. Pete Wilson (R) had been elected senator in the early 1980’s and was called upon to run for governor in 1990, mainly due to a weak ben…
I need to add a separate comment about Mr. Caruso’s assertion he has no idea what happened to the Republican Party in California. He certainly knows. For Bari’s benefit, here’s the Readers Digest version. Pete Wilson (R) had been elected senator in the early 1980’s and was called upon to run for governor in 1990, mainly due to a weak bench. Two propositions, 187 and 209, came on the ballot in 1994 and 1996. Especially on 187, which cut off benefits for illegal aliens, Wilson took the lead. It was a brutal campaign, in which the republicans won a Pyrrhic victory. The propositions both passed, but the party was destroyed. There was a dual senatorial election in 1992, like in Georgia in 2020, won by Boxer and Feinstein, Gray Davis became governor and the republicans haven’t won a statewide election since.
I need to add a separate comment about Mr. Caruso’s assertion he has no idea what happened to the Republican Party in California. He certainly knows. For Bari’s benefit, here’s the Readers Digest version. Pete Wilson (R) had been elected senator in the early 1980’s and was called upon to run for governor in 1990, mainly due to a weak bench. Two propositions, 187 and 209, came on the ballot in 1994 and 1996. Especially on 187, which cut off benefits for illegal aliens, Wilson took the lead. It was a brutal campaign, in which the republicans won a Pyrrhic victory. The propositions both passed, but the party was destroyed. There was a dual senatorial election in 1992, like in Georgia in 2020, won by Boxer and Feinstein, Gray Davis became governor and the republicans haven’t won a statewide election since.