This past weekend, GOP contenders and supporters gathered at the Hyatt Hotel in Burlingame to discuss ground game strategies and minority appeal with town halls focused on Asian, Latino and young voters.
Social media strategies were discussed along with grassroots organizing with an emphasis on not trying to convince the other side of the political line to convert to Republican but to instead maximize the Republican vote.
According to former California Republican Party [CRP] Chairman Ron Nehring, this year was about putting Republicans in the downtown offices, which would “maximize” the California Republican strategy.
“We want to maximize the rate that Republican voters are voting for Republican candidates,” said Nehring, listing city council, mayor, municipal and any other potential electable seats as means of “maximizing” Republican presence in California.
While the ground game workshop discussed maximizing the Republican vote rather than garnering potential voters, the rest of the convention focused on doing just that, broadening appeal.
What the convention really did this year to separate itself from prior gatherings was its first ever Asian Town Summit hosted by current chairman of the California Republican Party, Tom Del Beccaro. The convention also hosted its second Latino town hall, followed by the Young Republican Voters town hall meeting.
“I know [the] majority of Californian voters believe in our principles,” said Del Beccaro. “I know this because they vote for our initiatives. Unfortunately the party in the past has not worked hard enough to broaden itself and include everybody in these discussions […] We want people to hear from Republicans directly.”
The town hall held short speeches from conservative Asian American elected officials from around the state including the youngest mayor in California, Jeremy Yamaguchi, 23, from Placentia, Orange County.
Ricky Gill, congressional candidate, 25, was present as well as Virginia Chang Kiraly, director of Menlo Park Fire Protection District who spoke concerning fiscal responsibility and representing her Republican status-ship in the Bay Area.
Shawn Steel, Republican National Committeeman, gave a brief introduction for the town hall, citing surprising finds involving Asian American elected officials.
“We started off in Los Angeles, we hit over 40 locally elected Republican Asian officials,” said Steel. “Nobody knew we had 40 locally elected Asian officials who were actually registered Republicans in the Los Angeles Orange County area.”
Michelle Steel, Steel’s wife as well as vice chair of the California Board of Equalization and chair of Newt Gingrich’s campaign in the state, co-hosted the summit.
“I want to identify them [Asian American] and embrace them and bring them into the California Republican Party cause they are the ones with their own community support out there in the community…We have to identify them and embrace their own communities to bring them into the Republican party,” Steel told The Pioneer. “We talk about education, we talk about economy, we talk about family values…Their thoughts [Asian-American] are so similar to Republican Party ideas that they are just perfect candidates for the Republican Party.”
Chris Pareja, the third candidate for the Congressional 15th District running against Pete Stark and Eric Swalwell attended the event as well.
“I think the outreach they are doing like the Asian and Latino town halls are the right way to go, I think the Republican Party has been mislabeled as being exclusive and not reaching out to the community so I’m glad to see that they are trying to reach out but I do think they have a tough road ahead,” said Pareja.
The highlight of the summit was Newt Gingrich’s surprise visit that marked his interest into attracting the Asian American vote.
“This is where I feel we have to outreach to everybody in the Asian American community. I favor tax policy and a regulatory policy that maximizes jobs, because I want to be the paycheck president and Obama has successfully become the food stamp president,” said Gingrich.
The Latino town hall was a lively event that focused on trying to destroy the anti-Latino “stereotype” that the Republican Party has been at battle with for many years.
First tackling immigration and boarder control, Del Beccaro asked the crowd to raise their hand for those who were concerned with border control; most raised their hands.
“The majority of Latino voters support border patrol. There is a humanitarian issue on our borders. They use human beings as drug mules. If this was happening in a border in Africa, we would send in the UN in and provide relief,” said Del Beccaro.
Panelist Mario Rodriguez, the vice-chair of the California Republican Party, believes that the media and the Democrats are responsible for “painting” the Republican Party as anti-Latino.
This viewpoint was also something that Francisco Loayza, the leader of the UC Berkeley College Republicans, later added as well.
“All Latinos are Republican, they just don’t know it yet,” Loazya told The Pioneer. “They are pro-life, pro-traditional marriage. We take care of our community, we don’t believe in the state trying to help us, we believe in neighbors, the church, the community.”
Santiago Lucero, from Univision, hosted the event and asked Latino panelists present why the Republicans did not endorse the DREAM Act, which was to give educational assistance to illegal minors.
Latino participants held split views, but Del Beccaro answered, giving prominence to legal residents who he claims are undeserved.
“This is a quintessential political move by the Democrats. What about the shattered dreams of the 60 percent of Latinos in L.A. who dropped out in high school? Why are we creating a program for citizens not in our country when the Latinos in L.A. can’t get an education in the school’s they’re already in?” asked Del Beccaro rhetorically.
The Young Republican town hall was hosted by KSFO talk show host Brian Sussman and included a panel of young, successful businessmen, a congressional candidate and a lawyer.
The town hall discussed embracement of social media technology to broaden Republican appeal to young voters and even answered questions posted on Twitter for the panelists. Many common discussion themes were brought up by crowd participants. One questioned why public schools were not private?
No panelists argued in favor of destroying public education but panelist Joe Lonsdale, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and co-founder of Palantir Technologies, believes that more people should get involved in vocational schooling, which may be appropriate for some citizens rather than college.
Panelist Ricky Gill, who also participated in the Asian town hall, believes that there should be more educational application from charter schools implemented into public schools, heralding charter schools as an example of educational proficiency.
Another crowd participant claimed that public schools’ liberal arts are brainwashing students into a “liberal mindset” to which she asked if any panelists agreed.
Panelist Adam Abrams, a lawyer known also as a “union buster,” answered,
“That’s part of the problem when you have institutionalized a mindset.”
“You really need to take it upon yourself to really react, and that’s what we’re doing today: we’re making sure that the California Republican Party starts talking to these folks, and sit down with your younger brother or sister and talk to them so that they understand what’s going on. You can make it through that social brainwashing as long as you have someone else there to help you,” continued Abrams.
A woman in the audience, who said to be a liberal arts professor, contested the argument made by Abrams.
“Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water. […] When I go into the corporate world as a consultant and talk to upper level managers, their biggest problem is their ability to provoke technical people into managing positions. Let’s not forget that the liberal arts foundation has philosophy, psychology and economics that are important to having a very broad view about reality.”
Chase Thomas contributed to this report.
