Report: Calif. GOP Is Falling Apart By SCOTT LINDLAW .c The Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- In a bluntly worded report, a Republican consultant says the California GOP is deteriorating as it clings to messages that are unappealing to the party's newest power groups. ``The California Republican Party is no longer a competitive statewide party; at best it is a regional party,'' according to the report, ``The Emerging Republican Minority.'' The report was written by GOP consultant Bernd Schwieren, a researcher for the Assembly Republican Caucus. He declined to say who commissioned the study, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. ``California is being transformed by major demographic, economic and cultural changes,'' the report says. ``They have led to the emergence of a new electorate whose most dynamic elements -- women, Latinos, new economy workers -- are the most hostile to the Republican Party.'' The result is that GOP influence has shrunk to scattered pockets around the state -- but does not include voter-rich Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. Schwieren said that makes it difficult for the GOP to win elections; all but two Republican statewide candidates lost last year. The report, based largely on recent information from exit polls commissioned by the Los Angeles Times and the Voter News Service, notes that Republican registration has dropped by more than 10 percent this decade, to about one in three voters. And while there are more wealthy people in California, they voted more Democratic in November. Republicans here are still operating under strategies developed more than 30 years ago by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the report says, even though many of those messages are no longer viable. Many voters now find the GOP's strategy ineffective and even offensive, the report says. More than half of last fall's voters held college degrees, which is part of the reason why ``GOP character/moral-based attacks failed in 1998.'' ``These voters have a more tolerant view on social issues -- abortion, gay rights, school prayer -- and are not receptive to a moralistic message,'' Schwieren writes. The 53-page report describes an electorate that is less conservative than four years ago, less white and more tolerant of racial minorities. Hispanics and Asian Americans also are enjoying more clout in California politics, and the report says the GOP is losing its share of these groups -- as well as baby boomers, the largest demographic bloc in the California electorate. ``Baby boomers tend to be hostile to what they perceive to be the narrow cultural message of the Republican Party. They view cultural diversity as a strength, not a weakness,'' Schwieren writes. ``And they are willing to vote against politicians running on platforms of cultural conformity.''
