[img]1640|right|Arthur Christopher Schaper||no_popup[/img]Dottie Martin, a native of San Diego and resident of Hawthorne, home of the Beach Boys, has been a frequent, faithful volunteer for the California Republican party. A member of the Beach Cities Republicans Club, Ms. Martin also attends the Lincoln Club, which meets in Torrance once a month.
Taking initiative to revitalize and expand the Republican brand in the South Bay, hoping to encourage conservatives throughout the state, the Beach Cities Republicans have set up work teams to investigate outreach and promote conservative ideas in the media, in business, in education and among youths. Ms. Martin, an avid participant, recently talked about her contributions to the Republican state senate upset in the Central Valley.
How did a lady whose town featured the Beach Boys and Gorgeous George get involved in the land of The Grapes of Wrath, featuring farmers, dustbowl migrants and Arkies?
Here Comes Invitation
During the June meeting of the Torrance Lincoln Club, Jim Brulte, newly installed chair of the California Republican party, visited to reinforce the gravity of the party’s predicament in Sacramento. Following last November’s election, Republicans lost their power to stop Democratic overreach. They were reduced to outside status with a Democratic supermajority. “Jerry Brown is the only conservative we can trust!” Ms. Martin said, paraphrasing Mr. Brulte’s alarm. Imagine that: The GOP has to look to Gov. Moonbeam for fiscal sanity.
“The pressure is intense on the Democrats,” she said. “They all march in goose-step in the capitol.” Even sensible Democrats are afraid to vote against their party. “The California Teachers Assn., the environmentalists, and the public sector unions are in control,” Ms. Martin said. Mr. Brulte said the most important race was the 16th Senate District in Kern County. In the multiple-candidate primary, Republican Andy Vidak won 49 percent of the vote against Democrat Leticia Perez, almost but not quite obviating the need for a runoff.
“Anyone who can come (to the Central Valley to knock on doors), help us out,” Mr. Brulte told his South Bay audience. “We need people who will walk precincts.” Ms. Martin and a friend heeded the call. Without pay, but receiving a paid motel stay in the Central Valley, the lady from Hawthorne and a girlfriend braved triple-digit heat to get out the vote for Mr. Vidak. She and her friend may have been the only ones from outside the district walking precincts for the cherry farmer.
I asked her about the campaign ads.
Signs of Our Times
“There were a lot of signs, but not for Vidak or Perez,” she said. Mostly, they blasted the California high-speed rail project, a billion-dollar boondoggle ballooning away taxpayer dollars. It heavily hurts Central Valley farmers because of California’s imposing eminent domain demands. Farmers who have lived in the region for generations are facing foreclosures to make way for the high-speed mistake.
Walking precincts on the last weekend of June in Mr. Vidak’s hometown, Ms. Martin spoke with Republican voters as a part of a Get Out the Vote drive. “Anything to counter the union thugs who drag voters to the polls,” she said. “Republicans thought that Vidak had already won the race.” She explained he needed 50 percent plus one, which shows that informing Republicans cannot be taken lightly.
Despite the heavy registration advantage for Democrats, Ms. Martin was not totally surprised Mr. Vidak won.
“They are different Democrats who live in the Central Valley,” she said. “JFK Democrats, not left-wing nut cases.”
While urban liberal voters can live with fuzzy ideas and strange ideologies, farmers have budgets to balance, animals to feed, sales to make. “The EPA is killing us,” one dairy farmer told Ms. Martin. Tensions between the two regions have only worsened following water shortages made shorter because of draconian environmental policies. Currently, Valley farmers only get 20 percent of the water they need from the Sacramento Delta. Republicans who helped usher in the Vidak win affirmed their emphasis on local issues as part of their strategy, portraying him as a committed farmer taking on big government. “The fact that Vidak was a cherry farmer was a big deal,” Ms. Martin said. “He is a well-known name in the Valley.”
Could that same spirit that elected Mr. Vidak work in the South Bay?
“Yes, but it will be harder,” she said. “We have Hollywood here. People live in their ivory towers. They have money. They do not live by the sweat of their brow.”
Still, the 66th Assembly District, which covers the South Bay from Palos Verdes to Gardena, contains only a three-to-five point advantage for Democrats, with Republicans and independents splitting the registration almost evenly three ways. If a lady from Hawthorne was willing to take the heat, to help a Republican farmer from Hanford win a state Senate seat in a lopsided Dem district, the South Bay’s chances for a Republican renaissance look rosy.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong Southern California resident, he currently lives in Torrance.
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