By Emily Pierce
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 54

Delegates: 162

Chairman: Gerald Parsky

Hotels: Sheraton University City (215) 387-8000
Holiday Inn Independence Mall (215) 923-8660

1996 Election:
Clinton – 51%
Dole – 38%
Perot – 7%

As of mid-summer, there was a strong vibe of unity behind presidential candidate George W. Bush among California's 162 delegates to the Republican National Convention. "I don't think there is going to be the type of discord [over issues such as abortion] that might have been present in previous conventions," said delegate Gary Mendoza.

"It hurts [Texas] Gov. Bush to spend a lot of time tearing ourselves apart about [abortion]," said delegate Mike Schroeder, the immediate past chairman of the California Republican Party and an abortion foe. Schroeder added that he was satisfied that Bush said he would not try to change the anti-abortion plank in the party's platform.

There was agreement from the other side of the Republican spectrum. "The priorities for the convention are to portray our candidate and his running mate as people who can do a good job," said Brooks Firestone, a GOP moderate and abortion rights supporter who lost a 1998 House primary bid to a more conservative candidate in California's 22nd District. "I don't think the country wants to hear about [abortion]."

If this California comity continues to prevail, it would be one of the major successes of the Republicans' effort to avoid the contentiousness typical of the party's past few national conventions.

The Bush push also would mark a truce in a long-running and bitter skirmish within the California Republican organization, between the party's conservative and moderate factions.

The party's camps have been engaged in furious finger-pointing over who was responsible for the devastating 1998 election, in which Democrats took back the governor's mansion for the first time in 16 years and padded their majorities in the state Legislature.

On the heels of that election, the California GOP's ideological factions faced off in a March 1999 contest for state party chairman. High-tech entrepreneur John McGraw, a fervent abortion foe, defeated moderate abortion rights supporter Nicholas Bavaro.

Fundraising difficulties persisted throughout last year - with many moderates blaming the financial troubles on the party's staunchly conservative image. Then there was a failed attempt last summer by conservatives to change the state's winner-take-all primary to a proportional distribution of delegates - a move widely seen as an effort by conservatives to slow Bush's surge to the nomination.

But a presidential election year - especially one in which the party has a legitimate shot to win the White House after an eight-year absence - can have a calming effect on party stalwarts.

The first hint that the California GOP may be pursuing a more pragmatic election strategy came in this year's Senate primary race. On March 7, 15th District Rep. Tom Campbell, a Republican moderate, beat out two more conservative candidates - San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn and state Sen. Ray Haynes - for the right to take on Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Campbell's 2000 run is a far cry from his initial Senate campaign in 1992. Then, the party's conservative leaders threw their support behind conservative TV commentator Bruce Herschensohn - who won the primary but subsequently lost to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

This year, Campbell had the support of much of the party establishment and most of the state's GOP congressional delegation - despite his split with many of them on issues such as abortion and gay rights.

The Bush campaign in California - led by investment firm owner Gerald Parsky, who also is the delegation chairman - has made its own contribution to the state party's nascent "big tent" mentality.

Although Bush had a right to all 162 delegates after capturing the March 7 winner-take-all primary with 61 percent of the Republican vote, his organization extended delegate invitations to several supporters of his closest primary opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who took 35 percent.

California Secretary of State Bill Jones, who endorsed McCain in the primary, said he was not surprised when Bush's campaign asked him to become a delegate. "It's appropriate on their part to reach out to everyone who is a Republican," he said.

The highest-ranking state Republican officeholder after the Democrats' near-sweep in 1998, Jones said that it would be his job to persuade the Bush campaign by Oct. 1 that the GOP nominee can win California.

While hardly expecting a return to the dominance enjoyed by California's own Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, Republicans don't want a repeat of the past two elections. President George Bush in 1992 and former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole in 1996 ceded the state's 54 electoral votes to the Democrats.

Bush's campaign is not limiting itself to ideological inclusiveness. Bush also hopes to re-create in California the success he has had in Texas at getting Latinos to vote for him. Almost 17 percent of the state's delegates are Hispanic, estimated Mendoza, who has acted as a Latino outreach director for the campaign.

"We have a historic opportunity here. Latinos in California can elect the next president," said Mendoza, who said that Bush would need at least 35 percent of the Hispanic vote to carry the state in November.

Bush also has tried to reach out to California's sizable Asian population. Delegate John Tsu, a Chinese-American who has been involved in Republican campaigns since California native Richard M. Nixon ran for president in 1968, said, "The Republican philosophy is very close to traditional Chinese values of family values and working hard without relying on others to support you."

Tsu estimated that nearly 40 members of the delegation are of Asian or Pacific-Islander ethnicities. He plans to hold an Asian-American Republican Convention on July 30 in Philadelphia.

CALIFORNIA NOTABLES: Reagan administration Secretary of State George Schultz; Rep. Bill Thomas; Bush campaign foreign policy adviser Condoleeza Rice; 48th District congressional candidate Darrell Issa; California Secretary of State Bill Jones; Bush California campaign chairman and delegation chairman Gerald Parsky; California Republican Party Chairman John McGraw; state Senate Minority Leader Ross Johnson; former California Republican Party Chairmen Michael Schroeder and Tirso del Junco; state Sen. Jim Brulte; former California treasurer Matt Fong, the 1998 Republican Senate nominee.