CD-52: GOP Pick-Up (With Very Mixed Feelings)

Before the June 3rd, 2014 primary, before the January First 2014 move to let slip the GOP GOTV, the California Republican Party was targeting CD-52:

GOP outnumbers Dems by three points, and Brian Bilbray was a long-standing Republican in the area, anyway. San Diego is home to Pete Wilson and Jerry Sanders, too, GOP with a strong fiscal bent which cannot be ignored, and is much needed in Sacramento and Washington DC.

Too bad that Bilbray did not overcome the Obama-rama in 2012


Brian Bilbray

So, who won the primary in June? I had hoped that the Republicans would do well enough that perhaps incumbent Peters would not survive to the run-off.

Instead, the stand-off is Peters and DeMaio, with the Republican tally topping Peters' vote.

This week, this article was printed in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Poll: DeMaio leads Peters

Former City Councilman Carl DeMaio  is the Republican and Scott Peters is the incumbent Democrat, one of five CA Dem freshman who rode the Romney fallout and Obama pushback on Election Day 2012.

Brian Bilbray was a good Congressman, but his wife was ill, so his campaign was hindered somewhat from the outset.

He lost to Peters by a slim margin, and it looks as if Peters will lose to DeMaio by a greater margin in November.

In San Diego, the Republican resurge has a precedent.

GOP Kevin Faulconer won the San Diego mayor's 2014 special election even though the city is trending Democratic, and even after the Dem machine spent ten times as much trying to keep the SD Mayor's seat in Dem hands.

Didn't work out for the Democrats, and the liberal political pundits told the California Democratic Party to be afraid, very afraid.

Scott Peters

 Spread the word, Republicans, break out the flyers, and let fly the rainbow banners .  . .

Well, not exactly rainbows, since some of Faulconer's victory banners had bands of six colors, not seven: the banner of gay pride, in other words.

Faulconer is liberal on the social issues.

And guess what? So is Carl DeMaio.

Openly gay, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-amnesty. Still, unions hate him, and he blasted the pension issue (using plagiarized info . . .)

Let's look over this once again — what is GOP about this DeMaio guy, anyway?

Fiscally conservative. OK.

Granted, gay activists have slammed DeMaio savagely, refusing to let up because he is a member of the pro-tradition marriage, pro-life Republican Party.

Except that San Deigo GOP Leaders decided to endorse him (by a slim margin, just barely past 2/3 of county delegates).

Still, there is a deeper cultural current which voters cannot ignore. All of this talk about fiscally conservative yet socially liberally is morally bereft. Conservative radio host Dennis Prager made the argument so succinctly, that I am now more committed than ever to stand on principle rather than waffle for a win with a moderate who is actually trending leftward.

Carl DeMaio

Look, I am all for GOP winning more seats in Congress.

But GOP means standing on principle, and this DeMaio go, aside from his asides on the fiscal issues, is quite liberal.

What a dilemma.

A local activist in San Deigo, a Kirk Jorgensen supporter, quit the GOP after DeMaio's primary victory. The same person informed me that she would campaign against DeMaio and endorsed either not voting at all or voting for Peters.

Not because of his homosexual conduct, but because in her words: "He's a sleaze and he will ruin the Republican Party in California."

I understand the frustration. I have no idea what I would do in that situation.

While I am not so concerned about one election win ruining the party brand outright, the accommodation on these cultural countercurrents cannot be ignored.

Homosexuality is a choice (or an induced form of conduct) and a bad one, not a genetic lifestyle (confirmed by a ex-homosexual Oxford academic among others) one which hurts people's bodies and minds. The agenda has impacted young people in places where gay marriage is legal (by judicial fiat, of course)

Abortion must be a limited resort, for life is the right from which all other rights depend. Prager's exhortation to honor "social issues", when in fact they are moral and economic issues too, deserves more attention.

Is this debate within the GOP over should DeMaio win the CD-52. It depends.

If DeMaio is the only upset in the statewide Congressional conference, conservatives should be concerned. If other upsets take place, depending on the values of the winners, then the DeMaio victory won't mean too much.

I would like to see Republicans win more seats in Congress, but not this Republican.

For my part, I have no idea what I would do if I lived in CD-52. None. Nevertheless regardless of the candidates, CD-52 is very much a GOP pick-up as Peters' chances are petering out without a doubt.