Heath Flora “Trouble in Camelot but which one?”
It must be difficult being a Republican in California. Years
ago I worked for a group called Californians for Voter Turnout and Education,
which was an independent expenditure with the goal of registering Democratic
voters. The more specific goal of the group was to register voters in State
Senate District 5. I should point out the objective was not to get the person Cathleen
Galgiani elected but rather to create a super majority in the State Senate
which would allow Democrats the voting power to override a constitutional
amendment to raise taxes.
So in this environment of overwhelming dominance by
Democrats in the state enters a young firefighter from Ripon named Heath Flora.
The 12th Assembly District is a Republican stronghold having voted
for Donald Trump and Mitt Romney in recent history. Flora had one hiccup in his
campaign when a dispute arose over his occupation being listed as “Farmer”,
which is the golden ticket in the Valley but whatever.
Actually that’s not true about the hiccup. In fact Flora is
an odd position being a Republican facing the Republican Ken Vogel in that he
did not get ANY of the establishment Republican support.
I went into the lion’s den to write this and found out some
curious stuff about the local Republicans.
They are a lot more organized then Dems are and having
worked on a couple Republican campaigns I can tell you there is a noticeable
difference. Democratic campaigns are filled with young volunteers who don’t
actually get that much work done.
Being conservative by nature Republicans are strict and I
hate to say more mature, which is why they often make better political
consultants. Their groups are serious, as in they meet regularly, have minutes,
take votes on endorsements and such. This is to say they aren’t just a bunch of
clowns on Facebook. And there are a lot…
Republican Central
Committee (RCC): This is the official Republican Party and actually appears
on Ballots. Because they are elected from the GOP electorate at large they are
more moderate. For example Tea Party leader Gordon Rupp appeared on the ballot
in a field of 11 candidates where the voter got to pick 8. He came in 2nd
to last. HA HA!!!!
San Joaquin County
Republican Assembly (CRA): When I asked what this group was I was told by
Jeff Acquistapace “CRA is a side organization. They are the
conservative wing of the party. The CRA has a meeting every 3rd Thursday of the
month.”
Conservative
Republicans of San Joaquin: This is yet another real group, a legitimate group who meets regularly and is
even more to the right, of the party to the right of the right wing party. A
gentleman named Jim Shoemaker runs this.
There are a lot of other groups but they
seem to be ethnic of gender orientated. As a Republican you need to sort of
“come out” as being a minority AND a Republican because it’s so unusual people
would support a group against their own interests. The analog would be if Bill
Gates and Warren Buffet started a group called “Older Rich Successful White Men
for the Democratic Party” I kid the Republicans, poor guys.
None of the previously mentioned groups
supported Heath Flora and it didn’t matter. He outspent his opponent 5 to 1 and won a decisive victory.
A few weeks ago the CRA put money into
attacking him, calling him a RINO posting this;
“Republican Heath Flora Shamefully Joins Gas Taxers Democrats Galgiani,
Eggman, and Cooper for a Second Gas Tax Hike in Three Months under
Cap-and-Trade Extension (AB 398). “In 2016, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said Cap-and-Trade added 11 cents per gallon of gasoline and 13 cents to diesel. This year the LAO estimated that extending cap-and-trade will add 63 cents per gallon by 2021 and 73 cents by 2031. All in the name of fighting Global Warming, which has been non-existent for at least 20 years, based on junk science and heavily manipulated data that serves to justify empowering Big Government (to regulate and tax) at the expense of the average working Californian. THANK YOU Assemblymembers Heath Flora, Jim Cooper and Susan Eggman and State Senator Cathleen Galgiani. Just three months ago (April 6), Cooper, Eggman, and Galgiani teamed up to pass the massive $52 billion gas and car tax hike (SB 1) that raised the gas tax by 12 cents. See the following articles for more information. San Joaquin Republican Assembly holds all politicians accountable for their votes, regardless of party affiliation, Republican and Democrat.”
Then posting this a few days later;
“SJCRA would like to thank Health Flora for attending our
July meeting last night. Assemblyman Flora spoke in defense of his vote for the
Cap and Trade Gas Tax, arguing that it was the best deal we could get. We
disagreed with the assemblyman pointing out that he should not have compromised
by supporting a tax that will hurt all Californians, especially the poor and
middle class, and further the radical Democrats would have had a difficult time
passing Cap and Trade without Republican support.”
Him and his team obviously saw the ad and
came to address the group in the next couple days. It didn’t seem to work
because they are still attacking him, with sponsored ads. I should remind
people that this is not just a Facebook group; they do meet in person regularly
and discuss these things.
But does this actually mean anything? Could
Heath Flora be primaried? All the previously mentioned Republican groups are
counting on it but If you ask local political consultant who ran Flora’s
opponent in 2016, Ken Vogel’s campaign, Jeff Acquistapace he will tell you no.
Acquistapace says that “Flora is backed by
a large group of lobbyists in Sacramento who are going once more outspend any
opponent to their guy so there likely won’t be a change.” So far as the idea of
this being a time for Democrats to sweep into this seat seeing a weakness in
Republican ranks I also think it is unlikely. Republicans are not going to vote
for a Dem out of spite and third party candidates don’t exist after June.
So for the time being I say good show to
Heath Flora who was responsible enough to work across the aisle. Lee Neves (SJ
Counties most eligible bachelor according to Karima Magazine) says that Flora
“worked to get what he thinks was the best deal possible for his constituents.”
The Republican Assembly is far to the right and isn’t doing that great of a job
if they can’t even get a candidate elected in a red district.
Whatever it is and how disorganized Republicans
look in regards to this Flora debacle the Dems in the area are worse. The
leadership at the only noteworthy Democratic group, the SJDCCC, is the most
ineffective political majority group I’ve seen. Whoever is running the SJ
Democrats is obviously a douche and should resign.
In a city where Democrats hold an
overwhelming majority and candidates have had to run city wide only 3 out of 6
city council members are registered democrats. To put this into perspective we
have the same diversity and crime problems as city such as San Franciso but
Democrats contiunely sweep the city/county government hybrid there. On a county level while Democrats are a majority
in all buy Bob Eliot’s rural district Dems have on 2 of five seats.
Although I disagree with policy issues with
the Republicans I admit they are way more organized
then Dems. Whoever is
running the San Joaquin County Democratic Party should obviously step down as
look at their work is obvious “F”.
Heath
