This circular firing squad was on display last week at a "Tax Revolt" rally that drew 8,000 people to a Fullerton parking lot. It was organized by popular conservative talk show hosts John and Ken - John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of radio station KFI in Los Angeles.
The raucous California tea party featured such dramatics as the spearing of a likeness of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's head, and the sledge-hammering of a pile of Schwarzenegger dolls, videos and movie memorabilia - even an action hero lunch box.
The radio hosts' "fatwas" target a handful of moderate GOP legislators who sided with Democrats to end the state budget impasse. Their calls to recall those lawmakers have reverberated throughout the Republican grassroots.
"It's becoming the fatwa party ... the Jon and Ken party," said Hoover Institution media fellow and GOP consultant Bill Whalen.
But while much of the activity is political fun and games, many in the nation's largest GOP organization say the political challenges are no laughing matter. With just a year to go before the 2010 midterm elections, when the California governor's seat and a U.S. Senate seat will be up for grabs, critics say the state party is nearly broke and its leadership is under the gun. Its problems and infighting, they say, threaten to divert attention and focus from winning elections.
Dominated by older social and religious conservatives, the California GOP has so far failed to broaden its appeal in the nation's most diverse state. An entrenched party system, California's gerrymandered legislative districts and closed primaries that protect incumbents have continued to favor the status quo: a GOP establishment that is older, whiter and male. Those reasons are driving women and Latinos, still rarities among GOP elected officials, from the party ranks.
Recall efforts' risks
Recall efforts could further hurt the GOP's chances, as conservative party activists have put moderate legislators such as Assemblyman Anthony Adams of Hesperia (San Bernardino County) and Sens. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County) and Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield in the bull's-eye. All three GOP legislators said they carefully weighed the agonizing decision to vote with Democrats - in opposition to the GOP's hard line on no new taxes - and end the state budget impasse last month.
The "fatwa" also has been issued against Assemblyman Jeff Miller of Corona (Riverside County), and bloggers and activists have called for the end of the political career of Assemblyman Jim Silva of Huntington Beach (Orange County). Their transgression? They refused to agree to the ouster of GOP Assemblyman Mike Villines of Clovis (Fresno County) from party leadership during the budget tug-of-war.
Whalen has urged his party to dump the political theater and get on with business.
"Do California Republicans have a plan to productively channel all this anger, other than picking off a few lawmakers through recalls or primary challenges?" he wrote last week on Flashreport.org. "Is there any strategy in place - or even the thought of a strategy - other than the game of randomly selecting names out of a hat to dole out punishment?"
Democrats relish spectacle
Democrats, at least, are cheering them on.
"It's the definition of insanity - they keep doing the same thing, over and over," said Ben Tulchin, a veteran Democratic pollster based in San Francisco who says that the Republican antics have kept the party's eyes off the real prize - winning elections in California.
"Instead of trying to expand their support, they keep appealing to the far right, which gives them a dwindling percentage of the vote," he said.
And observers on both sides note that the party infighting has extended to organizational matters and could seriously affect how much the GOP raises for future races.
One example: GOP chair Ron Nehring, re-elected to a second two-year term last month, has grappled with some headline-making scandals and continuing financial problems.
Nehring was recently chosen by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to head the organization of state GOP chairs, a move that raised some eyebrows within the party itself.
Scandal still reverberates
Critics note the party is still feeling the effects of a 2007 scandal in which Nehring hired Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant, to be the party's chief operating officer. Kamburowski had been ordered deported by immigration authorities, was jailed on visa violations and later filed a $5 million wrongful arrest suit against the federal government that was ultimately dismissed. He resigned after a Chronicle report revealed his immigration record.
Those troubles prompted GOP officials, at the urging of donors, to mandate that the state party's new chief operating officer, Bill Christiansen, report directly to the party's board - rather than to Nehring.
But Christiansen was recently forced to resign under pressure and new party bylaws were crafted. His successor will now report again to Nehring, a move that has alarmed major donors concerned about oversight and the party's depleted coffers, several GOP sources said.
Moderates under fire
Conservative stalwarts, however, have responded with an attack on one of the party's leading moderate voices, former GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim, who heads an independent party-building organization called California Republicans Aligned for Tomorrow. They charge that Sundheim's $400,000-plus salary is excessive. The salary is funded not by the party, but by donors who want to recruit moderate GOP candidates for state and local races.
Whalen said the tit-for-tat is evidence that "if there's a problem with the California Republican Party, it's that for too long, it's been obsessed by past fights."
"There are Republicans who still want to relive (former Gov.) Pete Wilson raising taxes in 1991 - and 20 years from now, they will relive Arnold Schwarzenegger raising taxes in 2009," he said.
"Dwelling on the past means you're not living in the future," he said. "For as much heat and energy that has been spent in the past months, that's all energy that won't be spent on the 2010 cycle."
Unless it changes, "Republicans in 2011 will all be gathered around in a circle," he predicts, "and wondering how Barbara Boxer got re-elected again."
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