Here’s another sign that California Republicans are stepping up their efforts to attract Latino voters: Two well-known consultants are teaming up to create a Latino-focused polling firm.

Latino Edge Research’s principals are billing their new venture as “the only all Latino Republican survey research firm,” which “provides the insight and understanding of Latino voters so that messaging will reach them, persuade them and activate them.”

John Nienstedt, whose Competitive Edge Research & Communication is based in San Diego, will be Latino Edge’s research director while Hector Barajas – who has held top communications jobs for the California Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, 2010 gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman and the state Senate Republican Caucus – will be in charge of message development. Barajas most recently has worked at Revolvis, and Latino Edge reportedly will be run out of CERC’s and Revolvis’ existing offices.

“Latino Edge focuses exclusively on Latino and Hispanic voters, diving deep into this diverse community to understand the values, language and priorities necessary to develop winning center-right messages,” the new firm’s news release said.

This news comes just a few months after GROW Elect – a group founded in 2011 to recruit, endorse, train and fund Latino Republican candidates in California – announced it had hired former Bush White House aide and former San Mateo County Supervisor Ruben Barrales as its first president and CEO. Barrales reportedly has thrown himself into the job, including doing some face-time and fundraising with Republicans across the state; case in point, he’ll be joining state GOP Chairman Jim Brulte this Friday, May 10, at the San Mateo County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, and next Thursday at the Alameda County Republican Party’s leadership dinner.

A slew of Republican fundraising events are scheduled all over the Bay Area in coming weeks.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 30, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will headline a fundraiser for Long Beach mayoral candidate Damon Dunn, the NFL-player-turned-businessman who was the 2010 Republican nominee for secretary of state. Tickets to the 6 p.m. reception at Sharon Heights Country Club in Menlo Park start at $250 each.

Next Tuesday, May 7, John Herrington – U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Reagan administration and a former state GOP chairman – and Contra Costa Republican Party Chairwoman Becky Kolberg will co-host a reception honoring California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte. Tickets for the 5:30-to-7:30 p.m. event at Vic Stewart’s, 850 S. Broadway in Walnut Creek, cost $25 each and are available online.

Brulte has more Bay Area appearances coming in May.

On Friday, May 10, Brulte will keynote the San Mateo County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, joined also by Ruben Barrales of Grow Elect – a GOP Latino outreach entity. Singer Diana Nagy will provide musical entertainment for the 7-to-9 p.m. event at the Elks Lodge, 229 W. 20th Ave. in San Mateo. Tickets for the dinner cost $49, or $250 with a VIP reception, and are available online; sponsorships range from $1,000 to $5,000.

On Wednesday, May 15, Brulte and Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway, R-Visalia, will headline the Santa Clara County Republican Party’s Lincoln Reception at Lexus of Stevens Creek, 3333 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara; other special guests include former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldanado, former Rep. Ernie Konnyu, former Assemblyman Jim Cunneen and various county and local officials. Tickets to the 6 p.m. VIP reception cost $250, while tickets to the 7 p.m. general reception cost $45; all are available online. Sponorships cost from $1,000 to $10,000.

And on Thursday, May, 16, Brulte and California Republican Party Vice Chair Harmeet Dhillion will be at the Alameda County Republican Party’s leadership dinner, also joined by Barrales and honorary co-host Pleasanton Mayor Jerry Thorne. The event will be at the Pleasanton Marriott Hotel, 11950 Dublin Canyon Road; tickets including admission to a 6 p.m. VIP reception cost $150 while the 7 p.m. dinner by itself is $60, and all are available online.

Rebranding only goes so far. From Time magazine:

The Republican National Committee voted unanimously Friday to reaffirm the party’s commitment to upholding the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, upending party efforts to grow support among younger voters.

A resolution introduced Wednesday by Michigan committeeman Dave Agema, who came under fire last month for posting an article describing gays as “filthy” on his Facebook page, passed the full RNC by a voice vote and without debate. A second resolution reaffirming “core values” of the party — including opposition to same-sex marriage — was also passed.

[snip]

Republican Party officials bristle at coverage of the controversy. “While we have to do things differently, there’s one thing that can’t and won’t change: our principles,” said RNC chairman Reince Priebus.

Evan Wolfson, president and founder of Freedom to Marry, was quick on the draw with a statement.

“With Republican support for the freedom to marry increasing every day — aided by the journeys of leaders like Senators Mark Kirk and Rob Portman — the RNC is showing itself out of touch with this resolution,” he said. “A party that claims to value individual freedom, personal responsibility, family stability, and limited government should be embracing the freedom to marry, as have a growing majority of young Republicans. RNC leaders would do well to align themselves with these supporters, who represent the party’s future, instead of digging in against the right side of history.”

But I’d be shocked if Wolfson or anyone else seriously thought the RNC wouldn’t pass such a resolution.

Here is an open letter that Democratic National Committee member and longtime California Democratic Party advisor Bob Mulholland sent yesterday to national and state Republican officials:

Bob Mulholland
Chico, Ca
DNC Member
April 8, 2013

To: Reince Priebus
RNC Chair
Fax (202) 863-8773 (RNC)
Jim Brulte
Ca Republican Party Chair
Fax (916) 266-4580 (Ca Strategies)

They’re Not in Kansas on Wednesday

Just some friendly advice since you have a RNC meeting on Wednesday (9AM) at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, located at 1755 North Highland Ave.

Your meeting is only a 2.3 mile Taxi ride to the Voyeur West Hollywood Club, an erotic bondage-theme sex simulating club, located at 7969 Santa Monica Blvd. in W. Hollywood, so you might want to assign Monitors (or GPS anchor bracelets) on your RNC Members, especially those from Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho, etc., if they don’t have their wives with them.

Just ask former RNC Chair, Michael Steele, who tried to explain why the RNC paid $1,946.25 for an “outing” at the Voeur (2/4/10) by RNC people. Never did read if the RNC was reimbursed for that wild night of “relaxation.”

Stick to your meetings and avoid the “extra entertainment” options.

However, if some members need to get out and “experience” a Club, not seen at home in Kansas, Bruce Herschensohn and I would recommend the Seventh Veil at 7180 Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Bruce always thought it was a discreet Club, and less than a mile from your meeting.

Sincerely,

Bob Mulholland

The Republican National Committee is stepping up its outreach to Asian-American and Pacific Islander voters, as it becomes increasingly apparent that they’re a crucial swing vote in battleground states and districts across the nation.

They’re trying to catch up with Democrats, and polls show the GOP needs to move fast as AAPI voters have been leaning more and more heavily toward Democratic candidates.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus today announced Stephen Fong as the committee’s national Asian and Pacific Islander field director and Jason Chung as its national communications director for Asian and Pacific Islander engagement.

Priebus said Fong – a longtime Republican operative originally from California, and a former president of the San Francisco Log Cabin Republicans – “brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience, particularly at the grassroots level, which will be invaluable in building our new and unprecedented community-based field operation to engage with all voters.”

Fong has “extensive experience working with minority groups and observing Democratic strategies and tactics in the nation’s most diverse state,” according to the GOP’s news release. From 2001 to 2008, he was special assistant at the U.S. Department of Transportation under President George W. Bush working on government affairs, public affairs, and public policy for public transportation and congestion mitigation issues.

Chung has worked on behalf of Republican candidates for 15 years in Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia; most recently, he was a principal for the Livingston Group and Gateway Consulting. Earlier, he was a congressional liaison in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and executive director of the Maryland Governor’s Office on Asian Pacific American Affairs under Gov. Bob Ehrlich.

That latter experience “in particular will help us better address the concerns of this diverse and growing community, and his contacts and experience in Virginia politics will be crucial ahead of the elections this fall,” Priebus said in the news release.

“It’s no secret that Republicans have ground to make up among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders,” he added. “To earn voters’ trust, we must be present in their communities. Stephen will lead a team of individuals hired by the RNC and rooted in the communities they serve to engage people where they live, work, and worship. Jason will lead the media planning and strategy for the entire Asian and Pacific Islander media, while also overseeing the creation of an RNC Asian Pacific surrogate program.”

Both men also will work closely with the RNC’s overall political and communications teams.

Democrats made a tiny gain in recent months while Republicans continued a long, slow slide in new voter registration numbers released Monday by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

Monday’s figures show the state’s Democratic registration at 43.93 percent as of Feb. 10, up a fraction from the 43.66 percent stake the party held just before November’s election. Republican registration dropped to 28.94 percent as of Feb. 10 from 29.36 percent as of Oct. 22. And the trend toward nonpartisan registration leveled off somewhat in recent months, going from 20.94 percent in October to 20.86 percent in February.

In the last two years, the percentage of voters registered with the Democratic Party decreased by 0.1 percent and voters registered with the Republican Party decreased by 2 percent. The number of registered voters with no party preference has increased by more than 259,000 during the same period.

A few minor parties made minor progress in the past two years – American Independent registration rose from 2.43 percent to 2.64 percent and Libertarian registration rose from 0.54 percent to 0.61 percent – but they as well as the Green and Peace and Freedom Party will find it increasingly hard to get much attention and retain their ballot statuses under the state’s newly implemented top-two primary system.

Overall, 75.7 percent of eligible Californians are registered to vote – down from 76.7 percent as of last October, but up from 72.8 percent at this time two years ago. A total of 18,055,783 Californians are now registered to vote – an increase of 869,252 since the last off-year report, but down from the raw-number high of 18,245,970 in the fall of 2012.

“Voter registration often dips in an off-year when counties update voter rolls following a general election, but the good news is registration is still up by about 3 percent from this time two years ago,” Bowen said in a news release. “I built online voter registration, in part, to make it easier for the 25 percent of Californians who are eligible to register to vote but have not. It’s now easier than ever to participate; so if you haven’t yet registered to vote, or if you moved and need to re-register, fill out an application online right now.”

By law, statewide voter registration updates must occur 60 and 15 days before each general election, and 154, 60 and 15 days before each primary election. One update is published in each odd-numbered year with no regularly scheduled statewide election.

Former Bush White House aide Ruben Barrales – also a former San Mateo County supervisor, and a child of Mexican immigrants – will be the first president and CEO of GROW Elect, a group founded in 2011 to recruit, endorse, train and fund Latino Republican candidates in California.

The organization says Barrales’ hiring is part of an aggressive expansion of its plan and a dramatic increase in its funding.

Barrales for six years served as President George W. Bush’s Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, the White House’s senior representative to state, local, territorial and tribal government officials. He liaisoned with governors, mayors, state legislators and other elected officials, and also separately served as a chairman of the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status.

Barrales was elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in 1992 and served as the board’s president 1996. He ran for state controller in 1998 but lost to incumbent Democrat Kathleen Connell. He served as president and CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a San Jose-based public-private civic organization, from 1998 to 2001.

Most recently Barrales has served as the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s president and CEO – the largest regional chamber in California, with a full-time staff of 26 and an annual budget of $4 million.

GROW Elect has elected 30 Latino Republicans to local office across California since 2011, it says; among the successful candidates it supported in November were incumbent Milpitas Mayor Jose Esteves, incumbent Hercules City Councilman Dan Romero, Dublin-San Ramon Services Board Member Edward Duarte, and incumbent Hayward Unified School District Trustee Luis Reynoso.

“GROW Elect has already made a difference in California,” Republican National Committee Co-Chairwoman Sharon Day said in the group’s news release. “With Ruben’s leadership it will take the recruitment and support of Latino Republican candidates to a new level.”

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, said in the news release that this news is “long overdue.”

“We all have a stake in the work of GROW and Ruben Barrales,” McCarthy said. “We are all better served when there is a vigorous and real two-party system, with candidates vying for the votes of, and seeking to represent, all Californians. I’m grateful for Ruben’s dedication to both empowering the Latino community, and strengthening the Republican Party, in California.”

State Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, R-Walnut, congratulated Barrales as well and said GROW Elect “has done tremendous work in electing Latino Republicans to local office and I look forward to continuing my involvement with this organization.”

Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to President George W. Bush, will keynote the Saturday-night banquet at the California Republican Party’s 2013 Spring Convention March 1-3 at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento.

Rove – among the most respected or reviled political strategists of modern times, depending on your point of view – oversaw the Bush White House’s offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs. He also was deputy chief of staff for policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process.

Before becoming known as “The Architect” of Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, he was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, non-partisan causes, and non-profit groups. His clients included over 75 Republican U.S. Senate, Congressional, and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, as well as the Moderate Party of Sweden. He is also a Fox News contributor and writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal.

1.) Learn to choose better battles.

Every cycle, the National Republican Congressional Committee tells us that Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, is among the nation’s most vulnerable House Democrats; every cycle, he proves otherwise. In 2008, with a 1-point voter registration disadvantage, he won by 10 percentage points; in 2010, with a .32-point voter-registration disadvantage, he won by 1.1 percentage points; and this year, with a 12-point voter-registration edge, he won by 8 percentage points. Instead of pouring resources into the campaign of a 25-year-old with no job experience, perhaps the GOP should’ve looked for greener pastures.

2.) Your navel-gazing is near-sighted.

California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro’s statement last night indicates he believes Romney and Republicans failed to “make the case, at every level, for tax reform and to successfully articulate that a welfare state can’t succeed and the true engine of growth is a vigorous free enterprise system.” I’m sure some Democrats will disagree with the philosophical underpinnings of that argument, and that’s not a debate I’ll get into here. But what Del Beccaro failed to address was that the GOP clearly lost big among Latinos, Asian-Americans, African-Americans and young voters – that is, most of this nation’s future electorate. If his party can’t find platform that appeals to these blocs, and an effective way of explaining it to them, it’ll continue to wane even further. Already I see some GOPers sniffing that Obama won without a mandate, but the fact is, he won the popular vote by at least about 2.7 million and – if Florida were to stop counting votes now (and where have I heard THAT before?) – he’d win there too, meaning he carried every battleground state except North Carolina.

3.) Who has the mandate?

Gov. Jerry Brown has the mandate. He won it in 2010 when he beat out the candidate who spent a record $142 million of her money to no avail. He won it again last night with a resounding 8-point victory for Prop. 30, his tax hike for K-12 and higher education. And it seems voters are tired enough of gridlock in Sacramento that they may have handed Democrats two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Legislature – another mandate, of sorts, for Brown’s agenda. The moral of this story: Don’t mess with Jerry.

Here’s California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro’s statement on what happened tonight:

“While tonight wasn’t the result we had hoped and worked for, it is clear that many Americans are dissatisfied with the president.

“Republicans are losing the prosperity/capitalism argument. The inability of Republicans to make the case, at every level, for tax reform and to successfully articulate that a welfare state can’t succeed and the true engine of growth is a vigorous free enterprise system is at the root of this loss. The core value of our heritage is being lost. We must and can get it back.

“It is now up to Republicans in Congress, who must every day be a real reform party. They must work to offer true reform of government programs and drive the agenda.

“Unfortunately, Governor Romney was not aggressive enough in making this case and that ultimately led to tonight’s disappointing outcome. But with the help of of our committed and tireless volunteers, we can turn this around.

“I would like to thank all of the volunteers here in California and throughout the nation that kept this race so close.”