Why would Cooley lose LA ?

[bwiese]

Isn't the AG obligated to appeal or litigate on behalf of the vote of the people regardless of his or her personal views?

No, when things violate equal protection of a large body of a population intelligent politicans think twice. Voting against civil rights doesn't give much legal standing. The south can vote to elect a new Bull Connors and enforce Jim Crow law but that dog won't hunt.

[BluNorthern]

• They're Dems, and the registration skew gives them an advantage.

• Many people don't know how lefty they are, and these candidates look nice and speak well on TV sound bites.

• Republicans are a minority and have to reach out to the middle to win anytning at least in statewide offices. The managment of the CA Rep. party forgets this and does stupid things like support Prop 8 or having candidates mentioning abortion. That gets them short term gains at long term costs.

• When you run a crusty old guy like Cooley who made a few PR missteps and was underfunded against someone with Hollywood backing like Harris who handles the cameras nicely, you can lose easily.

That's a pretty sad commentary on the state of the electorate here in California, Bill. Wish it wasn't so true. Pretty and cute trumps substance and principle.

[rp55]

[Hogxtz]

• They're Dems, and the registration skew gives them an advantage.
  .
• Many people don't know how lefty they are, and these candidates look nice and speak well in
  TV sound bites.
  .
• Republicans are a minority in CA by registration and gotta reach out to the middle, including the
  large decline-to-state/swing voter group to remotely have a chance of winning anytning at least
  in statewide offices.
  
  The managment of the CA Rep. party forgets this and does stupid things like support Prop 8 or
  having candidates mentioning abortion. That gets them some short-term gains in primaries at
  long term party-sacrifice costs. These short-term wins give the brains of CA Republican leadership
  an incorrect endorphin level that makes them think they're winners - kinda like a cokehead at
  work thinking he's a good employee because he's buzzing around a million miles an hour not
  doing anything.
  
  The CA Rep party, however, has a near-autistic level of social awareness and things "if only we
  were more convervative [read: antigay/proreligious/privatize everything] we'd win" -- which
  shows you that even Republicans know where to buy good party drugs.
  
  Right now (and for quite some time) there's nobody on the Republican bench that's worked his or
  her way up from the bottom and who can win statewide office - this is why we have rich political
  nonentities like Meg, Stevie Poizner, Arnie all trying to be governor. Anyone else coming up thru the
  CA Republican 'system' is tainted for a variety of reasons and is not electable: the Republican 'brand'
  at the state level has been highly tainted and there's no management ability to fix this (unlike the
  famous recovery of Tylenol after poison scare/recall, or recovery of other famous brand names etc.)
  
  CRA needs to be disbanded, and Ron Nehring needs to be hanging from a tree. National Republican
  party understands "CA needs to be a tad different" but this has not carried into effective state Rep.
  leadership.
  
  Remember that operation of the CA Republican party has its benefits - jobs, 'stature' in a limited self-
  praising circle, ability to use funds, etc. Part of the reason rich candidates for state level office get
  the CA R nod is that a self-funding candidate means they don't have to do much fundraising and can
  retain funds to maintain a feel-good/relevant status in spite of reality (being continual losers here).
  .
• When you run a crusty old guy like Cooley who made a few PR missteps and was underfunded against
  someone with Hollywood backing like Harris who handles the cameras nicely, you can lose easily.
  .
• In real estate, a house that sits for sale too long (often due to mispricing by an incompetent agent)
  becomes 'tainted'. The more people see it not sell, the more compromised the general feeling about
  that house is - "there must be something wrong if it didn't sell" (even if it's only a pricing matter).
  The longer it stays listed, the worse it gets. Smart RE agents that get called in to fix this kinda
  situation pull the house off the market for awhile and then re-list it afresh.
  
  This is an analogue to what's happening to the CA Rep party: besides the overall negatives, there's
  a perception of ovveral haplessness and "market staleness". This i doubly reinforced by Meg's
  campaign: can't even win with $140 million spent.
  .
  
• Newsome also won because Reps cut their nose off to spite their face over relatively minor issues with
  Maldonado. Maldo is worlds better than Newsom on most issues, and we would have had a Republican
  in that slot, who'd possibly useful in a Mike Curb style We'd also have had someone that would
  be better on gunrights than Arnie, eMeg or Stevie Poziner should (he) Maldo become governor. Maldo
  would have had a good chance (Hispanic, pleasant, verbal - and doesn't look like a sten school marm
  with a strong jawline like eMeg does).
  .

Bill,
Thank you for the explanation. I guess we Californians have our work cut out for us. Thanks to SAF and CGF for McDonald outcome, because without that, with Newsom and Harris are gun rights would have went bye bye.

[Cokebottle]

WTF is the bolded part? Being white is so politically incorrect they have reduced to a sub group?

Hispanic is white.
Mexican (or Cuban, or Puerto Rican, or whatever) are nationalities.
Genetically, Hispanics are white and must answer the Census "Caucasian".

So we have "White - Hispanic" and "White - Other"

[JBBenson]

"Hispanic" is a group with a common language, not color. Hispanics come in all colors.

I have one friend from Mexico who could be considered "Caucasian" and one who looks full-blood African, from the Dominican Republic. Both are "Hispanic".