Schadenfreude

The California GOP had a meeting:

SAN DIEGO — California Republicans, stinging from their lopsided loss in this month’s recall election, sought to regroup and focus on the upcoming midterms at their party convention this weekend.

Typically a boisterous gathering, the three-day meeting in San Diego was among the grimmest in recent memory.

...Yet there appeared to be little public introspection. Republican leaders pointed to the Democrats’ overwhelming advantage in voter registration and fundraising. 

...Critics noted that over one million fewer pro-recall voters turned out compared to the 6 million Californians who voted for President Trump in 2020.

“The million-dollar question is: How do you turn the ship around? Is it even worth it? Can you turn it around?” said Ray Perez, the vice chairman of the Yolo County GOP, who has been critical of state party leadership’s messaging and communications with voters. “We’re not going to win a gubernatorial seat overnight. Can we win things that are within reach, which is an assembly seat. … I honestly don’t know. I don’t think so, but I want to be wrong.”

A panel of GOP lawyers said conspiracy theories about mail-in ballots and rigged ballots suppressed the pro-recall vote.

“There are very good people who have surprisingly bought into that — my vote doesn’t count in California, so therefore I’m not going to vote,” said Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Orange County GOP, during a panel called “Jim Crow 2.0 or Common Sense: The National Debate Over Election Integrity Laws.” “In any sport, if you don’t go on the field, you will not win. And politics is a contact sport, it is a team sport and we have to have everybody voting.” 

...Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who was once largely viewed as the GOP’s best candidate for statewide office and received the support of 9% of voters, met privately with delegates. 

He blamed the recall’s failure on the race ultimately becoming about “personalities,” an unnamed dig at Elder, rather than issues that are frustrating Californians on both sides of the aisle, such as homelessness, the cost of living and crime.