The Republicans Go For Lawson

Back in my distant youth, Republican and Democratic candidates could run in each other's primaries. As a result, some candidates became the candidate of both parties at once. This probably encouraged a centrist approach to politics, and it elected Pat Brown, Earl Warren and others, including wing-nuts like William Knowland. Then primary rules were changed and deals were worked out to carve permanent Republican and Democratic districts. That created the right of right no-compromise California Republican party we've watched recently. But today we have a new system, one in which all candidates from all parties run in one mass primary per district and the top two vote-getters run against each other in the final election. And that likely calls for new political strategies.

The most interesting campaign in our area (the coast of Northern California, very liberal, no Republican can win) has come in the congressional race, where one of the possibly progressive Democrats, Stacey Lawson, has been running on themes and methods borrowed from Mitt Romney. Stacey Lawson is a rich woman with no experience in politics who has flooded the district with TV ads. In the ads she stresses American exceptionalism, talking about how she began life in a trailer and went on to make a fortune. Her other main theme is that she is a "job creator." She promises to bring prosperity back to Northern California, although how an inexperienced junior congress member can do that remains unclear.

Lawson's goal in the primary is attract votes from corporate Democrats, from women in general and from the 30% of the voters who are Republican. The Republican Party has endorsed no one, keeping the door open. Two days back the Republican mayor of Ukiah, in a letter to the editor of the only daily newspaper in our area, endorsed Lawson, a Democrat. Today the Republican mayor of Willits published a letter supporting Lawson. This is, of course, an organized campaign in which the Republican leaders are signaling to their well-disciplined voters that they should support Lawson.