"Tough On Crime" Gray Davis just lost his endorsement from the cops. They gave it to Simon instead.

Either the link's screwy, or Simon is coming down hard on carrots.

Perhaps some of both...

I've fixed it now.

The law-enforcement endorsement is all well and good, and might help a Republican candidate in almost any other state in the Union. But in California, it doesn't matter. Let me say that one more time. It. Doesn't. Matter.

The reason why? Basically, the Republican Party's former base in California no longer exists. During the early-1990's recession, millions of working-class and middle-class Californians fled the state looking for jobs; for several consecutive years, the number of people leaving California exceeded the number entering - even when illegal immigrants were counted. And many of these economic refugees were Republicans - the heart of the state party's power base.

The demographics are totally on Grayout's side now. The Democrats are now so dominant in California that they could have nominated Squeaky Fromme for governor and won...hell, they'd have probably had a better than even chance if they'd nominated Charlie M. himself.

I agree (sadly) with Jeff's thesis, that it doesn't matter, that the Democrats are dominant enough in California to elect even a lying crook like Davis, and "tough on crime" isn't a selling point in an area so heavily dominated by democrats, who don't really believe in right and wrong and that every criminal is a misunderstood victim of a bad upbringing, (heck, in California they had more outrage for a cop who made racist comments than a former athlete who murdered his ex-wife and her boyfriend) but where's this "people leaving California exceeded the number entering" come from? I distinctly remember the latest census giving Cali another congressional seat, and they don't give those to states with shrinking populations.

I could be wrong, but I thought that C.O.P.S. wasn't the big state organization - that was the California Peace Officer's Association. I have to wonder how important this endorsement really is.

This site has a partial list of law enforcement officer groups. Note that COPS doesn't even have a website of its own.
http://www.post.ca.gov/Chouse/resource/associations/california.htm

MarkD -

You're definitely right about California gaining an extra Congressional seat as a result of the 2000 census results. What I was talking about was a short-lived phenomenon of the early/mid 1990's; after the aerospace/defense industry refugees (BTW, I was one of them) fled the state, population began increasing again. While the resulting dip in population was short term, it nonetheless changed the election demographic in California to the advantage of the Democrats.

I remember seeing plenty of media coverage on this subject in Calif. during the mid 90's. The decrease in population was short-lived and not very big in absolute numbers, but considering the usual post WWII pattern of strong, year after year population growth, it was an aberration and therefore newsworthy. I don't have quotable references in front of me, but a Lexis/Nexis search could probably find plenty.

A personal note...once the wife and I spent a long weekend in Vegas. Driving out, I think I saw three moving vans heading into California from the Nevada border. When we headed back home, I must have seen at least thirty moving trucks, Ryder vans, etc. heading the other way toward the Nevada border. Hardly a scientific sample, but still illustrative!

I think we'll still both agree, though...Grayout's probably going to win, but one can still hope :-)