GOP strives to outdo 2000 in O.C.

[question everything]

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

They concede that their goal of gaining 200,000 more votes for Bush is 'tall order.'

By DENA BUNIS
The Orange County Register

WASHINGTON – The head of the Bush/Cheney campaign in California is trolling for votes and wants Orange County Republicans to step up and deliver an additional 200,000 votes for the ticket this year.

(snip)

Orange County Republican Chairman Scott Baugh was politic when asked if he could deliver on that challenge: "While it's a tall order, it's an order that we should strive to meet." The math is against the new chairman, however. Bush captured 56 percent of the Orange County vote in 2000. For him to get an additional 200,000 votes, he'd have to get 70 percent this time. That would be half of all Orange County's nearly 1.4 million registered voters.

(snip)

With Republicans now representing about 48.5 percent of the Orange County electorate, Bush would have to make significant inroads among independent and even Democratic voters in the county to come close to 700,000 votes. It's not going to happen, says Wylie Aitken, president of the Democratic Foundation of Orange County. Aitken said he will be disappointed if Bush polls as much this year as he did four years ago.

"Never in my lifetime have I had so many well-known and lifelong Republicans whisper in my ear that they are not going to vote for George Bush," Aitken said. "I don't know what tea leaves he's (Parsky) been reading, but he's using the wrong brand."

(snip)

Parsky said Bush will campaign in California in August but wouldn't say what the campaign plans are beyond the GOP convention. Since getting elected, Bush has made 11 trips to California, spending 17 days in the state. Vice President Dick Cheney, who will be in the state next week to do two fund-raisers, including one for U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones, has made five trips to the state.

(snip)

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2004/07/21/sections/local/local/article_174542.php

[genius]

1. They're getting a lot of help from the OC Democratic Central Committee

If most of the people in positions of power on the Central Committee went to work for Bush, Kerry would be better off in Orange County.