Wednesday, April 17, 1996
GOP boss says to bet on Republicans in 1996 electionsBy Phillip
Carter
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
California’s Republican Party has emerged in 1996 as a
well-organized, well-funded machine under the leadership of
Executive Director John Peschong, revitalizing it after its
stunning 1992 losses.
With Peschong at the helm, the GOP has won an impressive string
of political battles between 1994 and 1996, including the capture
of California’s Assembly from former-Speaker Willie Brown.
Earlier this week, Peschong discussed this track record and his
current plans for California’s Republican Party as it heads into
the 1996 presidential election.
Q: Last presidential election, the party had some organizational
problem at the grass roots level, because the Bush campaign wrote
off California. In 1996, you have a new year and a new candidate.
What steps are you taking to bring in volunteers and youth into the
campaign?
A: Party Chairman John Herrington has made it a top priority to
get youth involved  to have something like 6,000 college
Republican activists on campuses all across the state working for
the ticket.
Right now, there are 43 campuses that have signed up for our
registration program. We’re registering more Republicans on campus
than ever before. We have seen a pattern: 25 percent of the people
who are registered on college campuses are re-registering from
Democrat to Republican.
Q: How are you translating that cadre of young Republican
activists into voters at election time?
A: Basically, the youth volunteers are going to be responsible
for energizing campuses and youth around the state. Those include
all your "Get Out The Vote" activities: They’re going to be
responsible for the phone banks, for setting up the headquarters,
getting out the precinct sheets and walk sheets.
Q: The other side of this is going to be your media strategy.
Are you focusing on the mainstream media, or are you focusing on
targeted blocks of alternative media?
A: It has to be on everything, from certain cable networks that
reach a certain block of voters that we’re trying to hit, to radio.
You can’t win with just mainstream media; that was certainly shown
in ’92.
Certainly, the Dole strategy would include some sort of
alternative media, maybe some cable programming. It may include
buying half-hour blocks of time on major networks. You’re going to
see print advertisements  just about everything across the
board.
Q: Bob Dole is the oldest presidential nominee in recent
history, even older than Ronald Reagan was when first nominated. Do
you see any problem with him connecting to younger voters?
A: None whatsoever. I think it’s going to come down to talking
about issues and ideas. Bob Dole is going to articulate those
issues and ideas, and he’s going to be the winning candidate.
As far as generation gap, I think people feel secure in Bob
Dole, and he’s up to the job. Right now, if you look at the polls,
the majority of people feel he can lead better. People feel very
comfortable in his leadership.
Q: In 1992, the Bush campaign wrote off California. Will this
happen again?
A: No Republican has become president of the United States since
James Garfield without winning California. So there’s 116 years
there that we’ve got a precedent here. You’ve got to campaign in
California, you’ve got to be strong in California and you’ve got to
win California.
Q: So how are you setting up the party structure right now to do
that?
A: Our party structure is a "complete-ticket" party structure,
because we are not  by law  allowed to do things
directly for the presidential campaign. We’re going to be doing the
things allowed by law: non-allocable mail programs, walk programs,
but they’re going to be for a completely generic Republican ticket.
They’re going to support the assemblymen, the state senator, the
congressmen and the president of the Untied States.
Q: This party has had a lot of success in California at the
local level. Is this structure going to exploit those
successes?
A: We’ve found that we are stronger when we do start with the
school board level, with the city council level. We’re bringing in
those people that are winning those races early, and we’re going to
make them work. They’re going to come out working for the full
ticket.
Q: Moving onto issues, we’ve had a few issues here in California
related to colleges that have come to the forefront Â
affirmative action being the biggest one. Is the party aiming to
take advantage of these issues?
A: The CCRI (California Civil Rights Initiative) issue is going
to be an issue that divides the electorate in California.
Sixty-seven percent are supporting it, and we think that will
continue on straight through. We’re finding wide support all over
 people want the end of preferences. What they want is the
people who can get the job on their merit, regardless of the
preferences or quotas that people have.
Q: Have you had much success mobilizing college students, their
parents or other groups that are affected directly by race and
sex-based preferences?
A: We did motivate a lot of people to sign the petitions. They
got over a million signatures, and they’re still being counted.
We’re coming up on summer recess for most schools, and I think
in the fall you’re going to see wide support on college campuses.
They’re going to be people out there talking about "merit"; about
people who earn things, not people who are given things because of
some standard. You’re going to see a lot of support on college
campuses.
Q: Looking past the convention to the fall campaign, what are
your strengths and weaknesses?
A: Our strengths are that we have money in the bank and the
California Democratic Party is about a half million bucks upside
down: they’re broke.
People say Clinton’s up a few points in California. We’re still
seven months away from the election. Jimmy Carter was up at this
time against Ronald Reagan, and he got creamed  the same
thing is going to happen here. I want to be very confident about
this because I am: the future is very, very bright for Republicans
in the state of California. We certainly learned our lesson four
years ago.
Not that it’s a weakness  we’re going to have to do our
work and continue to work very, very hard, and it’s not easy.
Raising money’s not easy, but we’re doing it. Organizing people’s
not easy, but we’re doing it. It’s going to be a tough job, but we
are going to do it. We certainly did it in ’94, and if anything was
proven in ’94, (it was that) we can come over a lot of
obstacles.
Q: In an ideal world, what would you win in ’96?
A: In an ideal world, we’d win the presidency. We will pick up
at least four seats in the Assembly, and at least get a majority in
the State Senate. But in an ideal world, let’s say two to three
seats. And I think we’ll pick up three more House seats in
California.
And then in a perfect world, we set ourselves up to knock off
Barbara Boxer in ’98. I guarantee that in ’98, we’re going to keep
the governor’s mansion here in California. I just don’t know who
the candidate is going to be. I can’t get out there. Dan Lungren is
running very strong; whoever it is is going to win.
Carter is the Daily Bruin wire editor, and was recently selected
as a 1996 Truman Scholar.
SHAWN LAKSMII
Executive Director John Peschong of the California Republican
Party discusses politics with The Bruin.