The Trump Effect in California: Did "Not Endorsing Trump" Hurt Candidates?

David Hadley.

He worked his butt off from January, 2013.

He had just been elected to the Central Committee, and the members nominated him to serve as Chairman, with Paul Nowatka as Vice-Chairman.

A perfect combination, I believe, in that two Republicans with connections to working with Sacramento policy leaders.

Three years of planning, networking, connecting.

And all of it hit a major bump in the road on November 8th, 2016.

I say "Bump in the road," because the fight is not over.

The changes need to Make California Great Again.

So, what happened to David Hadley in his race for the state assembly?

He was running against $4.5 million in special interest money funneled through the different county Democratic parties. All of this money laundering is legal.

And yet the Democratic campaign filed a lawsuit against Hadley?

Other voices claim that Hadley's decision not to endorse hurt him, too.

That is possible. Hadley needed every Republican vote he could get, and courted Democratic and Independent votes at the risk of losing Republicans is simply not the way to go. Hadley's position was a tough one.

I think that he should have said nothing about Trump.

After all, many candidates remained mum about their support for Trump, like Marc Steinorth of Rancho Cucamonga.

Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said nothing about him.

Bruce Poliquin of Maine said nothing about him, either.

They all won their elections.

There were other candidates in California who rejected Trump, and won their elections.

Congressman Steve Knight.

Assemblywoman Catharine Baker.

They won their elections.

So, there is no clear correlation between endorsing and rejecting Donald Trump.

Also ... Trump lost California by 40 points. Very bad.

I am not going to look at Trump and say "Your policies are bad! What you are vouching for is bad!"

I am going to look at the current political climate and voting electorate of California and say: "This long league of voting Democrat is going to drive the state off the cliff and all of you down with it!"

What is going on in California?

Trump did drag down the ticket, I guess ... or we have to face the fact that Republicans are becoming more cynical about their chances and resigned to the One-Party State Blues.

Or, Republicans up and down the state need to stop kicking their base in the face and start re-embracing a strong platform in line with better outreach to unreached communities.