California GOP's next leader needs to raise money — fast
LOS ANGELES - There's at least one thing California Republicans can still agree on: To recover from brutal midterm election losses, they need to raise a lot more money.
But when delegates vote to elect the party's next chair this weekend in Sacramento, they'll weigh pitches from two front-running candidates with very different views about just how to put Republicans on the offensive again in a blue state that's a reliable cash machine for Democrats.
Jessica Patterson, chief executive of California Trailblazers, a group that trains Republican legislative candidates, has said her long-standing rapport with top-dollar donors will help move the party forward.
But Travis Allen, the hard-charging former gubernatorial candidate running against her, has decried "special-interest billionaires" who fund the party and says he wants to instead fill its coffers with an unprecedented grass-roots fundraising effort that would ask thousands of "ordinary California Republicans" to make small monthly contributions.
Many who have labored for years to put the state GOP back on track are worried Allen's approach is unrealistic and could plunge the organization into further disarray.
