Cruz makes pitch to California Republicans at state GOP event
[...] as the last of the remaining GOP candidates to address the three-day convention Saturday — Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich spoke Friday — Cruz needed to win over the party activists so he could have enough grassroots energy to carry him to victory in California’s June 7 primary.
In a well-structured 25-minute stump speech that included a couple of localized nods to California water and immigration issues, Cruz made the case for why he is a more measured choice than Trump, “who might explode at the latest Twitter storm.”
Cruz cast himself as part of a new generation of Republican leaders who protect the Constitution and “who stand and fight for the Judeo-Christian values that built this nation.”
Cruz indirectly called out Trump as a trade protectionist, saying the billionaire’s proposal for a 35 to 45 percent tariff on imports from China would trickle down to “every American who is a consumer.”
On immigration, Cruz positioned himself at odds with most Californian voters — but totally in sync of his Saturday audience — by opposing a pathway to citizenship (‘amnesty in his words) for undocumented immigrants.
In 1994, Wilson won re-election on the back of Proposition 187, which would have denied government services to undocumented immigrants.
[...] since Wilson’s Prop. 187 commercial — with its ominous signature line, “They keep coming” — Republicans have become virtually nonexistent in California politics.
In 2010, nearly two decades after offending Latino voters, a survey by the Latino Decisions polling firm found that 84 percent of California Latinos said they were “concerned” that Wilson was the campaign co-chair for GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman.
Cruz spent several minutes talking about California’s water issues, echoing the longtime conservative critique that the Endangered Species Act protects fish at the expense of farmers who can’t have access to water.
On Wednesday, Cruz tried to deflect attention from Trump’s overwhelming victories in five eastern states by naming former HP CEO Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential running mate.
[...] analysts, including many Republicans, widely mocked the move not only as delusionally presumptuous because it was made after it became mathematically impossible for Cruz to win enough delegates to secure the nomination but also because Fiorina brought little to the ticket.
She has no geographic or political constituency, had a disastrous record as a chief executive after firing 30,000 workers at H-P and is a 1 percenter in a year when income inequality is a top-of-mind issue.
[...] for those who say she could help in California’s massive primary, she doesn’t have much of a network of supporters in the state, despite here highly visible — but unsuccessful — 2010 run for Senate in in California.
Orange County resident Barbara Ramos came to the convention this weekend undecided, maybe leaning toward Trump because “I thought he seemed so assertive in what we should do.”