State Republicans praise their unusual convention
Forced to flee from North Carolina and Florida because of concerns about the coronavirus, the nearly audiencefree Republican National Convention has taken some time to get used to for the faithful in California.
“It was a little odd at first, even though I knew what to expect after the Democratic convention,” said Matt Cunningham, a GOP political consultant in Orange County. “You didn’t see the delegates or feel the energy.”
The Republicans, like their Democratic counterparts last week, have been forced to reinvent the national convention because of the pandemic. They have had to drop the fourday schmoozefest featuring thousands of gladhanding politicians and delegates, jampacked arenas, and hours of speeches into a tight, bright, madeforTV infomercial, trying to jam a campaign’s worth of partisan messages into a small primetime window.
There are some losses, said Michael Bustamante, a veteran California consultant who is registered as a nonpartisan.
“The energy and excitement, with people dressed in funny clothes and funny hats cheering loudly — you can’t match that,” he said. “It takes a different skill speaking to an arena crowd than to a television audience.”
Not everyone got the memo.
When Kimberly Guilfoyle, a onetime Fox News host, exwife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and current partner of Donald Trump Jr., gave a fiery, armwaving speech Monday night, she was ridiculed for a highdecibel approach that was way over the top for a televised address in an empty hall. But move her to a stage in a noisy arena, and most of those complaints disappear.
Guilfoyle was one of a host of speakers with family connections to President Trump, including Trump Jr. His shots at Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s “radical leftwing policies” may have been a welcome bit of red meat for the president’s base, but they could have been done better, said Cunningham.
“I like him and I like what he said,” the Orange County consultant said. “But (the message) is more powerful when it doesn’t come from a relative.”
While most of the speeches have come from the flagdraped stage of the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, convention organizers and the president have drawn controversy by using governmentowned sites, including the Lincoln Memorial, the White House Rose Garden and the White House itself, for political speeches and backdrops.
“The use of the White House as a prop is offensive,” said Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant and onetime aide to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “That’s not what we do in the United States.”
Many of those concerns could have been easily fixed, he added.
On Tuesday night, the campaign featured a White House naturalization ceremony for five immigrants, with acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf administering the oath as the president looked on.
“The president could have attended a regular naturalization, shown the video at the convention and no one would have batted an eye,” Stutzman said.
The convention’s efforts to feature Black and Latino Republicans is a welcome and important focus, said Jim Brulte, former chairman of the California Republican Party.
“Republicans are a very diverse party, particularly at the state and local levels,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve historically highlighted diversity as much as we could at the national convention.”
Monday’s speech by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, in which he talked about his African American family going “from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” drew raves from GOP viewers.
Scott’s talk “resonates with people who think that this is a country of opportunity,” Cunningham said. “Democrats are always suggesting that anyone who is a Republican is a racist, and this does a good job of refuting that.”
Replacing many of the political speeches with talks from real people about their real problems also was a change for the better, GOP viewers said.
“There has been a lot of good economic messaging,” especially coming from working people, Stutzman said. “When you have a lobsterman from Maine and a dairywoman from Wisconsin talking, you’re also focusing on areas Republicans need to win.”
The convention format may have been forced on the Republicans, but it’s helped the party, said Lance Trover, who is running the communication efforts for GOP candidates in a pair of Southern California congressional races.
“Conventions are usually an insider’s ballgame, and having regular people speak out changes that,” he said. “I think the convention is making a concerted effort to get a broad swath of the country on view.”
The crisper, more focused convention seems to be working for the GOP, Brulte said.
“I like the tone, but I also like the substance,” he said. “I know that some people are going to get the vapors, but when you see what Trump’s done, as shown in (Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo’s speech, he’s been one of the most successful presidents ever in his first term.”