Will California Ride to the GOP's Rescue?

My latest column for CNN.com looks at the GOP resurgence in President Reagan's old state and the implications for the national Republican Party.

My latest column for CNN.com looks at the GOP resurgence in California and the implications for the national Republican Party.

California Republicans are feeling an emotion they have not felt for years: hope. Not only may Republicans elect a governor, but also they have a credible chance of defeating incumbent Barbara Boxer and electing a U.S. senator for the first time since 1988.

Might the state of Ronald Reagan be returning to its old party loyalty? Even a little? If so, that return will have powerful consequences not just for California, but the country. …

[I]f Meg Whitman wins the GOP nomination (as seems likely) and then the governorship, she'll instantly become a leading candidate for vice president in 2012 and a likely presidential candidate for 2016.

If Tom Campbell or Carly Fiorina wins Boxer's Senate seat, suddenly the Republican senatorial caucus will gain an articulate voice for California's distinctive politics of middle-class opportunity and social modernism.

Out of this season of extremist talk and angry rhetoric could come new Republican leadership formed by the state that formed Reagan -- and ready to impart to Reagan's former party his message of hope, optimism and conservative reform.

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