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Same old stuff from young Republicans
By ROBERT PRICE, Californian staff columnist
e-mail: rprice@bakersfield.com
Posted: Thursday November 13th, 2003, 11:20 PM
Last Updated: Thursday November 13th, 2003, 11:20 PM
Considering the way things went the last time Kern County's two major
Republican Party factions squared off, Karen DeWalt's choice of dress
was probably appropriate.
She wore a black-and-white striped referee's jersey to this week's
meeting of the Kern County Republican Central Committee. DeWalt, the
committee chairwoman, had a whistle and a yellow penalty flag, too.
The meeting didn't get as testy as last time, when feuding advocates
for the county's two major GOP camps got a bit worked up. But DeWalt,
who'd been told what to expect this time, thought she'd better be ready
to lighten the mood, just in case.
Young Republicans vs. Young Republicans, chapter umpteen, was
relatively peaceful. That doesn't mean everybody left the meeting happy.
You remember this little rivalry, don't you? It runs a close second to
that other, slightly better known rivalry, Old Republicans vs. Old
Democrats.
The county's central committee recognizes only one group that calls
itself Young Republicans: the Kern County Young Republicans, founded in
1954 and affiliated with the Young Republican National Federation. It's
the one that's generally associated with Rep. Bill Thomas, the
Bakersfield-based congressman.
The other is the Young Republican Federation of Kern County, founded in
1993 and sanctioned by the California Republican Party. It's the one
that's generally associated with Roy Ashburn, the Bakersfield-based
state senator. (Both groups interpret the word "young" liberally, if
you'll pardon the choice of adverbs: They're both open to GOP'ers
between 18 and about 40.)
Monday night, Ashburn asked the central committee to end the
divisiveness once and for all by voting to officially recognize the
local YR Federation. He had the backing of Assemblyman Bill Maze of
Visalia, who has constituents in eastern Kern County and, like Ashburn,
is a voting member of the central committee.
Zack Scrivner, president of the Kern County Young Republicans, urged
committee members to vote no. The names of the two groups are too
similar, he said, and people have been confused because of it.
He said voters have received campaign mailings endorsing different
slates of Republican candidates that, to the uncritical eye, appear to
come from the same organization. He said campaign contributors have
donated to one group, having intended to give to the other.
Scrivner also mentioned the sad case of Nicholas Elizondo, a YR
Federation board member convicted of molesting a 6-year-old girl and
sent to prison several years ago. Scrivner said people telephoned the
wrong YR office to express their outrage after the story hit the news.
Federation advocates counter that the central committee recognizes
other similarly named pairs, such as the Kern County Hispanic Congress
of Republicans (aligned with the Thomasites) and the Kern County
National Republican Hispanic Assembly (in the other corner, alongside
Ashburn et al).
Those names aren't all that similar, the other side counter-counters.
Scrivner's Young Republicans got their way again, winning 22-4 in a secret-ballot vote Monday night.
It's been long suggested that the split has its roots in the
conservative vs. more conservative viewpoints championed, respectively,
by Thomas and Ashburn. According to Scrivner, it's simpler than that.
"It's not about ideology," said Scrivner, 29. "It's all about the
confusion over the similarities in the two names. I'm not going to
suggest any (new) names for them. If I had my way, they would just
became part of our organization. They're good Republicans; we'd just be
stronger."
That marriage is not likely, said Angela Colvin, chairwoman of the YR Federation.
"Just because they don't recognize us, we're not going to go away,"
said Colvin, 30. "We're going to keep working for the people we believe
in."
She said the YR Federation may try again to win official recognition
from the county's central committee, though there haven't been any
conversations about that yet.
She's still too confused about the alleged confusion to worry about further reconciliation efforts now.
"We're the only (YR Federation group in California) ... that's not
recognized by its own (county Republican) central committee," she said.
"I don't know why (the name similarity) ... is only confusing in Kern
County."
Um. Maybe it's a localized phenomenon, sort of like that problem with butterfly ballots in Palm Beach County, Fla.
Scrivner's take: Talk to the hand. He's not so sure the YR Federation's
purpose, in selecting its near-identical name 10 years ago, wasn't to
intentionally create confusion.
"I don't know any other way to explain it," Scrivner said.
I can't explain it either, but I've got a theory. About the feud in general, I mean.
It's as much about power as it is simple recognition, and as much about power and influence as the right to a name.
Like that was hard to figure out.
