San Bernardino County needs a new direction. No longer shall the organization be insulated to be the chairman’s fiefdom to please his donors and work on focusing on the registered Republicans that make up his constituency.
There is a problem since Phil Cothran Sr. gained control of the San Bernardino County Party, he does not want the general public who are registered Republicans to attend the meetings and they rarely do any community events unlike Los Angeles and Orange County Republican Parties. Also the other problem is our social media is barren on places such as Facebook and Instagram. While Orange County posts almost daily, San Bernardino County Republican Party only posts two or three times a year for example.
Our party used to have GOTV efforts at our headquarters, but in 2022 they were abandoned nearly two weeks before Election Day. Now candidates and party volunteers are left to their own devices for the last two elections. Instead of making the dreams of James Prevetti come true, we should be focusing on the common people of San Bernardino County. Just because a third of us refuse to lick developer boots does not mean we should be discarded like old toys.
Since redistricting will be controlled by a group outside the control of the Board of Supervisors, the county party will not have an easier time scoring seats for the board in 2032 and 2034 respectively. There needs to be a focus on networking with small business owners, parental rights advocates and victims rights advocates so we can have a broad based collation no matter if you are in Hesperia or Rialto.
If active Republicans want to be an alternate for a member, one should not have to pass a litmus test just to serve under the respective member as long as he or she has not donated more than 100 dollars to a non-Republican in a contested election in the last three years. We need to return to the days of previous chair Jan Leja who was cut from the same cloth as Phil but realized that we have to use the talents of all our members across the factions of our political party.
An election is a terrible thing to waste, in 2027 there needs to be a reconciliation. We can do better than 2026 and 2028 is next on the line for the future of our state and nation.