Skelton: California Republicans risk irrelevance

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Bruce McPherson, a former California secretary of state and a candidate for the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, has quit the Republican Party.

In Monday’s column, George Skelton says he’s one of many Californians who have given up on the state’s dominant political parties. Since 1972, the proportion of voters registered without any party preference has quadrupled to 21.3%.

Republicans, in particular, have become too orthodox in their ideology, Skelton says.

McPherson is ‘exactly the type of politician with broad appeal that Republicans should not only be retaining but recruiting,’ he writes. ‘Instead, his departure highlights a decaying, ineffective party in California -- and a dysfunctional, partisan governing system nationally.’

You can read Skelton’s column here. His previous columns are listed here.

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