… For years California Republicans have tried to change their party’s image, to invite everyone into the pool — especially Latinos, whose enmity arose after a 1994 GOP effort to block immigrants without proper papers from state services. And now, the architecturally coiffed, anger-venting Trump has cannonballed in, disrupting the presidential race with factually incorrect and caustic criticisms of immigrants from Mexico.
This is the same Donald Trump who during the last campaign promoted race-inflected allegations about the birthplace of the nation’s first black president. He is a man with a penchant for brazen statements, so there is some hope among Republicans that the damage will be limited to Trump himself.
But the party’s negative national image has long thwarted the state party’s efforts to reboot its image, particularly among women and Latinos who are key to winning here. And Trump right now appears to be an undeniable threat to perpetuate that problem. CONT.
Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times