Western CPAC: Bright New Political Hopes Steve Poizner And Chuck DeVore

19 Oct, 2009 by Melissa Clouthier

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California conservatives, and really conservatives everywhere need to take heart. There are some very solid conservative candidates coming up through the system. I had the pleasure to meet and speak with both Stephen Poizner and Chuck DeVore (whom I’ve interviewed before on my Podcast here). There will be an upcoming podcast featuring Steve Poizner’s interview.

Stephen Kruiser, the comedian and Twitter powerhouse from California said this about Steve Poizner [Kruiser also has two other posts recapping the conference you should check]:

All of them were gracious and interesting but I was really impressed with Poizner. I didn’t know much about him prior to this weekend and found his focus on the California voters who don’t declare a party affiliation to be one of the first decent ideas I’ve heard from anyone in the California GOP in a long time. The Republican party here is a dysfunctional mess and is in dire need of a strong, clear-headed leader.

Poizner has a young, new media savvy communications and press team. Honestly, any candidate running for a national or gubernatorial office who doesn’t have a new media specialist on board is hard for me to take seriously these days.

The interesting thing this weekend was that while the organizers didn’t seem to get New Media, the politicians sure did. All but Meg Whitman gave access and spent copious amounts of time with bloggers. A couple bloggers, including California bloggers, didn’t know either Steve Poizner or Chuck DeVore very well. This time was well spent.

Ed Morrissey says this regarding the disconnect between the event sponsors and new media:

I won’t return to events sponsored by the same organizations in the future. The big problem with the conservative movement has been its self-appointed leaders telling others to shut up and follow in lockstep, and I don’t think any so-called movement leaders taking that approach have the first foggy clue about what the New Media and Tax Parties mean.

Ed has far more coverage about the event. Including the video interview with Chuck DeVore. I have the audio and will be working on the transcript today. Here’s what Ed says [Video at the link]:

We had a few opportunities to talk with DeVore over the course of the event, and each time he impressed as a man who relishes a debate on principles. Both he and Steve Poizner have celebrity opponents in the upcoming election; Poizner will run for governor against Meg Whitman (more later on that). DeVore believes that he will benefit from Fiorina’s national profile will mean more fundraising opportunities for DeVore. He’s already generated some impressive numbers, and polling shows him even with both Fiorina and Boxer. Fiorina, by the way, never made an appearance at WCPAC.

As for established politicians, Dana Rohrbacher also sat for bloggers. The interview is here. He was excellent and clear-headed. He also seemed to understand the Tea Party movement and what conservatives really want. He admitted that there is a rift on Capital Hill between Republicans. I’ll write more on the rifts in an upcoming post.

Western CPAC wasn’t short on drama and that deserves some attention, too. Still, the event was encouraging. For once, the politicians were the bright spot. I know, it’s shocking to write it, even. Credit is due to Steve Poizner, Chuck DeVore and Dana Rohrbacher. They should give us hope. There are good guys out there and they deserve our support.