SACRAMENTO -- As Republican party delegates arrived Friday intent on delivering an anti-tax message during their three-day convention here, incoming Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro said he is confident that Republican legislators will rebuff Gov. Jerry Brown's bid for a special election on tax extensions.
Del Beccaro, the former Contra Costa County GOP chief, is running unopposed to take the reins from outgoing chairman Ron Nehring amid inner-party rancor over the five Republican senators who have been negotiating with Brown.
Delegates are considering a resolution branding as "traitors" any Republican who signs onto a deal that allows a special election on taxes to go forward, though the issue may be moot since no deal is expected to be consummated before the convention ends Sunday.
"I don't want taxes on the ballot," Del Beccaro said in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency, the site of the convention, "But I don't think Jerry Brown is serious about reforms at all. So, I don't think they'll vote to put them on the ballot."
Del Beccaro, who was non-committal on the "traitor" resolution, said he has "no problem" with the so-called GOP 5 negotiating with Brown.
"That's the only way we'll be able to persuade them with our ideas about what truly needs to be done," he said. "I'm fine with it."
The five Republicans negotiating with Brown -- Sens. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo; Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres; Tom Harman,
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They reportedly wanted to avoid the kind of direct confrontations that embarrassed some of the six GOP legislators who voted for taxes before the 2009 GOP convention.
But the threat of political retaliation won't magically disappear once they leave town, some delegates said.
"If they cut a deal to put taxes on the ballot, they might as well have written their own political obituary," said Allen Wilson, a Los Angeles county delegate attending his 13th state party convention.
Opposition to talks among activists was not unanimous. Larry Molton, an Alameda County delegate from Castro Valley, said he knows he is in the minority among his peers but said he would not mind seeing a tax extension make it to the ballot, along with spending reductions.
"But they've got to get concessions," he said. "We have to insist on a very strong reform package. You cannot allow the state to extend tax increases and just have spending cuts unless you also do something to fix the root cause of the problem -- things that address the pension problem, reasons why we run this chronic structural deficit."
Blakeslee was the only one of the five to appear at the convention Friday, sitting through a meeting of the rules committee, which is considering a controversial resolution that would give local and state party officials the authority to endorse Republican candidates under the new top-two primary system. Parties typically have stayed away from endorsing candidates, but have lost the ability to nominate their candidates under the new system.
Blakeslee and GOP Senate Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, stormed out of the hearing at one point -- before returning. Blakeslee told the San Francisco Chronicle that Nehring had resorted to "thuggery" while "stacking" the panel with party members in favor of the rule change. Both are opposed to the resolution, which could work against moderate candidates at odds with the core conservative activists who make up the party apparatus.
Critics of the rule proposal, led by U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who as House Whip in Congress holds the highest office among California Republicans, are seeking automatic endorsements for all elected GOP officials. It's a critical issue for those like Blakeslee, who could face a backlash for voting to allow the special election on tax extensions.
Under the top-two primary, all candidates for an office will run on a single ballot, out of which the top two, regardless of party, will go on to the general election. An incumbent who runs afoul of party activists with a vote, for instance, to allow taxes on the ballot, could lose the endorsement.
But an agreement on a special election appeared remote as legislators worked through budget cuts this week. Talks stalled when Republicans complained their demands were not being taken seriously. They have asked for rollbacks in pension benefits, environmental and other regulations, and a strict spending cap on future revenues, issues that are detested by Democrats' labor and environmentalist allies.
Brown attended private meetings in San Francisco Friday, but was expected to be back in Sacramento over the weekend in hopes of re-starting talks.
Friday's keynote speaker, John Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, confirmed in comments to reporters that he is a potential presidential candidate. He criticized President Barack Obama's handling of the civil strife in Libya, saying he would have ordered a no-fly zone and committed troops to seize the airfield and evacuate Americans.
He said Obama appears reticent to talk about global strife.
"It's as though he doesn't care about foreign policy," he said. "He never talks about (Afghanistan). That's a forfeiture of American leadership that we'll pay dearly for."
Saturday, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, also considered a potential presidential candidate, is scheduled to address the delegates.
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