CALIFORNIA/GOP/HOUSE OF REPS: “California is the nation’s most populous state, home to 53 seats in the House of Representatives, reservoir of 55 Electoral College votes—and a growing political problem for Republicans as the 2018 midterm election year dawns.
GOP fortunes have been declining for the last two decades in California, a trend that may be accelerating. The recently passed tax-cut bill, with its limits on deductibility of state and local taxes and mortgage interest, seemed almost designed to strike at high-tax states with pricey real estate such as California.
As a result, two of the 12 GOP House votes against the measure came from California representatives, while some of the state’s Republicans who voted for the measure did so with misgivings.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are widely unpopular in a state with a large population of Hispanics and Asian-Americans.
Both the state and the city of San Francisco are suing the administration over its attempt to cut federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities, which decline to help federal authorities find and deport illegal immigrants.
The president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, and his tendency to dismiss fears of global warming, cut against the grain in California, home of some of the country’s most environmentally attuned citizens.
Republican efforts to undo Obamacare also are an irritant in a state that has tended to strongly support the law.”
-Gerald F. Seib, “California Poses Problem for GOP as 2018 Dawns,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 1, 2018 10:11am