Welcome to the New Majority Orange County website.  I’d like to take a moment to thank you for visiting us and provide you with some information about the Orange County Chapter of New Majority.  

We have a very ambitious political agenda for the 2007-2008 election cycle, which includes redistricting reform, electing a Republican as President to follow George W. Bush and continuing our efforts to make the Republican Party in California more inclusive and more representative of the population at-large.

Our specific political programs include:

Redistricting Reform
Redistricting reform is a top priority for the New Majority.  Taking the drawing of political boundaries out of the hands of the politicians will improve the potential for fair, competitive districts.  This should produce more moderate candidates for both parties who are better aligned with the majority of Californians. 

Presidential Elections
The Political Affairs Committee along with the Board of Directors have officially decided not to have the New Majority take a position in the primary election cycle.  We encourage membership to get involved – in fact, individual New Majority members are serving on finance committees for all the leading candidates.  We hope you enjoyed our Presidential Series with the leading contenders, including Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Tommy Thompson, and George Pataki.  The New Majority will be very active supporting the nominee.  

Growing Republican Opportunities to Win
The Growing Republican Opportunities to Win Committee (GROW) just completed its first year and continues to identify quality Republican candidates, with an emphasis on bringing diversity into the Republican Party.  The next step of the GROW Project is to do a media, fundraising and strategy training for the identified potential candidates.   

Over the next year, GROW will work to identify and encourage quality candidates to run for state legislature and statewide offices.  GROW Committee Chairman Caroline Beeson and Project Director Elizabeth Hansell continue to travel across the state of California to identify potential candidates who would be viable office seekers in the years to come.  

Central Orange County Voter Registration
Following our successful efforts in 2005-06, The New Majority continues working with the Orange County Republican Party to increase voter registration in Central Orange County.  In 2005-06 the voter registration program produced more than 19,000 new Republican registrations, thousands of which were first time Latino and Vietnamese voters.  The current program started in May and is registering new voters as well as encouraging Republicans to apply for absentee ballots.

Legislative Races
In 2006, the New Majority supported several state legislative candidates: Assemblymembers Bonnie Garcia, Shirley Horton, Jean Fuller, Mimi Walters, Mike Duvall, and Jim Silva who were running for re-election in targeted State Assembly seats.  In the upcoming 2008 election, the New Majority is looking forward to supporting the State Senate and State Assembly leadership and playing a critical role in the targeted 2008 legislative seats.  

In previous years the New Majority mainly focused on “political candidates and issues.”  In 2007 we are expanding our focus to include policy.  After careful deliberation and analysis, The New Majority Orange County has set healthcare and energy independence as the topics we will focus on.  Each topic has an individual committee that provides policy briefings to our membership.

As you can see, it is going to be a busy year for the New Majority and we hope that you will consider joining us as we forge our way into the 2008 election cycle.  

Tom McKernan
Chairman