Lincoln Clubs Win Big in 2014 Election
The Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs were victorious in 2014 as Republicans retook two seats held by legislative Democrats, including one that had been in Democrat hands for two decades.
South Bay Lincoln Club Member and businessman David Hadley upset a Democrat incumbent to win the 66th Assembly District in the beach cities south of LA International Airport down to and including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. No Republican had represented this area at the state or federal level since the early 1990’s. The South Bay Lincoln Club, led by grizzled veteran Bob Holmes, began a rebuilding campaign for the local Republican Party ten years ago that paid off now.
First, Holmes set about rebuilding the Republican Central Committee by finding good business and professional candidates to run for these offices and then making sure they won. He then recruited strong candidates to run for Assembly and then started to build a cohesive team in the district. He handed off the Chairmanship of the local Party to one of those businessmen he recruited, David Hadley.
Hadley built a $100,000 support fund for the local central committee and then set out to recruit a strong Assembly candidate, Finding no takers among local Republican elected officials to run against an incumbent Democrat Assemblyman, Hadley decided to run himself and said he would raise $1 million dollars to do it. Many were skeptical, but David Hadley met his goal and was victorious in the election. We couldn’t have written a better story line ourselves, and Hadley was a dream candidate right out of central casting. Now he is the Number One state Democrat target for 2016 and we need to do all we can to reelect him.
In the Republican part of our County, the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys, a poorly run campaign resulted in an embarrassing loss by the 2012 Republican nominee in the 36th Assembly district. The Party united around Palmdale City Councilman Tom Lackey in 2014 and he blew out the Democrat incumbent 60-40%.
The Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs maxed out to both these fine gentlemen and also heavily supported two other Members who are now Supervisors in neighboring counties – Curt Hagman in San Bernardino County and Michelle Steel in Orange County. We look forward to more successes in 2016 and cordially invite you participation.