The “woe is me” wing of the GOP should note those reports of their demise were a tad premature.

Pundits telling us the future is with Democrats based on youth and ethnicity ignore that the young grow up and ethnic minorities, even when artificially compressed into plantation districts by hack leaders, ultimately act in their own self interest, move away and follow the Irish, the Italians and others into the American mainstream.

Republicans concerned about youth should check the inordinately large batch of talent seeking local office. Here in District 26 note Terri Proud, a young mother of two planning to make this district solid GOP in 2010. She’s bright, articulate, attractive and has a better grasp of issues than some already there.

In Congressional District Seven, Ruth McClung, 27, is about to save the GOP from the embarrassment of again nominating racist pariah Joe Sweeney. McClung has a unique approach based on the cliche “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist.” As an employee of Raytheon who works on rocket design, she is a rocket scientist.

Republicans should be embarrassed with Sweeney as a nominee, but incumbent CD7 Congressman Raul Grijalva should notice that a political derelict publicly repudiated by leaders in his own party got 36 percent of the vote against him in a heavy Democrat year.

The big GOP talent show is in CD 8, held by pastel-dog Democrat Gabby Giffords.

Four Republicans are running there.

Tom Carlson and Andy Goss are so far the weakest. Neither has noticed a weekly newspaper in the northern portion of the district with a columnist who writes about this stuff who also hosts a radio talk show.

Carlson served as an Army Reserve officer in Kuwait. Goss is from Sierra Vista and is an Iraqi Army veteran. Their websites are carlsonforcongress.com and gossforcongress.com.

It’s hard to avoid Brian Miller and Jesse Kelly both at GOP and other events.

They’re young, attractive, articulate, intelligent conservatives who would give Gabby a real brawl that her glass jaw can’t handle after her Cap and Trade and ObamaCare votes. Both Kelly and Miller have attracted national attention and, like army vet Goss, are under-40 combat veterans of the Middle East.

Edge for now is with Kelly, who has collected both the most endorsements and the most money. Kelly served as a Marine infantryman, Miller as an A-10 pilot and instructor. Websites are: votejessekelly.com and brianmillerforcongress.com.

The usual backroom GOP suspects have noticed Gabby’s vulnerable, and impressed with incumbent state legislators, are pushing State Sen. Jonathan Paton. They tried this in 2006 with State Rep. Steve Huffman, who lost the primary to former State Rep. Randy Graf, who was promptly shivved by them for being “too conservative.” (When you hear that, read “too uncontrollable.”)

In 2008 they muscled everybody out for State Senate President Tim Bee, someone everybody liked, raised him plenty of money but forced him into a mush-mouthed campaign. He was beaten as big as Graf.

Political street talk has Paton running as a “moderate.” If so, he’ll lose the GOP Primary to either Miller or Kelly, maybe both. The 2008 election moved America just far enough left for more people to find out what that really means. Voters are fed up with party hacks.

Paton’s six months in Iraq as an intel officer is a higher qualification than being a state senator, but any attempt to shove him onto GOP voters here will be met with overwhelming resistance.

Something more relevant than ephemeral youth votes. All five GOP candidates in CD 8 wore a uniform, two more than ran for President (McCain, Hunter, Paul) .

Good trend.

Hear Emil Franzi and Tom Danehy Saturdays 1-4 p.m. on KVOI 1030AM.

Ask almost any of the tried and faithful precinct committeemen in Legislative District 19 about the impending retirement of Senator Chuck Gray and the decision by House Member Rich Crandall to seek that post and you’ll find plenty of unrest.

Crandall who has been viewed as an educrat Republican with a less than spectacular voting record is not held in favor amongst many conservatives in the district. Some would even say that he has burned too many bridges with the party faithful.

Crandall’s motioning to walk into Gray’s Senate seat is leading some conservatives to recruit a more conservative alternative. One name being mentioned is Maricopa County Community College District Board Member, Jerry Walker. Finishing up his first term, Walker is already running for re-election to the District 2 MCCCD board seat but is considering taking on Crandall who he claims wants to consolidate and centralize the Maricopa County Community College system under the Arizona Board of Regents.

Meanwhile, conservative activists are actively seeking another candidate to deny Crandall an easy slide into Chuck Gray’s seat. A Crandall win would symbolize a weakening of the party and lack of fiscal discipline.

In the House race, Speaker of the House Kirk Adams is also running for re-election and for speakership. Across town in Legislative District 10, Jim Weiers also has his sights set on reclaiming the speakership as he faces his final term in the Legislature.

Also yet to announce his candidacy in the LD-19 House race is Justin Olson, a conservative businessman who made an unsuccessful bid for East Mesa Justice of the Peace in 2006.

Another House candidate who has already announced is Scott Perkinson. Perkinson, who is a longtime Mesa native is President of his family business Perkinson Reprographics which does printing for the construction industry. He also serves on the City of Mesa Planning and Zoning Board. Perkinson has already revealed that he has the support of Mesa Mayor, Scott Smith, Councilmembers, Dina Higgins (also from LD-19) and Alex Finter in addition to Kirk Adams and Rich Crandall. Perkinson would appear to have the endorsements locked up.

Democrats will also put up a candidate in 2010. Kathryn “Kit” Filbey, a Democratic party official, community activist, business owner and former teacher, will likely be the “Single-shot” candidate for Democrats next year.

With it no longer looking like a question of “if” Rep. Doug Quelland will be booted from office for violating the Clean Elections laws, but rather “when”, GOP leaders in LD10 and Maricopa County have been trying to figure out how to keep this very swing seat in GOP hands.  Quelland lost the seat to perennial Democrat candidate Jackie Thrasher in 2006, but he avenged that narrow defeat by a similarly narrow margin in 2008.  Once it became obvious that Quelland was going to be kicked out of office for myriad violations, Thrasher declared herself a candidate for yet another rematch, although this time she would be an overwhelming favorite to beat the terminally damaged Quelland.

But good news may be on the horizon, as several party insiders are telling us that former district chairman Kimberly Yee is seriously considering the race and may commit to it in the next few weeks.  Yee would give the GOP a quality candidate with a strong background in education and budget issues, two critical issues as we head into the 2010 elections.

According to one bio of Yee, “She serves as Director of Communications and Government Affairs for Arizona Treasurer Dean Martin and is the former Deputy Cabinet Secretary for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She served in the gubernatorial administration of former California Governor Pete Wilson after graduating from Pepperdine University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a Bachelor’s Degree in English. Kimberly received her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Arizona State University.”

Wow!

Damning comments in the Washington Examiner today regarding the health of the Republican Party here in Arizona. (Byron York wrote the piece which I think is a pretty good assessment of the upcoming 2010 elections.)

According to a nameless Arizona politico,

The Republican Party in the state is a mess,” says the GOP politico. “It’s dysfunctional, rudderless, not accomplishing anything, not even doing the basics of getting out the vote and doing voter registration drives.”

This comes in an article regarding a return to the reddening of Arizona voters while the Democrats in Congress run roughshod over the economy and our personal lives.

I have to wonder who this “politico” is (and I know quite a few of them!)

So where exactly would “Politico” lay the blame? Is this person truly in either one of the warring camps? Are they questioning Pullen/Mecum’s leadership or is it more directed toward McCain, Kyl, Brewer, Shadegg?

Here’s my perception. The party is doing its best to assuage and woo voters who still don’t trust the GOP – although Democrats are now in the hot seat. This is reflected in voter registration where both parties are hemorrhaging voters to “Party Not Declared” (PND) and Independents. While Democrats elected at the federal level are in serious trouble with voters in Arizona, the Governor and Legislature – controlled by Republicans – could be in trouble. For months, I’ve been blaming this on the Governor who broke with Republican principles and went off on some Democrat-based fix to Arizona’s economy by raising taxes in a recession. Because she’s fought the Legislature, of course Republicans in the Legislature got muddied up by the fight to raise taxes. (Democrats have sat back and watched this take place while trying to find something to be relevant about.) How will this affect legislative races? Democrats will look to capitalize on the Arizona GOP’s inner party battle which has not sat well with the already angry voters.

The sad possibility in all this is that while national Republicans could make stunning gains in the 2010 elections – yes, even here in CD-1, 5 and 8 – the GOP could actually lose statewide and legislative seats here in Arizona – all because of the record-setting sessions of bickering between the Governor and Legislature.

And with McCain possibly facing the political fight of his life by JD Hayworth, the trickle down to the party “establishment” could further distract and fracture leadership from having an impact.

What’s the answer? I’m not sure. One thing the party could do is pull a play from the Democrats and put all candidates in one room and set the primaries. Another thing the party could do is bring more “rogue” statesman in the state, like Sarah Palin. She continues to energize voters and hopefully, that will get get the GOP to think outside of the box. Finally – and I’m not going to be popular for saying this -  get the current Governor to drop out of the race. Enough damage has been done and all the appeasements made to the teachers union and AFSCME members will never translate to votes.

Getting back to the original article, perhaps there is a little truth to politico’s argument. My question is what are we going to do about it?