Los Angeles County has 26 Assembly districts wholly or partly in it. Each one elects seven members to the Republican central committee. That's a county committee of over 200 people, three times the size of the next largest committees in Orange and San Diego counties. Over the past 20 years the quality of central committee members in LA County declined, and so did the performance of the Republican Party. After the complete local disarray of the 2002 election, Republican elected officials, business and financial leaders joined with the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs to help. After years of work, the county party now runs well and has excellent leadership. But there's still room for improvement.

The Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs partnered with local Republican elected officials and businessmen earlier this year to create the Central Committee Improvement Project (CCIP) for yesterday's election. They pooled resources to get out the vote for seven high quality central committee candidates in each of five key contested Assembly Districts around the County.

Every single one of those 35 candidates won their election yesterday.

In the North County 36th AD where two competing slates of candidates squared off against each other, the Lincoln Clubs allied with George and Sharon Runner friends to take all seven seats. The Runner forces also scored a big win with Assembly District nominee Steve Knight to replace termed out Assemblywoman Sharon Runner in the 36th. George was renominated for his second term as our Senator in the 17th Senate District, where he has done an outstanding job representing LA County and taxpayers from around the entire state. Antelope Valley Lincoln Club Chairman Frank Visco gets a thank you here for his kind assistance.

The 38th Assembly District is centered in the Santa Clarita Valley. The Lincoln Clubs supported a central committee slate there led by top vote getter Bob Haueter, a long time political operative who is now Rep. Buck McKeon's District Director. Bob has a reputation for getting things done politically that goes back over a quarter century. He is a great asset to the Republican Party and has an excellent team to work with in his Assembly District Committee. Santa Clarita Valley Lincoln Club Chairman Hunt Braly was very helpful to the effort in the 38th AD.

The Pasadena based 44th Assembly District was formerly GOP territory, and is a high priority to be once again GOP territory. Long time Mountjoy operative Peggy Mew leads a great team, including Arcadia Councilman Peter Amundsen, who all won election or reelection yesterday.

The best opportunity for the LA County Republican party to pick up an Assembly seat is currently in the South Bay. Both the 53rd and 54th Assembly Districts have a GOP registration of at least 33% and excellent candidates in Tom Vidal and Gabriella Holt respectively. Their local central committees had room for improvement.

Long time South Bay Lincoln Club and 53rd AD Central Committee Chairman Bob Holmes' dream came true yesterday as his team of current and former councilmen and civic leaders swept all seven positions in this beach cities district. Holmes is a former 12 year Manhattan Beach city councilman, and used his network of civic connections to put together a great team of local leaders. He has done an excellent job of rebuilding a central committee that was largely useless five years ago.

Bob Holmes is now the poster boy for success in nuts-and-bolts party building for this county of ten million people. His South Bay Lincoln Club helped in both the 53rd and 54th Assembly District victories.

The neighboring 54th Assembly District stretches from the staunchly Republican Palos Verdes Peninsula (aka The Hill) along the coast to Democrat leaning Long Beach, California's fifth largest city. Former local elected official Gabriella Holt will face left wing Democrat Long Beach City Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal here in November.

One advantage Gabriella will have is the newly unified and high quality 54th AD Republican Central Committee. Chairman John Stammreich has done an outstanding job of leading the campaign effort for seven excellent winning candidates, and of removing a few local gadflys in the process. John is the Precinct Chairman for RPLAC, and will be sure to focus effort here in the fall.

With over a quarter of the state's population and more than one million registered Republicans, Los Angeles County is critical to Republican success. In an unglamorous yet important way, yesterday's central committee elections moved us forward and brought the Party together.