AHC: Make California a Swing State

The title says it all. My home state of California has been dominated by Democrats since the late 60's. The State's electoral college votes have gone to the Democratic Candidate more often than not(with one of the only exceptions being when a republican representing California runs). Anywho, I am wondering what it would take for California to be a swing state in presidential elections?

There is one restriction: you can't radically alter the platform of either party.
 
The title says it all. My home state of California has been dominated by Democrats since the late 60's. The State's electoral college votes have gone to the Democratic Candidate more often than not(with one of the only exceptions being when a republican representing California runs). Anywho, I am wondering what it would take for California to be a swing state in presidential elections?

There is one restriction: you can't radically alter the platform of either party.

Mexico elimanates internal corruption. America breaks its drug addiction. No drug wars in Mexico. Oil income is spread evenly throughout the Mexican population. The Mexican people stops listening to its priests while its government takes population control to heart. The Wall in southern California gets built in 1960:rolleyes:, along with fortifying the border with troops.:eek: The American people accept that fruit is going to get a lot more expensive.
 
Less socially-conservative GOP and more socially-conservative Democratic Party might do it.

I don't think you would have to make the Democrats more socially conservative, just the Republicans less so, still more so than the Democrats but far less so than OTL. That would draw the money and funding of the businessmen to the Republicans without being turned off by radical social policies, and the traditional Dem base would still vote that way.
 
The title says it all. My home state of California has been dominated by Democrats since the late 60's. The State's electoral college votes have gone to the Democratic Candidate more often than not(with one of the only exceptions being when a republican representing California runs).

Really? Save for 1964, a huge landslide year, it went for the Republican candidate every election from 1952 to 1988. With less radical Republicans, I think California could easily be a swing state.
 
Bruce Herschensohn, a conservative Republican, beats Barbara Boxer in 1992 by never having his stripper scandal break. The momentum allows Representative Michael Huffington to edge out Dianne Feinstein during the Republican Revolution in 1994. These were the last Senate races in California where the GOP was competitive, and seeing on how it's easier to change politics in a state from the ground up rather than vice-versa...
 
The aerospace industry around Burbank grows rather than declines in the later 20th century, thus giving the military-industrial complex a strong foothold in the LA area. That might help a bit.
 
The aerospace industry around Burbank grows rather than declines in the later 20th century, thus giving the military-industrial complex a strong foothold in the LA area. That might help a bit.

That might require a POD, of which California's swing status is a butterfly.

Not familiar with California's aerospace industry to comment intelligently, though. You got any ideas?
 
That might require a POD, of which California's swing status is a butterfly.

Not familiar with California's aerospace industry to comment intelligently, though. You got any ideas?

The aerospace industry, along with the military-industrial complex in general, suffered badly at the end of the Cold War, what with the US no longer needing all those high-tech fighter jets and anti-air missiles to shoot down MIGs over West Germany. Ever seen Falling Down? The guy in that movie was an engineer who once worked for a defense contractor; it was his getting laid off that drove him to snap. Ditto for Canadian Bacon; that's more about the Rust Belt than California, but it's the same scenario.

Maybe if you could find a way to prolong the Cold War so that the defense industry doesn't go down the tubes? That way, Southern California will remain solidly in the pro-military conservative camp, while Northern California (the Bay Area, et al.) will remain a liberal hotbed. Boom. The grand prize swing state. 55 electoral votes up for grabs rather than locked in for the Democrats.
 
have a swiping compromise on emigration in the 70's or 80's. then have the Republicans court the socially conservative Latinos and it could be very competitive in CA.
 
Not familiar with California's aerospace industry to comment intelligently, though. You got any ideas?

No, I don't really know anything about it except there used to be big divisions of aerospace companies which worked here until a few decades ago. There's still a lot here, including JPL, but there used to be more.
 
Prevent the liberalization of immigration laws in the 1960's. Result? California is whiter and, presumably, more conservative, but less radically populist. Another, possibly relayed, alternative might be to cause its population to shrink relative to other states, like Ohio or Pennsylvania. Honestly though, the very georgraphy of the state has helped to chat its present orientation.
 
Have Ronald Reagan beat Gerald Ford for the nomination in 1976, then win the general election. In 1980 he's in the same position Carter was, and a liberal replaces him. The Reagan Conservatives and Christian Right never recover from such an ignominious failure, so the GOP is decidedly centrist and the Democrats are genuine Lefty rather than milquetoast center-left.
 
Perhaps keeping papers like the LA Times more conservative, say by a few shuffles of ownership and editorial staff, could do the trick. Say, for example, a certain Australian decides to buy it up... It probably wouldn't be NOTW, but it would still have a conservative bias of sorts.

Also, if you want to have an even earlier POD, try and staunch the flow of the people who in OTL would form the counterculture in NorCal. Maybe find a way to draw them to Seattle, instead...
 
The marginalization of the GOP has much to do with the anti-immigrant Prop 187 that passed here in 1994 that drove Latinos to the Democrats in droves. 187 was backed by a number of prominent GOP politicians, including Gov. Pete Wilson. Wilson managed to win reelection in '94 by a wide margin, in what might be one of the great Pyrrhic victories in politics ever. Given the popularity of the measure at the time (it passed 59-41), it seems to me that perhaps one way to mitigate the long-term political damage the GOP suffered is to have Dianne Feinstein beat Wilson in 1990, an election which was fairly close. As an incumbent seeking reelection, Feinstein might well have felt compelled to back the measure, and blame would accordingly be put on both parties.
 
Roe v. Wade and the GOP Base's supreme opposition to it is a big problem. Also, the idea that the GOP is less right wing ignores the Southern Strategy. In essence, the GOP sacrificed the West Coast and North East to secure the South and Midwest AND the Rockies.
 
Top