Although we fail to spot the news hook, the Chron‘s long piece on the vanishing species known as Bay Area Republicans is still interesting for political junkies. But you probably know the drill already: techies and white-collar professionals are moving into the suburbs where farms used to prop up Republican legislators, and bringing their moderate Democratic politics with them. Now, Republicans have just one state assemblyman out of 38 statewide and national legislative seats. Here’s a cute gem buried deep in the story: according to consultant Wayne Johnson, the subprime mortgage crisis could reinvigorate the Republican Party, as voters look for people to manage dwindling public resources effectively. Pardon us if we notice that the subprime mortgage crisis was enabled by unreflective deregulation of the financial industry, and that while Democrats like Bill Clinton got the deregulation fever too, voters are hardly likely to conclude that the present situation calls for more laissez faire policies.
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