Of the 58 counties in California, and their respective Republican organizations, only one has a booth at the California GOP Convention: the Monterey County Republican Party.
Brandon Gesicki, Monterey County’s most well known campaign strategist, arrived in Anaheim last night with a handful of other party reps, and this morning, they launched a “DeleteHillary!” campaign replete with orange prison jumpsuits and a cornhole set to mock the Hillary Clinton email controversy.
“Most conventions are pretty boring, and our party, we always want to try to get more young people involved,” Gesicki says, adding that credit for the jumpsuit idea go to CSUMB student Sierra Roberts, who was in attendance, wearing a jumpsuit and cheering on attendees as they tried out the booth’s cornhole set.
The Monterey Republicans published a video on YouTube Sept. 17 attacking Clinton for the email fiasco, but the focus at the convention was on props. Their cornhole set has five beanbags, with “Delete Hillary” on one side and five different messages on the other: “Benghazi,” “Clinton Foundation,” “Hillary Clinton 2016,” “Top Secret” and “State Department.”
When attendees sink a bag in the hole (and the booth is attracting much attention), that “email” has been deleted. Afterwards, they can grab a hand-wipe out of a dispenser wrapped in a custom “Delete Hillary” logo, to clean away whatever tarnish they might feel upon their hands.
“We thought we’d have a little fun with it,” Gesicki says.
As for why Monterey County Republicans are the only county party with its own booth at the convention, Gesicki says “it’s because we’ve got our act together.”
About 1000 attendees have flocked to Anaheim for the convention, a number Gesicki—who’s been to the convention for the last 15 years—pegs as about average.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee headlined the event Friday, but Gesicki says he’s maintaining neutrality about the GOP presidential candidates. He also adds that the Monterey County party is against the greater GOP’s current platform, and thinks there is too much focus on social issues in the current campaign.
“I think it should be one page,” he says of the platform. “I’m a Republican because I believe in individual responsibility. Responsible government, less taxation, not all this other nonsense.”
For more on #CAGOP15, follow me on Twitter @davidmschmalz. A complete report is coming soon in print.

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