California Republicans and the Race for President

It's conventional wisdom that California Republicans won't have a voice in selecting their nominee because the winner will be chosen before the state's primary, which isn't until June. But Newt Gingrich is the only presidential candidate on the Party's convention schedule this coming weekend. Meanwhile, the presidential preferences of the state's Republicans have undergone a dramatic change, not just in the past few months, but in the past few days. In November, Rick Santorum had the support of just one or two percent of likely Republican voters. Now he has 25 percent, hot on the trail of Mitt Romney who still leads with 31 percent. Much of that happened while the poll was being taken during the past two weeks.