Obama and the OC

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The LA Times reports on a Barack Obama fundraiser in the heart of Nixonland.

On the Balboa Bay Club's wall of its most famous guests, there are photos of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford and, of course, the Duke.

There are no Democratic politicians. Securely tucked behind the Orange Curtain, Newport Beach is Republican-held territory.

But Barack Obama may be hoping to change that.

On Sunday, the Democratic Illinois senator brought his campaign to the center of Republican power and did what he has done better than any other presidential candidate -- raise money.

Obama would leave with $1.2 million, an organizer estimated. With this infusion, he may exceed the amount GOP candidate John McCain has raised in Orange County.

I think this is laying it on a bit thick.  Even in the most Republican bastions in the country there are 3-4 Democrats for every 10 citizens, and some of them are wealthy.  So rounding up some donors for the guy who's favored to become the next President of the United States doesn't seem to me to be that difficult.  What's notable here is the resistance to McCain.  Orange County was one of the better regions for Mitt Romney in the primary, although McCain won there for the most part.  In addition, there are demographic shifts in Orange County that may not reveal themselves in big donors, but is starting to catch at the grassroots level.  

I don't think a $1.2 million dollar fundraiser is as indicative of an overall shift in the voting public, but in the fall, we'll see some better gauges, particularly in CA-46 and the campaign of Debbie Cook, to note whether or not the Orange Curtain is opening a peek.