News

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

April 23, 2018

CONTACT: Jan Leja, 909-363-5388

Travis Allen, Janice Rutherford pick up decisive wins in San Bernardino County GOP straw poll

ONTARIO – In their first-ever straw 

poll, San Bernardino County Republicans picked gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen and county Supervisor Janice Rutherford by decisive margins.

Those were just two of results from the April 14 straw poll, which was part of a new process by San Bernardino County Republicans to vote on their candidates after hearing from them directly.

“All politics is local,” said Jan Leja, the new chairwoman of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee. “We understand that, so it’s important to engage locally.”

The straw poll was open to the public. More than 200 attended the first-ever San Bernardino County Republican Endorsement Convention, but only 107 chose to cast votes.

The straw poll was separate from the more traditional county endorsements, in which central committee members voted in closed session for their candidates. 

In both cases, committee members sat all afternoon, and face-to-face, with more than 30 candidates running for federal, state, county, and local offices. That included personal lobbying from Allen as well as John Cox, also running for governor.

“Our goal was to educate as many voters as possible about the candidates,” Leja said. “It was almost a ‘mini-state party convention.’” 

Leja said the county GOP convention was a success so the party will again hold a convention in September after the results of the June 5 primary are known.

County endorsements for several targeted state and federal races were decided in February , so central committee members and the public did not vote on their races on April 14. 

Both the official San Bernardino County Republican Party Central Committee endorsements and the straw poll results are attached . 

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