LOS ANGELES -- After failing to keep pace with California's shifting demographics, the state Republican Party is attempting a revival by revamping its strategy to appeal to the fastest-growing segment of the state's electorate.

Yet transcending divisions with Hispanics on immigration issues and focusing on other matters such as education and the economy will not be easy for a party that now registers less than a third of the state's voters.

Even as party leaders talked about creating a sustainable strategy for Hispanic outreach, much of the lineup at the California Republican Party convention in Los Angeles this weekend would seem to be at odds with those goals. The headliners are two conservative presidential candidates who are unlikely to appeal to mainstream voters, much less many Hispanics in California: tea party favorite Michele Bachmann and small-government icon Ron Paul, who drew hundreds of enthusiastic supporters to his morning events. Paul won the straw poll Saturday afternoon.

Saturday's series of events featured a first for California Republicans, a town hall conversation hosted by a popular Spanish-language television host about how the party can connect with Hispanics. It will air later on the Spanish-language television network Univision.

Party Chairman Tom del Beccaro, who took over in March, called the outreach plan unprecedented, mostly because he said Republicans plan to follow through this time.

"The dynamic today is that we have a single point of discussion in this country between Republicans and Latinos, which is immigration," he said. "As important as that is, so are jobs, so is education and so is public safety. And the fact that we don't have ongoing discussions with them on these other categories is our fault and what needs to change."


Having seen such efforts come and go in years past, some moderates are going around the formal party mechanism in their own bid to appeal to Hispanics.

Hector Barajas, a former communications director for the party who is now a consultant to Spanish-language television network Univision, is leading a program to recruit Hispanic Republican candidates for local office. The first target is Los Angeles County, heavily Democratic and Hispanic.

The effort, called Grow Elect, has a roster of 15 candidates competing for school board, city council and other local seats this November. Barajas said Republicans too often mistake "a mariachi band and Mexican food" for genuine outreach to Hispanics.

"I was an employee for the party for eight years, and you know, there would always be a program," to appeal to Hispanic voters during elections, he said. "Once the campaign ended, the program would end. Then there'd be another program that would end. There was no sustainability on anything."

Voters identify most closely with their local officials, Barajas said, and minority groups often rely on "third-party validators" in their community for advice on voting and other matters.

In 2008, a splinter group of Republicans with ties to then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a well-funded effort to recruit more moderate candidates with greater appeal to minority voters. Last year, Republican leaders promised that Hispanics would turn out in record numbers, pulled in by former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman's multimillion-dollar outreach efforts in her failed run for governor.

Those efforts fizzled by Election Day after revelations that Whitman had fired her illegal immigrant maid. She lost the race by 13 percentage points to Democrat Jerry Brown in an election that saw Democratic candidates sweep every statewide office.