Pete Wilson Embraces Ted Cruz at California GOP Convention

Declaring that "never has a California election been so crucial to the future of our nation," former governor Pete Wilson Saturday threw his full support behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at the state GOP convention in Burlingame.

Wilson, whose promotion of the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in 1994 is widely blamed for starting the party's demise in California, said the Cuban-American Cruz was "obviously not anti-immigrant or anti-Latino."

"We cannot afford a nominee who brings down-ticket decimation to our hard-won 2014 gains," Wilson said, apparently referring to Donald Trump.

After Wilson's introduction, Sen. Cruz, microphone in hand, walked out from behind the podium and moved toward the audience to deliver his remarks without notes.

He promised to end sanctuary cities protecting illegal immigrants, stand firmly with Israel, abolish the I.R.S and tilt water policy toward agriculture and away from protecting endangered species.

"Three-inch fish go great with cheese and crackers," Cruz quipped, referring to efforts to protect the Delta smelt and other small fish.

Complaining that more than a trillion gallons of water had gone to the ocean to save fish, Cruz offered another idea: "Put up a disco ball and play some Barry White [music]. Let nature take its course."

Wilson's endorsement of Cruz might help the Texas senator in the June primary, but it also opens some old wounds.

Veteran GOP consultant Mike Madrid, who was hired by the party in 1996 in the wake of Prop. 187 to help the party woo Latino voters, said he finds the current immigration debate among Republican candidates "a little heartbreaking."

"To look back 20 years later and come to the same convention where the issues not only have not resolved themselves, but in many ways gotten worse," Madrid said, left him struggling with whether to support his party's presidential nominee if it turns out to be Trump or Cruz.

Last night, Ohio Gov. John Kasich warned his party about nominating a presidential candidate whose immigration rhetoric is divisive.

"Do the Republicans actually think that they can win an election by scaring every Hispanic in this country to death, scaring them to the point where they think their families are going to be torn apart and disrupted?," Kasich asked.

"Do you have any idea what those folks are going to do in a general election? "

One day after Trump's appearance at the Republican convention in Burlingame triggered vocal protests, the GOP gathering settled into relative calm Saturday.

Cruz's speech Saturday comes as a sense of resignation over Trump's success appears to be setting in among some state party leaders.

Jim Brulte, GOP state party chair, said Saturday no matter what happens in June, the party will continue working to broaden the GOP's appeal to voters turned off by Republican policies in California.

"My job is to rebuild from the ground up, and we're not changing anything we're doing," Brulte said. "And when this primary campaign is over we'll continue doing it."