Brulte pickedto shore up party

SACRAMENTO — California Republicans on Sunday turned to a familiar face to lead the party back from the brink of irrelevance in a state where they have been losing support for two decades.

More than 1,000 delegates to the state party's spring convention elected former state lawmaker Jim Brulte as party chairman and charged him with repairing the state's finances and image and recruiting a more diverse pool of candidates.

"We Republicans have to get outside of our comfort zone and deliver our message of conservative principles and individual liberty in every community, in every organization in our state," Brulte told the delegates after his election.