CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014 OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“JERRY BROWN CALLED LAZY, VULNERABLE”
Jerry Brown has
been called a lot of things in his 45-year political career, from “Gov.
Moonbeam” to “the old man,” but no one ever accused him of being a do-nothing
dud of a politician. Until now.
Changing the
state’s school-funding formula, balancing the budget after years of deficit,
proposing a massive water transportation plan and spearheading a successful
campaign for a tax increase were not enough to make Brown a busy man, says his
most likely fall reelection rival.
“Brown is a
caretaker governor,” charges Neel Kashkari, leading Republican in some recent
polls. “I’m telling you, he’s a status quo guy. I call him lazy and unwilling
to make the major changes we need to bring California back from the Great
Recession. All he does is nibble around the edges of problems.”
This unique
criticism of Brown will be a major theme of Kashkari’s campaign against the
75-year-old Democrat. Kashkari, a former executive of the Goldman Sachs banking
house, led the federal Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program for
several months under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He takes
much credit for rescuing the U.S. economy from disaster and is the early
favorite over fellow Republicans Tim Donnelly and Andrew Blount in the June
primary election.
For sure, Kashkari
is a different sort of Republican candidate, perhaps one California voters
will be ready to accept. The Ohio-born son of Indian immigrant parents, he
didn’t get here until 1998, then left for more than three years’ work in
Washington, D.C. So he’s only lived here about 13 years, less than any serious candidate
for governor in modern memory.
“If time in
California were the criterion leading to a great governor, Brown would be
great,” the intense, shaven-headed Kashkari said, seated in a San Fernando
Valley coffee shop.
Kashkari is unlike
other recent top Republican nominees: He’s not a billionaire, his net worth
estimated at “only” about $5 million; he can’t write big checks to his campaign
every time the bank account gets thin, a la Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and William Simon.
“I won’t contribute
anything,” he says. That would contrast enormously with Brown’s 2010 opponent,
Silicon Valley executive Whitman, who spent more than 140 million of her own
dollars without coming close.
“Brown is
vulnerable,” Kashkari declares. “He wants to spend $67 billion on his
crazytrain (Kashkari code for high speed rail) and one poll I saw had only
about 33 percent of voters wanting to reelect him.” The same survey, however,
found 59 percent approve Brown’s job performance, an odd polling combination.
Kashkari says he’d
pursue two main goals if elected: creating jobs and reviving California
education. Asked how, he makes a major commitment to exploiting the state’s
huge shale oil and gas reserves, without imposing a new drilling tax. He would
also make a big push for less regulation of business, something Brown has
tried, but not been able to push through the Legislature.
How would Kashkari
operate as a Republican dealing with a large Democratic legislative majorities?
He doesn’t explain in detail. But he insists that “I would bring a lot of
companies back to California, not have them continue moving out of state,” also
a theme of the previous three GOP candidates for governor. But he doesn’t
detail how he’d help business cope with high housing costs that prevent many
companies from recruiting out-of-state workers here.
He also insists
he’d pursue development of new reservoirs to store water in wet years and
prepare for dry ones, but does not say where he’d put them. “We need a large
water bond on the fall ballot,” he says. “I blame Brown for lack of preparation
for the drought.”
But in more than an hour
discussing what he would do, there were no details on how he’d revive
education, where California’s per-student spending is among the lowest in
America.
Kashkari brings
obvious energy to the campaign trail. But his big handicap also is obvious –
voters don’t know him. Not one person in that coffee shop appeared to recognize
him, despite his distinctive appearance.
Can Kashkari win in
a state where Republicans are badly outnumbered and where he’s never run for
any office, where he’s voted in barely half the elections during his time here?
He says yes.
Brown
doesn’t seem worried.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His
book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and
the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover
fourth edition. For more Elias columns, go to www.californiafocus.net
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