I am running for the office of Assembly Member of the 28th District because I care about the people of the Central Coast and the State of California.I love our country, I love our state, and I love our form of government of the people, by the people, for the people.Unfortunately, somewhere along the way things have gone wrong at all levels of government, especially at the state.We know this because the state is literally broke.It is in crisis.This is both a problem in itself and a symptom of overall bad governance in general.We have gone through the cycles of accounting gimmickry and other games that made the party last a little longer, but we are now at the end of the line.Yet we already have very high tax rates, so raising them more is not palatable, especially at this time.The overall governance problem is that the our elected leaders have accommodated everyone as if there were no consequences, especially those unintended, and continued to increase spending year after year, regardless of the boom and bust cycle of tax receipts.As a state, our spending is limited to our tax receipts, which although can be stretched by borrowing, at the end of the day must be paid back.When we do pay it back, the funds have to come from tax receipts that otherwise would be used for other programs.
It is not worth the time to point fingers, the situation is what it is, and there is no choice but to fix it.I am running because I feel that I am the right choice to help.
To be an effective Republican Assembly Member, I believe that this is what needs to be done: 1.Recognize that California is a liberal state.The Republicans’ goals should be to move bills and programs away from the far left, but at least in the foreseeable future, we are not going to transform California into a conservative state.We need to be looking for incremental, positive change. Earn the trust of the people through tangible, positive accomplishments. 2.Use our values as an asset.The crisis is fiscal.Republican/Conservative philosophies are best suited to get us out of a fiscal crisis.Creating jobs primarily in the private sector solves a huge amount of California’s current woes.Let’s do things that do that.Then let’s follow up by fighting to keep state spending low. 3.Stop creating enemies with rhetoric.There are many roles in state politics, including political parties, labor unions, activists, and others that have soap boxes and agendas.The current fiscal crisis is highlighting the effect each of the roles has played all in its own, so there is no need to adding fuel to the fire.Focus on solutions that the various parties can compromise on. Look for wins. One difference between me and the other candidates is that I am not going to stand on a soap box and tell you that I can deliver all the things that are popular for politicians to promise.I am running to be 1 out of 80 members of the Assembly, not the governor.An Assembly Member serves the people by debating and voting on bills that other Assembly members have written or came over from the senate, occasionally writing one that may make it out of committee, and listening to the people that reside in their district for issues that they can take back and discuss with other Assembly members that may possibly lead to successful bill writing.To get something accomplished, a Republican Assembly member has to support fellow Assembly members and other politicians in the hope that they will do so in return.The good news is that the current situation in California is going to see a lot of give and take between conservatives and liberals, and the Republican caucus should be able to move the needle more towards the center. Any other candidate for Assembly that is making promises about hard deliverables on specific programs is running for the wrong office and does not know what they are talking about.One check on this is if a candidate talks about cutting taxes that are too high, and then continues on about fixing infrastructure, education, crime, health care, so on and so forth, that all cost more money. Things that cost money beyond core services are going to have to be thought out very carefully in the next decade due to the crisis California is in today. Promises sound great on the soapbox, but no Assembly member can deliver it, much less make it happen in a two year term.I am running to be part of a responsible, sensible, process that will get California out of its current crisis and make it a great place to live, work, and play.