FR friend Shane Goldmacher (who writes for CapWeekly) has reported on his blog that conservative Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes has endorsed…Abel Maldonado in his bid for Controller. On one level, this is surprising because idoliogically and stylistically, Haynes and Maldonado’s primary opponent, former Assemblyman Tony Strickland are very much on the same page.
At first blush, this would simply seem to be a calculated ‘pay back’ from Haynes to Strickland, who has endorsed Haynes’ primary opponent in his race for Board of Equalization, conservative businesswoman Michelle Steel.
The key difference here, of course, is that Haynes and Steel are both hardline conservatives. So you can’t really say that someone is more or less conservative based on which of the two someone endorse. Either Haynes or Steel would be a marked improvement over Claude Parrish, who seems to relish the regulatory role of the BOE, instead of seeing it as a resource to come to the aid of taxpayers.
Anyways, I think I am going to go and see if I can see if my friend Ray has written a column in support of Maldonado’s bill to raise the state’s mandate on employers, requiring them to pay their employees more. The old Ray Haynes would have decried such a policy as being anti-free market, and literally rolled his eyes, or worse, at a GOPer who would introduce such a regulation – let alone endorse him or her for higher office.
Please feel free to comment to this post, if you have insights into this. If I am right, and this is really about Strickland’s endorsement of Steel, then wait until Bruce Herschesohn runs again (I wish!) — as he, too, has endorsed Steel. Will Ray endorse Bruce’s opponent? I’ll bet, as was likely the case in Strickland’s endorsement, Bruce’s support of Steel was not because of an ideological difference between Haynes and Steel, rather an established friendship.
I really didn’t write this to slam Abel Maldonado. I like Abel, and were he to replace Steve Westly as State Controller, California taxpayers would see a vast improvement in that office.
This post has come about because there are only so many ‘movement conservatives’ involved these days, it seems that number is shrinking.