No… It wasn’t us. It was the Los Angeles Times (or as former Congressman Chris Cox like to refer to them, Pravda West).
Breaking her long self-imposed silence on many state policy issues while she was "considering" a run for Governor, Meg Whitman, now officially a candidate, gave an interview to Michael Finnigan with the Los Angeles Times. The interview is worth reading, although I must admit that after reading it with the idea that an interview might actually clear up a lot of the "mystery" surrounding Whitman and her positions on major issues of the day. Instead, I found that the interview left me with a lot of questions.
I have my own request into the Whitman campaign talk with the ersatz Governor, and haven’t heard back yet. I actually had assumed that Whitman was not doing interviews, yet. Clearly she wanted to give an exclusive "first interview as a candidate" to a major California newspaper. Conservative blogger interviews are somewhere down the journalistic food chain.
Well, assuming that I’ll get a chance to talk with Meg Whitman soon, I thought I would extend an invitation to FR readers to send in questions you would like asked of the former eBay CEO. You can either post up your proposed question as a comment below, or drop me an e-mail here. Please get me your questions as quickly as you can. We’ll actually post up on the website the questions you want answered.
I guess a great question that I would ask off the bat is whether or not, if she were Governor right now, she would sign into law a state budget that includes any increases in taxes? It was clear from reading the Times interview that Whitman would oppose raising income taxes. But Democrats are also putting forward increases in the states sales tax, vehicle license tax and gas tax — and not by just a little — they want to push BILLIONS of dollars in new taxes on Californians. We would argue that there is NEVER a good time for this, but certainly the case can be made that right now, as our economy is hurting badly, is the very WORST TIME for government to reach further into the wallets and purses of taxpayers.
Perhaps a bigger challenge for Whitman occurred to me as I was reading the interview piece. Thanks to the tragic story of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who literally did a 180 after he was elected to office on a platform of "sweeping out" the special interests (remember him waving his broom to the sounds of "We’re Not Going To Take It"?), and now has become a champion for big government, most recently endorsing President Obama’s "Porkulus" bill. I find myself, as a Republican leader, wondering how to I even know if what Whitman is starting to lay out her policy views, whether I believe that she will stick to them.
I am hardly one of those people who believes that in order to run for a higher office, you must first have been elected to a lower office, and developed a public track record. That said, there is certainly a higher appeal for me now to candidates that are already proven in some way. I think that this will be a big challenge for the relative newcomer to the political process (both on the front end, as a candidate, and on the back end, as a voter).
Still, the first step in the process is going to be to lay out her positions — and equally as important, being candid and patient in understanding that folks like myself will want to talk through her values and logic for arriving at those positions. I am cynical these days. And look for that to balloon 100x if the conservatives that we have sent to Sacramento, armed with enough votes to block tax increases, end up giving in to the special interest complex, instead of holding the line (shouldn’t California government be able to live on $90 billion annually, which is roughly the anticipated income to the state this year?).
I will say that I do not agree with every policy position of Whitman’s primary opponent, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner — though he and I agree on most. That said, what I do have with Poizner, due to years of interaction, is a real understanding of the way he thinks. I understand his values, his priorities and his core beliefs. Whitman has a long way to go to be able to achieve that kind of rapport with people like me, who feel like they got "used" by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Tom McClintock, here is my 100th public apology for not backing you in the 2003 recall election).
My first real interview (I did an interview before — read it here — but it was before she had announced, and the interview was narrow in scope by prearrangement) should be fun and interesting. Obviously there are a lot of specific issues and policy questions to be asked. But I guess the bigger challenge will be to try to understand what makes Whitman tick — and try, as best I can, to determine if she would be another "Benedict Arnold" or not. I didn’t see much a direct critique on the Governor’s performance in the Finnigan interview, so we’ll see what she thinks of the job he is doing.
In the meantime, I will close this rambling commentary on a different note, of sorts…
I know that Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines place a high value on the opinions of the members of their respective caucuses. GOP Senators and Assemblymembers – PLEASE urge these two leaders to shelf ANY NOTION of signing off on a deal that includes higher taxes. News today of the Governor sending layoff notices to 20,000 state employees is a sign that we already have a spending cap — it is the resolve of Republicans in Sacramento. By holding tight, the state (by simple math) will spend no more than it brings in, and structural reform will come. The public employee unions are strong, but they cannot print money. They only win if Republicans open up the wallets of Californians and let them reach in… We have a historic opportunity to force reforms — ending forced union arbitration (maybe even an end to public employee unions altogether?) — privatizing state services (such as prisons) — ending our state employee defined benefits in favor of private-sector style 401k programs — abolishing the education code — repealing in their entirety outrageous workplace and environmental regulations. Note — none of the reforms I just mentioned take place in a "negotiated deal’ – they only come when Democrats finally get it — that there just is NOT enough money and they have to prioritize. So again, urge the legislative leaders not to concede on our #1 issue, opposition to new taxes.
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