Not everyone is aware of the fact that FR blogger and now infamous Assemblyman Anthony Adams is not only a member of the California State Assembly, but less than two months ago had been elected Chairman of the San Bernardino County GOP. This becomes significant in light of Adams’ decision a few days ago to bust his "no new taxes pledge" and vote for the largest single state-level tax increase in the history of America.
As an Assemblyman, Anthony will largely have to answer to his constituents for that action as he seeks re-election. But as a Republican Party Chairman, he will have to justify maintaining his role at his party’s leader to the membership of the San Bernardino County Republican Party.
One of the members of that Central Committee, a rather high-profile one, has called for Adams to resign from his Chairmanship post — his legislative colleague, State Senator Bob Dutton.
Below I have reprinted a media release that was put out by Dutton’s campaign on the issue.
This whole issue of Anthony voting for these taxes has been stressful for me given that long before Anthony decided to seek a seat in the state legislature, he and I were friends. I counseled him strongly not to vote for the tax increases, and he spent quite a bit of time walking me through his arguments on why he felt that he had no choice. We agreed to disagree.
Anthony remains my friend — at least for my part.
But it is simply not possible for me to reconcile the breaking of a promise that he made, voluntarily, which he used to draw a political distinction between himself and his primary opponent, Chris Lancaster.
It is a no-brainer that Adams should step aside as County Chairman. It’s really as simple as the fact that as Chairman, he is the top spokesman for the GOP in a major California county. There is simply no way for Anthony to credibly articulate the party’s "government is too big and taxes to much" position anymore.
I guess from Anthony’s point of view, it might also be useful to spend my time focused on my own campaign, whether it be in a potential recall election, or just in a potential Republican primary in seeking another term in the Assembly.
SENATOR DUTTON RELEASE
Sen. Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) called on Assemblymember Anthony Adams to resign as chairman of the San Bernardino Republican Party.
“Anthony Adams has called Senate Republicans ‘recalcitrant’ because they won’t support a budget proposal that raises taxes on hard-working California families by more than $13 billion,” Senator Dutton said. “It’s clear that Assemblyman Adams doesn’t represent the core values of the Republican Party and I am calling on him to immediately resign as chair of the San Bernardino Republican Party.”
The current budget proposal includes raising taxes that will affect nearly every taxpayer in the state. It includes doubling the car tax, increasing the state sales tax rate and raises the personal income tax. And to make matters worse it does not fix the problem. California still faces deficits far into the future.
“My focus is and always has been on protecting and creating jobs in California,” said Senator Dutton. “This budget doesn’t do nearly enough to lift the unneeded and unnecessary regulation placed on small business that has made California the most expensive place to do business in this country. This budget doesn’t do nearly enough to grow the tax base the right way – through job creation.”
Senator Dutton further explained that despite $13 billion worth of new taxes, this proposed solution does not fix the problem.
“Within two years California will be dealing with multi-billion dollar budget deficits again,” said Senator Dutton. “You would think that by taking $13 billion from Californian families over the next several years we would at least ensure we’re not back into this fiscal mess. But it doesn’t do that.”
Senator Dutton believes ultimately that every member of the Legislature must vote the way they believe.
“Political disagreements happen all the time,” Senator Dutton continued. “What Assemblymember Adams had done is to attack the integrity of Senate Republicans and that cannot and will not be tolerated. In the battle against tax increases tax fighters should not be taking fire from the Chair of the San Bernardino Republican Party. Based on his comments it’s clear he cannot effectively represent San Bernardino Republicans and should resign immediately,” Senator Dutton concluded.
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