Last week lame duck Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines appeared on the low-profile internet television program Central Valley Talk hosted by former GOP Assemblyman Mike Briggs.
There seems something poetic about this appearance. By way of a little history lesson for FlashReport leaders, in 2001, Briggs rather infamously broke ranks with Republican legislators to vote with Democrats for a Gray Davis penned budget that increased taxes on Californians, according to then-Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Briggs broke rank with his Republican colleagues after securing “millions in goodies” for his district.
Since articles about the departure of Villines as leader have hinted that the GOPer who orchestrated a terrible budget deal at the center of which were massive sales, income and car tax increases may look to running for public office again in the future. In fact, the Fresno Bee reported that he floated the idea of running for Insurance Commissioner at a breakfast yesterday.
Mike Briggs, after his alliance with Democrats, figured that he would try that route, too. As an incumbent Assemblyman in 2002, Briggs jumped into an open Republican primary for Congress. Guess what happened? OK, you don’t have to guess, here are the vote results straight from the Secretary of State’s website:
Devin Nunes 21,438 37.1%
Greg Ingles 258 0.4%
Jim Patterson 19,099 33.0%
Mike Briggs 14,864 25.7%
Nathan Short 436 0.7%
Richard Morgan 369 0.6%
Tom Wright 1,413 2.5%
Here is a link to Brigg’s online television program’s website... perhaps they post up archives. Perhaps some of the show will be Briggs giving pointers to Villines about how to start his own web-broadcast when he is out of office at the end of this term.
Villines and Briggs both have something in common – they are both extraordinarily nice, warm people. Which makes it that much more difficult to write blog posts like this one. But make no mistake, Republican leaders have a responsibility to make it abundantly clear that what these men did was NOT endorsed or supported by our party and are they were acting as individuals making poor decisions. The only way for our party to reconnect with those voters who believe government is too big and spends too much is to be vocally critical of the poor policy and political decisions made by errant GOP officials like Villines and Briggs.
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