The 5th Assembly District, which is centered in Sacramento County, is currently occupied by Roger Niello who, fortunately, is forced to retire due to term limits. FR readers will undoubtedly recall Niello’s infamous vote for the largest tax increase in California history, and his vote tie even more massive tax increases to Proposition 1A should it have passed (fortunately the voters overwhelmingly rejected 1A). Niello, while being a truly nice guy, is too smart to get any kind of pass for abandoning the most significant premise of our party — which is that government is too big and spends too much.
I hear the argument from Republicans all of the time that we need to nominate “moderate” candidates in primaries because conservatives can’t win in swing districts. While I don’t agree with this argument at all, I can see why some people would buy into that logic. I believe you best defeat the other party by contrasting their views with ours — but some feel that you need to be "like them" to beat them – go figure.
That said, what I do not understand is why some believe we should nominate liberal or moderate Republicans in safe Republican seats such as Assembly District 5. What the point is of having liberal Republicans such as Roger Niello represent solidly Republican districts when they cast votes for the one thing Republicans in California should be standing against: tax increases. To be fair, by the way, to the voters in AD 5, Niello conveniently did not run in any of his three elections on a platform of, "for the right budget deal, I would be the deciding vote to increase your income, sales and car taxes." Niello’s looking to run for State Senate in 2012 — and at that time Republican voters can express their feelings about that he did this year.
My sources tell me that Assemblyman Niello is making a concentrated effort to recruit another fiscal moderate to run for his Assembly seat for fear that the current frontrunner in that race, Folsom Attorney and Chief Legal Defender for Prop 8 Andy Pugno, is too conservative and might turn this Assembly District into a target. This is absurd.
Maybe Roger Niello should take a second look at the numbers, because Proposition 8 passed with equally astounding numbers, 55% to 45%, in 2008 despite the Obama tidal wave that overtook nearly half of the Assembly Districts won by Republican candidates.
I am more convinced than ever that Sacramento-area Republicans nominate a conservative in this District. In such a solidly Republican seat, there is absolutely no sound argument that anyone can make that would justify electing another “Roger Niello”-type candidate. Remember, the only protection that Californian’s have in the state legislature to stop tax increases is the 2/3rds vote requirement. As we saw in February, it takes only a handful of quisling Republicans to get to that threshold! Don’t put it past the public employee unions, by the way, to get involved in GOP primaries to try and put more Republicans who will support taxes in the Assembly (of the three Assembly Republicans who supported the higher taxes this year, two are termed out, and the third will face a recall election towards the end of this year).
Just how Republican is Assembly District 5?
Not only do Republicans outnumber Democrats in this district, but the success of conservatives winning has been staggering.
For starters, former State Senator Dick Mountjoy who is almost completely unknown in Northern California, carried this district overwhelmingly in his uphill campaign for U.S. Senate against Democrat Diane Feinstein, 55% to 39%. This of course was in 2006, the same year that Republicans lost record numbers of seats in both houses of Congress.
In that same year, Sen. Chuck Poochigian won this District in his race for Attorney General against Jerry Brown, 50% to 46%.
Proposition 8 passed with equally astounding numbers, 55% to 45%, in 2008 despite the Obama tidal wave that overtook many Assembly Districts.
While, as an elected officer of the California Republican Party, I cannot endorse anyone for the Republican nomination in the 5th District I will say that I have known Andy Pugno for over fifteen years (going back to our days in the College Republicans, fighting the left on our respective campuses) and he is by no means a single-issue candidate. While he is best known for his recent role as the legal spokesperson for Prop. 8, Andy has a wide range of experience representing local governments on complex policy issues. He has also served as a Deputy City Attorney for several Sacramento-area cities including Citrus Heights that is in the 5th District. Hardly the resume of some "nutty" right-winger.
Also in this primary is Craig DeLuz, another conservative whom I have known for many years — who serves as Capitol Director for Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, and who invariably who would be "unacceptable" to the retiring incumbent due to his vocal opposition to the February tax increases.
Let me conclude by saying that there is one person who clearly should not be taken seriously as they opine about who should or should not be a candidate in Assembly District 5 — and that is Roger Niello — who’s interest, no doubt, is to recruit someone who will support his quixotic bid for the State Senate two years hence. Roger, when you betray the trust of those who send you into office by helping orchestrate and then voting for massive tax increases, you forfeit the moral right to weigh in on who Republicans should support to replace you.
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