Every election is an opportunity for voters to choose a new vision, and new leadership, for California.
With sky-high unemployment, the nation’s highest poverty rate, too many failing schools, and the nation’s worst business climate for jobs, rarely have we been given a better opportunity to offer new leadership for the Golden State.
That’s why I’ve taken the first steps to become the Republican Party’s candidate for Lt. Governor this year.
More than any other elected office in state government, the Lt. Governor’s office is what the holder makes of it. The incumbent, Gavin Newsom (D-San Francisco), has his vision for the office, which strongly resembles that of a taxpayer funded gubernatorial exploratory committee for 2018. I have a different vision: to transform the office into a platform to develop and advocate for the major reforms California needs to restore its competitiveness, including tax reform, regulatory reform, education reform, and reining in the frivolous lawsuits that are costing California jobs every day.
Free of the day to day grind of legislative sausage-making, the Lt. Governor’s office should be an incubator for the big, structural reforms that take time to develop and implement but are essential to unleashing California’s full potential. How, for example, should we fund state government with the least destructive tax system possible? How can we give parents and students more options and alternatives when it comes to choosing the school that works best for them? What reforms will help us to eliminate lawsuit abuse?
These are big, serious questions that take real effort to answer. It involves hard work, but the benefit to California, and especially future generations, will be tremendous.
And it’s absolutely beyond the grasp of the ruling party in Sacramento today.
For proof, look no further than the “response” to the terrible abuse of school children that came to light at the Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles in 2012. Despite the heinous acts that took place, and the pleadings from LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy, the ruling party cannot summon the will to get teachers who commit such acts out of the system, and off the public payroll, faster. A political class that can’t manage to expedite and reduce the cost to taxpayers of removing such bad people from our schools can hardly be expected to accomplish more serious reforms over the objection of entrenched interests.
To be competitive again in California, Republicans must become the party of bold reform.
We’ve proven this in San Diego, where in recent years Republicans have succeeded in passing measures to reform pensions, bring in the private sector to compete with city departments, and ban union-only project labor agreements that drive up costs for taxpayers. In last week’s special election for San Diego Mayor, a Republican champion of these reforms, Kevin Faulconer, defeated an opponent of reform, despite the overwhelming voter registration advantage for the Democrats.
Building a winning majority in California today requires offering real solutions to the big issues voters understand to be important.
Let’s transform this campaign into a debate over not just tweaks and cuts, but over the reforms to taxes, regulation, litigation and education that can move California from worst to first in jobs and education. Join the fight at RonNehring.com.