Poll after poll shows Gov. Schwarzenegger easily winning re-election next Tuesday.  However, the fate of the other Republicans running for the statewide offices is not so easily predicted.

But polls do show Sen. Tom McClintock, the darling of California conservatives, running ahead of Insurance Commissioner, Democrat John Garamendi.  It will be a sweet victory for McClintock, who has run and lost statewide races before.  McClintock has run a smart campaign and, to many people’s surprise, stayed pretty quiet while the guy at the top of his party’s ticket was busy signing Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’ legislative agenda into law. 

After spending nearly twenty years in the legislature, McClintock, described by LA Times columnist George Skelton as “a knowledgeable, thoughtful, experienced” policy wonk, must be looking forward to a job where he can spend more time fleshing out policy proposals, keeping an eye on the State Senate and weighing in at the Board of Regents (where there is talk of revisiting Prop. 209). 

Here’s the description of the job McClintock and Garamendi are fighting for: the lieutenant governor serves a four-year term; fills in when the governor is out of state or unavailable; serves as president for the state Senate, with the ability to break dead-locked votes; and sits on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees.  Salary:  $131,250 per year.

For those who have not yet sent in their absentee ballots or those who plan to vote in the polls on Tuesday, there are plenty of reasons for Californians to vote for Tom McClintock and plenty of reasons to vote against John Garamendi.

If you believe that government is spends too much money and is involved in too many aspects of our lives, than you’ll vote for Tom McClintock.  McClintock, whose role model is Ronald Reagan, likes to say, "If you can find it in the yellow pages, government shouldn’t be doing it.” 

Last June, when he won race to be the GOP’s lieutenant governor candidate in the general election, McClintock said, “It is my intention to use the office as the powerful engine for policy reform that it once was, amplifying and articulating the Republican policies of the Schwarzenegger administration and pressing comprehensive plans to bring state spending under control.”

He went on to say, “Meanwhile, never in my lifetime has there been a clearer choice to be decided by the people of California – a choice between a leadership team with a proven record of reducing the taxes and regulations that are crushing working families and a leadership team with a proven record of increasing those burdens.”

McClintock is right—this race is truly a choice between a limited government candidate and a big government, high taxes candidate. 

But don’t just take McClintock’s word that Garamendi would be a poor choice for lieutenant governor.  Listen to Dale Debber, publisher of Worker’s Comp Executive and former Garamendi campaign volunteer.

 “Personal relationships aside, it is high time for Garamendi to leave elected office,” Debber wrote in a stinging commentary published in his worker’s compensation newsletter.

While he said he personally like Garamendi, Debber cited failure after failure in Garamendi’s performance as Insurance Commissioner, saying, Garamendi’s actions “…would foster the age of Hilary Clinton style single payer health insurance which would inlcude the workers’ comp component.”  Furthermore, Debber wrote, “Consumers in 31 counties pay more for auto insurance today than they did pre-Garamendi. Homeowners insurance is up as well. Consumers have not fared well under this administration.”  (Debber spent 10 months volunteering as Chief Insurance Advisor to John Garamendi’s during his last campaign for Insurance Commissioner.)

The newsletter endorsed McClintock for lieutenant governor, saying McClintock “…understands the budget, the urgency of financial controls, and can work with both Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislature towards common goals. Tom McClintock can help bring business back to California.”

There is another reason to vote for McClintock for lieutenant governor.  In 2010, Governor Schwarzenegger will have to move on and many in the GOP are wondering who will be the next Republican candidate for governor.  We’ll be in a much stronger position to win the governor’s office again if we have a Republican or two with the solid statewide name ID that comes from holding statewide office.  The voters have already considered McClintock for governor once.  Perhaps without a Hollywood star in the race, the voters will give McClintock the chance to put his Reagan-like philosophy into action as the state’s chief executive officer.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.