GOP State Board of Equalization Member and "Friend of the FlashReport" Bill Leonard has submitted a mini-column in response to a recent column by FR Blog-Team member Dan Schnur that ran in the Los Angeles Times.
You can read Schnur’s column here. Leonard’s thoughts on the column are below:
Why Arnold Has to Run as a RepublicanBy Bill Leonard
A recent column by Dan Schnur argues that Governor Schwarzenegger should run as an Independent. I disagree, but first I want to correct what seems to be an out-of-character mistake by the usually unfaltering Schnur. State law would not have to be changed, as Dan says, for the Governor to run as an independent in the General Election. My reading of the law is that independent candidates for statewide office simply need to gather 165,573 valid signatures from registered voters.
The real reason the Governor should not, and probably cannot, run as an independent candidate is because independent candidates can raise only $21,600 or some similar amount from individual donors to fund their gubernatorial campaigns. Proposition 34 allows virtually unlimited contributions to parties, which parties can then legally use to fund party building, absentee voting programs and other such activities that are a big part of gubernatorial campaigns. For a gubernatorial candidate to make himself ineligible for millions does not make much sense.
Then and most important there is the fact that no incumbent would willingly abandon the millions of voters in his own political party, knowing that three-quarters of them consistently vote a straight party ticket.
You can contact BOE Member Leonard via his website here.
You can contact Dan Schnur by clicking on the envelope by his name on the left sidebar.