Former State Senator Republican Leader Jim Nielson, who retired from the Senate back in 1990, 
has decided that he is ready, once again, to serve the residents of the "North State" (as FR blogger Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa likes to refer to his sprawling 2nd District). This morning Nielson (pictured to the right, with Tom McClintock in the background), the youngest Senate GOP Leader in California history, is currently serving as a Deputy Commissioner of the California Board of Prison Terms. The Second Assembly District is ‘safe’ GOP territory, and LaMalfa is currently in his third and final term (though gearing up for a State Senate run himself in 2010).
As someone who served many years in the State Senate, we’ll be looking more at Nielson’s record as a Republican. That said, I do remember that Nielson co-authored (with Paul Gann) the Victims Bill of Rights. And in recent years, we’ve worked closely with Nielson as he has been an outstanding leader in the fight to push for real property rights protections, especially in the wake of the terrible Supreme Court Kelo v. New London decision. Nielson serves as Chairman of the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights, which is sponsoring, along with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Farm Bureau, the initiative to protect California property owners from eminent domain abuse.
The FlashReport caught up with Senator Nielsen and asked why he is opting to return to the legislature. Here’s what he had to say:
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