And The Race Is On!

Well folks, it’s about that time. The California gubernatorial election will soon be upon us, and candidates have begun to throw their hats into the ring. (Yay! Elections and mudslinging! Can’t you just not wait!?) Primary elections for both of the major parties will be held on June 8, 2010 and the general election will take place on November 2, 2010.

Now keep in mind that the nomination papers that a candidate has to file to run in the primary elections are not due until March 12 of next year, and for independents to run in the general election nomination papers are not due until August 6 of next year, so the following list has the potential to change dramatically. However, as it stands now, the major players in the gubernatorial election are:

For the Democrats:
Gavin Newsom – Mayor of San Francisco
Jerry Brown – Attorney General and former Governor of CA (1975-1983)

For the Republicans:
Meg Whitman – former CEO of eBay has formally announced her candidacy
Steve Poizner – Insurance Commissioner has formed an exploratory committee
Tom Campbell – former Congressman has formed an exploratory committee

Over the next few (five, give or take candidates entering and leaving the race) Sundays, I’ll be posting blogs about each of the candidates to help you learn about their political platforms and issues, as well as any important history.

Speaking of history… an interesting side note and FYI: the CA Governor is prohibited from serving more than two terms, but Jerry Brown is exempt from the rule because the term-limit rule only applies to terms served after 1990. Way to sneak in under the wire Mr. Brown!

Please feel free to comment and let me know what issues are important to you in this election, but here are my top five:

1. The Budget. Duh. Somebody needs to get this thing under control already. Be it through amending the constitution to do something about Proposition 13 (1978) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978)), or fixing that whole 2/3 vote needed to pass the budget or increase taxes, or some other fancy-shmancy thing that I haven’t thought of. The California budget is a problem, and it will continue to be a problem until somebody makes some fundamental changes to the system. Let’s do it!

2. Education. According to http://www.statemaster.com/state/CA-california/edu-education we rank 49th in percentage of students above a basic reading level in 4th and 8th grades (they wouldn’t be able to read and understand this blog), are 46th on the best educated index, and are 46th in the total number of teachers per capita. We spend more actual dollars and have more students enrolled in public schools than other state in the union and we are currently doing them a huge disservice because we don’t seem to be actually educating them.

3. It’s the economy, stupid! With the state unemployment rate pushing 12%, we are in some dire straits. Do I think the state government should be employing all those people? Oh hell no! (As if our budget problem wasn’t bad enough? I’m sure employing all those people would help a lot!) But, the government can help the private sector create jobs here through tax incentives, making it easier to incorporate or start a business here, and (as much as I heart the environment) getting rid of some of the ridiculous regulations that make it incredibly expensive to do business in California. Check this out to see what I mean: http://www.calchamber.com/GovernmentRelations/BusinessIssues/Pages/Environmental.aspx.
4. The Prison System. The current budget for the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is approximately $11 billion even while the CA state prisons are operating at 200% of their capacity. How should we fix this one? Shit, I have no idea. Maybe if we did a better job educating our population (see #2) or giving them something to do (see #3), we wouldn’t all become criminals? Just a thought.

5. Immigration. I know, the dreaded “I” word that nobody ever wants to talk about. But let’s be real for a minute, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most, if not all, of the above issues would be a little bit better (not fixed, mind you, but better) if we could get our immigration issue under control. According to http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm, in 2004 illegal immigration costs California approximately $10.5 billion per year. Yikes. Again, do I have any idea how to fix the problem? Not really. I don’t think that an extra tall fence or vigilante justice are the answer, but neither is complete amnesty for those already here.

Can anyone out there help us? Find out over the next five weeks!