California State AssemblyCandidate for District 46

Climate change and the drought are two separate issues. The first is debatable as to how much of an impact human behavior is even having on climate, and as there have been irregularities surrounding purported proof of same, crippling one's economy to address the issue may be counter productive.

As to the drought and the state of California, author Victor Davis Hanson has many insightful thoughts about the subject, and I would ask his sage advice on specific actions that could be taken at this late date. Much of what could have been done to mitigate the effects of a drought such as this wasn't done in the name of the environment.

I, too, am concerned about the influence of money in politics. The difficulty is that any body that speaks for a group of constituents or interests will likely have money. The influence of lobbyists and unions and businesses must be balanced with attention to individual and less-well-funded groups. Term limits should help, but the truth is that every representative we send to Washington or to state capitals ends up richer than when they arrived. I'm not interested in getting rich feeding at the public trough; if elected, my goal will be to effect change, and then return to public life, as our founder intended.

Labor and wages work with the immutable law of Supply and Demand. Artificially setting a minimum wage actually hurts the young, the elderly, and anyone else trying to get started in an entry-level job. Even Governor Jerry Brown said, “Economically, minimum wages may not make sense,” but signed the new law anyway. Minimum wage laws and raises have been proven time and time again to lead to layoffs, to companies not hiring, and to automation. The people of the 46th Assembly District deserve to be free to use their assets (and labor is an asset) to earn money, and the businesses of my district should be free to hire people at any wage they mutually agree to. 

My top three fiscal priorities are to institute zero-based budgeting for the entire state budget, to make California's economy more robust by reducing taxes and regulation, and to continue to protect Prop 13 by finding funds wasted elsewhere.