McClintock Ping List.
Please freepmail me if you want on or off this list
Posted on 09/30/2006 6:42:52 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Both major-party candidates vying to be California's next lieutenant governor are longtime officeholders who aspire to be governor, but that's about all the common ground they share.
State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi is a liberal Democrat and former Clinton administration official and state Senate Majority Leader from Walnut Grove who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1982 and 1994 and briefly entered 2003's gubernatorial recall election race.
He says his top priorities are improving the state's education system to produce a more skilled work force, protecting the environment and ensuring every Californian has access to affordable health care.
State Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, is a conservative who was the GOP nominee for state controller in 1994 and 2002, losing the latter race by a hair; he finished third in 2003's recall vote, behind Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrat Cruz Bustamante.
He says his top priorities are protecting private property rights from eminent domain seizures and other threats, and battling government waste and fraud in order to rein in state spending.
Garamendi supported the state minimum wage's increase to $8 per hour but would've preferred to index future increases to inflation; McClintock opposed the recent increase, saying it'll eliminate entry-level jobs.
On immigration, Garamendi supports driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, who he said should be penalized but also given an opportunity to attain legal status. McClintock opposes driver's licenses and in-state college tuition subsidies for illegal immigrants, and believes state agencies should report illegal immigrants to federal authorities. Both call for better border security.
Garamendi endorsed Proposition 71 of 2004, which authorized a $3 billion bond issue to fund a state institute to coordinate and fund stem-cell research, saying it ensured California would be at the forefront of critical medical advancements. McClintock co-authored a ballot argument against Prop. 71, expressing support for stem-cell research but decrying the measure as corporate welfare through a costly, unaccountable new state bureaucracy.
Garamendi supports the infrastructure bond package on November's ballot, saying roads and mass transit, schools, housing and levees are critical to the state's economic future. McClintock opposes all of November's bond measures except the levee bond, saying it's unfair to burden the next generation with spending that'll be obsolete by then anyway.
The state GOP has aired ads blasting Garamendi for, in his first Insurance Commissioner's term, his seizure and sale of junk-bond-riddled Executive Life; some policyholders later said he got them a raw deal.
Garamendi paints McClintock as an arch-conservative out of step not only with most Californians' stances on social issues such as abortion but also with Schwarzenegger's more moderate policy agenda.
The lieutenant governor takes over when the governor is out of the state or unable to govern. He or she also is the state Senate's president and tie-breaking vote; a University of California regent; a California State University trustee; the Commission for Economic Development's chairperson; and a member of other state bodies.
Some see the job much as the vice presidency, which Vice President John Nance Garner so famously likened to "a warm bucket of spit" mostly useless unless the chief executive is sidelined.
For some it's a steppingstone to the top job; Bustamante tried it in 2003, and Gray Davis succeeded in 1998. McClintock says he'll run for governor in 2010; Garamendi is more likely to do so if Schwarzenegger wins this year and leaves the seat open in 2010 rather than if Democrat Phil Angelides wins and then seeks re-election.
Also running are American Independent Jim King, a Riverside real estate broker favoring government efficiency and the state income tax's abolition; Green candidate Donna Warren, a Los Angeles financial planner and activist calling for prison reform and living wages; Libertarian Lynnette Shaw, a Fairfax medical-marijuana club operator seeking to protect such clubs and pursue hemp-based energy and economic solutions; and Peace & Freedom candidate Stewart Alexander, a Murrieta car salesman calling for affordable health care and housing and free college education.
JOHN GARAMENDI AGE: 61 PARTY: Democrat OCCUPATION: state Insurance Commissioner
EXPERIENCE: Served as U.S. deputy secretary of the Interior in the Clinton administration; a previous term as insurance commissioner from 1991 to 95, and 14 years in the Legislature
CAMPAIGN FOCUS: Promises to work toward improving public education, expanding research and technological base, nurturing the state's manufacturing, building critical infrastructure, embracing international trade, enacting universal access to affordable health care and providing equal opportunity regardless of socio-economic inequities
TOM McCLINTOCK AGE: 50 PARTY: Republican OCCUPATION: state Senator, R-Thousand Oaks
EXPERIENCE: 20 years in the Legislature, plus stints as director of conservative think tanks, legislative chief-of-staff and newspaper columnist
CAMPAIGN FOCUS: Promises to work toward reducing taxes and regulations that impede the state's commerce and prosperity; restoring constitutional spending and borrowing limits; regaining property-right protections; decentralizing public school administration to return power to parents; and brining affordable health care within everyone's reach.
McClintock Ping List.
Please freepmail me if you want on or off this list
He says his top priorities are protecting private property rights from eminent domain seizures and other threats, and battling government waste and fraud in order to rein in state spending.
God bless him.
BTTT
Mabel! Could ya please turn up the "contrast" knob on my ol black 'n white TV while yer gittin me that beer? (burp)
I like how two the description of the candidates shows them as being members of the Democratic and Republican OCCUPATION parties. (due to formatting, of course) lol
How long have we been occupied and when do we get to toss some of these OCCUPIERS out of our state? We need a RED DAWN Party to toss some of these imposters to the curb. The dems seem more bent on following Marx&Lenin than Jefferson and Monroe, there is hope for the Repubs but only if they turn from this Big Tent mentality.. <8-]~
Go Tom!
Thanks for the Ping! Thankful my grandkids aren't old enough to vote, they'd like the Libertarian's agenda. LOL
ROFL! I did mess up the formatting due to the auto html thingie at FR. Oh well... at least it provided a good laugh! Occupied, indeed.
--I like how two the description of the candidates shows them as being members of the Democratic and Republican OCCUPATION parties.--
It's definitely an 'incumbent occupation', thanks to the
ludicrous redistricting scam (and thanks to all the morons who voted against the Terminator's redistricting initiative in '05).
Tom rules!!!
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Thank you! -