BLOG: The 'Skinny' on Our New Assembly District

Fair Oaks has been redistricted into the same California Assembly District (Assembly District 6, AD6) with Roseville, starting with the upcoming elections. So I am posting my blogs about AD6 in both Roseville and in Fair Oaks.

Here’s the basic information: The “incumbent” in the new AD6 is Assemblywoman Beth Gaines. Beth Gaines won her current Assembly seat in a 2011 Special Election.

This was made necessary by the fact that her husband, then-Assemblyman Ted Gaines, took advantage of a legal loophole which enabled him to run for two offices at the same time, in the fall of 2010. He ran for re-election to his old Assembly seat, and also for election to a State Senate seat. He won the State Senate seat, making necessary (at a cost to the taxpayers of nearly $2 million) the special election that his wife won. Ergo, two State legislators from the same household are collecting two salaries from the State. I couldn't have planned it better myself.

Linda Park, a member of the Board of the Roseville High School District, also a Republican, will oppose Beth Gaines in our upcoming election. The Democrat in the race is Reginald (Regy) Bronner, of Lincoln. All Fair Oaks voters will have to make a choice in the June election, and then again in November.

The 2-Gaines situation is well known to readers in the Roseville area.

To tax or not to tax

In her January constituent newsletter, Assemblywoman Beth Gaines reacted to Governor Brown's "State of the State Address" by saying, "I heard...that Sacramento needs to tax its way out of its current spending problem."

She implies Brown would solve California's problems only with taxes, sounding good to her base, but incorrect. Brown proposes some taxes, along with some budget reductions. The types of taxes, and their place in the overall picture, must be carefully considered. Gaines must say “no” because she has made a pledge to an unelected outsider (Grover Norquist of Virginia) to never, never vote to raise any tax regardless of the reason or the need. Never mind if schools and services, etc. deteriorate. California joined the "Race to the Bottom," at Norquist's prodding. 

The money has to come from somewhere. If we want services, we have to be willing to pay for them somehow.

Pure obstructionism is not a way of life in politics, but “just saying no” could be what got Gaines assigned to the Assembly's "dog house" mini-office for a while.

Republican Linda Park, Roseville High School District Trustee, is running against Gaines in the upcoming Assembly primary. Will she also subscribe to the Norquist no-tax, ever "pledge" which has proven to be so divisive, bringing on bickering and stalling legislative progress?

The Democrat in the AD6 primary election is Reginald Bronner, of Lincoln. He states that he owes allegiance only to District voters, and will be free to consider all possibilities for bi-partisan solutions. For more information, go to: http://www.bronner4assembly.com/

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I’m based in Roseville, and I have been blogging in the Roseville Patch, on politics from the Democratic viewpoint. I hope that a blogger who writes from the Republican viewpoint will find its way to Patch.