Cal Gov Race: The Candidates Speak To FrumForum

Every year people say they vote for the best of the worst candidates. For the upcoming Governor’s race, Republicans do not have that problem. They have an excellent choice of candidates: Tom Campbell, Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman. All are intelligent, social moderates (in a state like California that is a plus) and high-achievers. An examination of their backgrounds can provide insight into each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

Tom Campbell is not a typical political candidate. He has been a Congressman, state Senator, California state’s Finance Director, a Professor of Law at Stanford University and Chapman University and Dean of the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley. He has a law degree and a Ph.D. in economics.

He would make an extremely competent Governor because of his proven ability to work with California’s Democratic legislature. Any Republican governor has to de-emphasize partisanship and instead emphasize collaboration, which is something Campbell has done in the past. As a Congressman, he worked closely with others on the joint economic committee. As a state senator, he was appointed to chair a committee even though the Democrats were the majority party.

His economic background is another factor that makes him an appealing candidate. He told NewMajority, “Economic recovery was and remains my strong point” (Campbell has a Ph.D. in economics), as evidenced when he balanced the budget as California’s Finance Director. He drafted Proposition 76, which would have tied spending to the previous year’s revenues if it had passed.

Campbell’s teaching experiences have helped him determine how to improve the quality of California’s educational system. He told NewMajority that as a professor, he has learned that small class sizes are needed to improve the quality of a student’s learning experience. While Dean of Berkeley’s School of Business, he helped increase the school’s ranking to number two in the country.

NewMajority asked him to state his weaknesses. He was very honest when he noted that he was “not identified with the conservative wing of the Republican Party,” which will hurt him in the primary. Another weakness for Campbell is the fact that he has been involved with politics for a number of years; thus, being identified with the establishment.

The second candidate who interviewed with NewMajority was Steve Poizner. His background includes creating start- up companies and teaching in the public school system. In addition he was the director of critical infra-structure protection for the counter terrorism unit of the NSC, the co-founder of the California Charter Schools Association, and California’s Insurance Commissioner.

To be a successful governor the candidates’ resume should have a combination of political and business experience. Part of California’s huge deficit is due to businesses being driven out through regulations and high taxes. Poizner told NewMajority that his experiences as an” innovative czar” will enable him to “think it through the entrepreneurship prospective… The kind of environment needed to get the investor to make the decision that I want to start the company here in California.” He also showed innovation as insurance commissioner when he overhauled and downsized the state insurance system by eliminating needless jobs. He used his knowledge of running a business to blend technology and efficiency to make a well functioning, modern unit. He hopes to use this experience to do the same in California.

His work in the counter-terrorism unit shortly after 9-11 has given Poizner the knowledge to help protect California’s infrastructure against possible terrorist attacks. While working for the NSC he learned how to make the ports, grids and other structures safe.

By talking to rank and file teachers as a peer Poizner discovered what changes were needed to improve the conditions of local schools. After teaching, he co-founded the California Charter School Association. Many argue that charter schools are not the answer to California’s educational woes. They point out that Poizner’s idea is not working by showing that test results of the Charter school students are not significantly different from those in public schools.

Another criticism of Poizner is his inability to maintain campaign managers (he is now on his third) and his creation of a 2007 inaugural fund (an off the book entity of donor collections). Poizner pointed out to NewMajority that he has been able “to tackle extremely hard problems and… succeeded.” Hopefully, he will be able to apply these skills to his own gubernatorial campaign.

Meg Whitman is the perceived front runner in the race for Governor. Her background includes an MBA from Harvard, and working for Fortune 500 companies such as Disney. In addition, she served as CEO of a start-up company (eBay) and as an advisor to the McCain campaign on technological and economic issues.

Whitman is an entrepreneur who, as CEO of eBay, was able to expand the company from 30 employees with $4 million in revenues to 150,000 employees with $8 billion in revenues. San Diego Congressman Brian Bilbray, a Whitman supporter, told NewMajority “she knows what needs to be done and is able to communicate not only how it should be done but why.” A strong business background will enable Whitman to create an atmosphere favorable to business and tackle California’s problems from a business point of view. In addition, she was a pioneer as a female high level executive, which may help her get women to participate in government. This is evidenced when she recently created a women’s coalition, MEGa WOMEN. As Bilbray pointed out, “Her life is a story of taking tough situations and creating success stories out of it.”

A possible positive attribute is that she is a new face without much political involvement. Whitman is seen as being an outsider who is not beholden to special interest groups. However, when Schwarzenegger ran for office he was perceived as an outsider who would save California by tying spending to state’s revenues and curbing the legislators. With Whitman, some see her campaign as too similar to Schwarzenegger’s.

Another Whitman criticism is her reluctance to do in depth interviews where she details her vision and answers the tough questions. By running a campaign just based on rhetoric, she is perceived as avoiding core convictions.

Overall, the three candidates have many more plusses to their resumes than minuses. All of them were entrepreneurs who built up their organizations successfully and will use their experiences to rejuvenate California. As Ronald Reagan once said, “We in government should learn to look at our country with the eyes of the entrepreneur; seeing possibilities where others see only problems.” Each of these candidates has the ability to do just that.