GOP Voters: There Are Other Choices Besides Meg and Steve

From the relentless carpet-bombing of television ads and mailers, the impression California Republicans would get is that their only choices for governor on June 8 are former eBay executive Meg Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

They’re just two of eight candidates vying for the GOP nomination. Unlike Whitman, Bill Chambers, Douglas Hughes, Ken Miller, Larry Naritelli, Robert Newman and David Tully-Smith have not donated nearly $70 million of their own money to trumpet their candidacies.

Nor have they spent anywhere remotely close to the $25 million from the Poizner Family Trust that has helped fuel the commissioner’s campaign.

But they’re campaigning, nonetheless. California’s Capitol became aware of Larry Naritelli’s candidacy returning from a round of golf in Roseville and passing two gentlemen on a street corner holding a handwritten banner touting Naritelli’s candidacy. Beneath Naritelli’s name was his campaign slogan,  “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Naritelli says he has been a corporate controller and director of accounting for several publicly traded companies.

“These positions gave him a diverse range of experiences in the software industry, medical equipment manufacturing, defense, contract manufacturing, and medical service businesses,” his website says.

A detailed recitation of his views on the issues – education, water, taxes, immigration, health care and the “2^nd Amendment” among them — can be found by clicking on the various subject areas along the left border of Naritelli’s homepage. Beneath the listing of his endorsements, the homepage also offers a summary of his views.

Naritelli, a 53-year-old resident of Carlsbad, breaks with current GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on several issues. Naritelli calls for an end to the three-Fridays-each-month furloughs of state employees, which are, in fact, scheduled to end June 30, 2010.

He would also abolish AB 32, the landmark greenhouse gas emissions reduction measure often touted by Schwarzenegger. Subsidies and tax credits for “inefficient energy sources” such as wind and solar would also be ended.

Taxes would be cut for corporations and individuals, the border strengthened, “job-killing” regulations eliminated, economic growth restored, ‘bureaucratic excesses” ended, vocational education championed and the 2^nd amendment protected.

Finally, he would build a new governor’s mansion using private donations to “restore confidence and pride in the heritage of our state.”

In the upper left corner of his website, Douglas Hughes notes “pedophile removal stops child rape.”

Hughes’ mission statement is “To better man, family, and our beautiful state” and “To become an example to the other 49 states of what can and will be done.”

In addition to child safety, Hughes offers his views on a variety of issues. On California’s economy, for example, he believes government and its wasteful practices is the problem. Hughes would start to jumpstart California’s stalled economy be declaring a state of emergency.

Using his emergency powers, Hughes would declare a moratorium on all union strikes until the economy recovers. Another moratorium would be imposed on oil companies, preventing the “price of regular gas increasing beyond or exceeding $1.99 per gallon.” When unemployment falls to 5 percent or less, the price ceiling would be lifted.

However, Hughes would allow oil companies to “drill on all known and unknown oil sites.” He would see to it “these oil companies hire as many employees as they can.”

The strategy being that California will have “oil refineries to produce fuel and natural gas in abundance ready to sell to our government and to the other 49 states.”

Says Hughes: “Putting it bluntly, California will not be caught with its pants down.”

A “principled man with a strong faith in God,” Ken Miller, a 51-year-old Ontario resident, says he would be a governor “for the people and by the people.”

His impetus for running was his dissatisfaction with the candidates seeking the GOP nomination.

“He saw a lady who had not voted in California for over 20 years, and was a Democrat running as a Republican. The other person running was a career politician so entrenched in California politics that if he were elected nothing would change,” Miller’s biography on his website says.

Miller has formulated a “three-step plan” in which Californians would “vote out every liberal politician in the House and Senate” over three election cycles and “replace them with qualified conservative men and women.”

Among his policy objectives are to offer tax breaks and incentives to businesses, give more power to local school boards and get “the state out of the education process.”

Like Naritelli, Miller would “change the rules and regulations that have driven businesses from California” and “suspend or repeal oppressive rules, regulations and laws that have had a negative impact on businesses and the environment, especially AB 32.”

Miller would also issue an executive order “turning the water on to the Central Valley.”

(Editor’s Note: Much of the Central Valley’s water comes from the Central Valley Project which is administered by the federal government. It’s unclear what impact Miller’s executive order would have on the federal Bureau of Reclamation.)

All current welfare recipients would be trained and put to work, “mini nuclear power plants would be built where needed,” more solar farms created and “newer, high tech wind farms with smaller more efficient fans” would be installed.

The National Guard would be used to secure the state’s borders.

Robert Newman says he will be the “voice of the people” and, as governor, would be a “public servant.”

Unlike the other candidates, Newman also highlights his qualifications in Spanish noting that he was previously a candidate in the “histórica Elección de Revocación” – the 2003 recall election of Gov. Gray Davis.

He received 859 votes, according to CNN.

Newman’s views on marriage are that it is between a man and woman. He cites Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26-28 as proof that “homosexuality is an abomination to God.”

As for the budget, “spending must be prioritized.” Economically, he echoes the same themes as his other contenders:

“Regulation must be eased.  Manufacturing of products must be encouraged in California. Companies that would manufacture energy-saving and renewable energy products used in this state need to be produced in this state,” he says on his website.

“California is in the ICU, it’s time to call in the doctor,” says David Tully-Smith, a resident of Sonoma County for 20 years and a primary care doctor who has practiced in Marin County since 1976.

Tully-Smith takes a more positive tone than some of the other candidates, noting throughout his website there are “reasons to be optimistic” about California’s future.

A 66-year-old native of Glendale, Tully-Smith on the economy sounds like his fellow candidates suggesting the state “simplify regulation, reduce red tape, provide aggressive investment credits and provide targeted tax relief.”

As for the budget, “California needs to cut spending and sell assets.” When the state recovers economically and the budget is balanced, schools would be his top spending priority.

His website offers few specifics except on health care.

Health insurer are unlikely to support his candidacy since he wishes to make it illegal for them to ask applicants for health information or use an applicant’s health information in determining the policy premium. Insurers would also be required to provide every applicant a timely written quote within five days of a written request.

All Californians would be required to have coverage, like mandatory auto insurance.

A life member of the National Rifle Association, Bill Chambers also made his first run at governor in the 2003 recall.

CNN describes him as an Auburn railroad switcher and brakeman. Newman had 320 more votes than Chambers.

On abortion, Chambers says it’s “a moral and/or a medical decision, not a political one.”

His website says he supports the death penalty, believes public colleges should be affordable and favors English being declared California’s official state language.

He is a strong advocate of the Second Amendment.

“The second amendment is what allows all of our “rights” to be enforced by the people. The second amendment gives us the ability to fight our government, should they try to change from the Republic that we are, to another form of government. Should there be laws for gun ownership? Absolutely, but they should be based on facts, not political agendas.”

His website appears not to have been updated since 2005.

The primary is June 8, 2010. The polls close at 8:00 p.m.

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