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California gubernatorial candidates’ war chests

February 7, 2014
Neel Kashkari

Neel Kashkari

California gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari raised nearly $1 million during the first two weeks of his campaign. [MercuryNews]

Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury official, reported Wednesday that he raised $976,000. Donors include several bankers at Goldman Sachs, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Kashkari’s parents.

The other Republican candidate, state Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks, raised $374,000 last year but had just $54,000 remaining. He has since collected another $55,000.

Nevertheless, Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat who is favored to win re-election, has raised nearly $17 million.

 


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Here we go! Looks like the job will go to the highest bidder. We really do need real campaign reform. Millions of dollars to obtain a political position?


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Kashkari looks like Uncle Fester.


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I don’t know if I would go that far but that picture will turn away a lot of shallow voters and, for better or worse, those voters are needed to win a major political office.


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“Look into my eyes, look deeply, go to the polls and vote Republican..”

Sorry, my inner monologue was turned to the off position…

I hope to God that is his official treasury department portrait and not a campaign photo.


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Spend a few minutes reviewing the spectacle that is Chris Christie. Imagine a like minded fellow running the game in Calif. Now realize that you have to pay attention and recognize what is real and what is BS. Who is lying and who is who’d you want running the show. It’s not easy having to study a bit.


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Yeah, it’s like he came out and repeatedly told everyone, “if you like something – you can keep it” — or am I thinking of another spectacle? They all blend into one for me, lately. Can’t keep up with the abject, bald-faced lying-to-our-faces that we seem to be getting.


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The last Armenian guy George Deukmejian did’t do such a bad job as Governor. We had a surplus and he turned our economy around. Who better to do that than a banker? I would like to know about all these candidates if possible.


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Check his Wikipedia entry. He’s not Armenian. Luckily he wasn’t involved in creating the toxic assets over at Goldman Sachs that very nearly caused the Second Great Depression, but he was deeply involved in the Wall Street bailouts of 2008, which won’t endear him to either the Tea Party or OWS contingents. He seems like a nice guy, but he won’t be governor.


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I wouldn’t vote against him because his parents came from India (not Armenia), but I will be hard-pressed to consider him because of his professional association with Goldman-Sachs (or any other of the BIG banks.) There may be some honest and ethical people working for those firms but you would have to have a very different concept of honesty and ethics from me to make a case that such people have any control (or even significant influence) within those corporations.


While bankers may know a lot about economics, the big ones use that knowledge to enrich themselves in a mad grab for short-term profits. They don’t place much value on anything but money and that only because they expect to get a huge cut. I don’t want such a person running my state. (Yes, I am aware that they already run the country and have a lot of influence in Sacramento.)


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I seem to remember that Deukmejian left office with a huge state debt which Pete Wilson had to deal with. Wilson borrowed heavily from PERS funds, over the objections of the unions, to close the budget gap. He then cut positions through attrition avoiding many layoffs. By the end of his eight years California had a budget surplus, PERS was repayed the money borrowed and the state was on firm financial ground. Then Gray Davis came in and played Santa Claus. The giveaways and power shortages were the reasons for his recall.


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This guy needs a new photo. Hmmmm someone named Cash&Carry for govenor backed by Goldman Sachs…..what could go wrong?


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But just think of all his connections to the White House via Government Sachs he’ll have.


Guys like this, and the actions they take, only further remind me that we truly do not have two political parties. Just one, big, Statist/Elite party.


I mean, what could possibly be different between Brown and this guy? They both desire to indenture people for their own gains (or their masters’ gains). It really is sick.


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Let the bidding begin! We’ll get the best Governor that money can buy!


Oh So Sad…


Just Sayin’…


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That will be the democrat with all the government unions behind him


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According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets.org the heaviest of the heavy hitters from 1989 to 2014 (in terms of campaign contributions) are indeed unions supporting Democratic causes. But don’t count out the other guys. Among the biggest Republican supporters: Altria Group (aka Big Tobacco), $23 million; NRA, $19 million; Koch Industries, $18 million; and Club for Growth, $17 million. Some of the biggest of the big contributors gave to BOTH sides: AT&T, $56 million; National Association of Realtors, $51 million; Goldman Sachs, $44 million; JPMorgan Chase, $34 million; and Citigroup, $32 million.


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Your 26 years of donation totals totally pales next to the California Teachers Assoc’s $151 million for only 2003 to 2012 (10 years).


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Oh, come on Kevin! You know pointing to bad behavior to justify worse behavior is how it’s done! Sheesh! :/


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21 of the 39 Governors that California has had have been Republicans…


With that in mind No Governor of the Great State gets elected without the majority of both public and private unions backing them.


Just Sayin’…


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This is true, unfortunately. I don’t have problems with “unions backing them” – I have problems with public sector employees having a union. It’s not a real union, in the traditional “workers rights and safety” sense, is it?


So, in essence, when I hear things like “She’ll need the unions backing her” I really hear it as “She’ll need all those government employees to be told to vote for her.”


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