After spending the last 4 years as a county chair and representative to our state party’s executive board, I was asked by several party leaders if I would e willing to run for state office. I told them that I would be happy to run for office, but I was not willing to simply fill a ballot spot so the incumbent GOP candidate had opposition on the ballot. I told them, I will run, but I am going to participate to the best of my ability and within the limits of my limited resources.
I live in rural northern California, Senate District 1 is the office I am seeking, running against an incumbent Republican named Ted Gaines, whose voting record is n exercise in how to get paid for doing nothing over the past 8 years in the state Senate. During the primary election season there were 3 candidates; myself, Steve Baird, a Republican who has championed splitting the 20 northern most counties of California off form the state and forming the 51st State of Jefferson. The contention of the movement is that our region has no representation in Sacramento; we are a large geographical district, which is made up of all or parts of 11 counties. To put it in perspective, my Senate District is larger than several states. The other candidate is the incumbent Ted Gaines; a Republican who votes no on everything, and who has stated publically that raising money is what makes a representative good at his or her job. gee Ted, what about representing the people, you know, those who hired you in the first place. Gaines is famous for his ability to raise special interest money from outside the district, something he has never been held accountable for.
In any event, I decided to participate in all of the scheduled forums and debates. Sadly, the incumbent Ted Gaines refused to attend even one scheduled event, he was simply to bust voting no and raising money. Steve Baird and myself participated in 4 events, spread throughout thee district. 3 of the 4 were hosted by Tea Party groups; which I had no problem attending, regardless of some of their conspiratorial theories like Agenda 21 and chem-trials. To make the District's voter demographics perfectly clear, we are an extremely ‘red’ district; overall the GOP has about a 16% registration lead on Democrats.
Having lived in rural northern California all of my life, and being fiscally responsible, a gun owner, environmentally responsible, and socially progressive, people gave me no chance. However, they did not figure into the equation the growing dissatisfaction with career politicians and my pragmatic approach to issues. When the primary results came in, I had just under 90,000 votes to the incumbents 124,000; 37.6% with Gaines getting 49.3%. The third candidate Baird, whose supporters hate the incumbent Gaines, he received just over 30,000 votes for approximately 14% voter share.
Here is the rub; Gaines has about a million dollars he can spend against a Democrat who has just started raising money. There is no way I can match him dollar for dollar; in part, because I refuse to accept special interest money from corporate interests who want to purchase access. 3 of the 11 counties are financially in great shape, it helps that all 3 are bedroom communities of Sacramento our capitol .The other 8 counties are poor; ranging from poor to very poor. Unemployment is higher than average, median incomes are lower than average, and a once vital timber and resource based economy has been replaced by government jobs and service sector jobs. Our incumbent Senator has done nothing to address the jobs issues in his 8 years in office; his latest attempt at meaningful legislation was to author a bill that would extend smog exemptions for show cars from model years 1975 and prior to 1981 and prior. Not that I am adamantly opposed to this bill, but lets be honest, 1976-1981 were not exactly years that collector cars are remembered from. Perhaps Mr. Gaines thinks that the Ford Pinto, or any number of other “bad” designs somehow qualify as show cars for todays car buffs. Anyone who knows cars knows that this period was perhaps the worst period in US Auto design history, excluding perhaps the Corvette’s from the period.
My point is simple; all fluff and zero substance, this is the legacy of an 8 year incumbent state Senator form the nations largest state economically speaking. So here is my pitch to al of my fellow Democrats. there is a chance for me to make history in November; this district has not elected a Democrat to represent us in the state Senate for over 5 decades. With the craziness of Donald Trump, this is the election cycle where the impossible is now probable, or at least possible. The kicker is financial; my opponent has vast sums of money, where as I have little, and remember, I refuse to accept special interest corporate money; my soul is not for sale. Should I somehow defy the odds and make history, I believe that my poor rural district could actually begin the long road back to accommodating middle class jobs for our population. While we have several sectors of good paying public employment jobs, and several private companies that pay a living wage, many of our citizens are stuck working for the likes of Wal Mart, and we all know how well they treat their slave, I mean employees.
any of you joined the Burn, or the Bernie Sanders movement, the revolution. Well, sadly, good or bad, that movement is part of our past. However, you can join my Bernie type campaign, where I only accept small donations from people like yourselves; good Democrats who want to see corporate greed rained in, where the Wal Mart’s of the world are forced to pay living wages, and the billionaire class is once again asked to simply pay their fair share. Visit my website www.rowenforsenate.com and check out my platform; share it among our Democratic communities, and help a red rural region regain her dignity and regain that life loving, people caring, democratic color blue.