The eyes of many Democrats are nervously watching news that RWNJ radio “host” Larry Elder is the front runner among the excessively large pack of mostly GOP candidates vying to replace Gavin Newsom (should “Yes” votes win question #1 on the recall ballot.) The bots on Twitter are busy pushing Elder’s name as reports of his past comments and questionable finances dribble out.
While searching for an update on the Caldor fire burning in El Dorado county, east of Placerville, I stumbled onto this news item out of Sacramento —
then there is Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a 36-year-old lawyer who represents the Sacramento suburbs in the state Legislature. While little known outside his district, the former teacher and state prosecutor has gained a devoted but relatively small following by staking a claim as one of Newsom’s chief critics during the pandemic.
He's a conservative who often flirts with the fringes of the GOP.
Kiley says climate change is real, but opposes Newsom's orders to ban all oil-drilling by 2045 and the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. He supports a minimum wage, but says it should vary by region and not be as high as Democrats want.
He is vaccinated against COVID-19 and says the virus is not a hoax, but if elected governor has pledged to overturn Newsom's emergency declaration and all of the rules mandating vaccines and masks that come with it.
Ah, just what we need (NOT!), someone who passes himself off as a “moderate” GOP in comparison to the *drump sycophants like Nunes and firefighter basher Doug LaMalfa.
One of his previous attempts to increase his political profile was to join Jim Gallagher (the Assemblyman for the district in which I live) in suing Newsom over emergency COVID-19 powers, claiming he overstepped his authority. They won round 1 with a conservative judge, but the decision was thankfully overturned on appeal.
With the announcement this past week that Prop. 22 has been ruled unconstitutional, this little tidbit about Kiley’s part in getting it passed last November needs to be highlighted -
He led the charge against a state law that required most companies to treat independent contractors as full-time employees - although voters overturned a provision of the law that applied to Uber and Lyft, among others. Last week, the voter-approved law applying to ride-hailing app companies was ruled unconstitutional by a California Superior Court judge.
And in typical bait & switch, “try it you’ll like it”, GOP style, here is Kiley’s claim that Californians have nothing to fear from a GOP takeover of the top spot—
“You are not signing on for four years. You are signing on for one year,” Kiley said in a pitch to California voters who might be hesitant to vote for a Republican. “You can see if your quality of life improves, and then you can, you know, decide whether you want to continue down that path.”
That “path” after one year under a GOP Gov. rule in CA will be like trying to steer the Titanic away from the iceberg too late into it’s course. Except the proverbial iceberg will be more out of control wildfires and at least 1 more large wave of COVID (especially in schools) as Kiley takes a “freedum” approach to slashing any regulations he can while doing as little as possible to stop the spread of COVID. Californians who aren’t paying attention to who’s doing the damage will probably continue to blame Newsom (falsely believing he set those rules in motion earlier) and/or other state Democrat leaders.
And it’s not just this recall election that’s at stake. Kiley is only 36, and appears to be an up and comer being pushed by certain insiders in the CA GOP. Kiley’s a slick Ivy League educated lawyer. His political career needs to be quashed before he makes a real name for himself, or he might become CA governor (or Senator) eventually, if not in 2021.