You represent one of the biggest undertold stories of the decade — the mass wave of disgust felt by lifelong liberal Democrats (like me) with a party now captured by a faction that says any law violated disproportionately by people of color is racist, ipso facto, and must be loosened. Boudin stands for this belief. You could win this election as an Independent, Michael. Never before have so many party members on both sides felt betrayed. Millions yearn for a normal government, and yet the very word “normal” uttered at the Dem convention would evoke a rafter-shaking torrent of booing.
My family came to California in the late 1800s. I left for good to live in Texas this year. Seeing the infrastructure decay, forests burn, power outages the new normal, high taxes and passing of my tax money on pork barrel programs that inflame the degradation of California. Property values would seem to follow the downward trend. I hope you are successful Michael! California is an amazing piece of art the world made into a showcase of "good ideas" that don't work.
Good look Michael. Resist the pull to cater to the left by softening your critique of progressivism. I suspect there's a majority in California who are sick of it, some literally. Be yourself. I know you will.
After nearly 40 years in California, my husband and I escaped last year. I’d been wanting to leave for a long time but we own a business and my husband didn’t want the disruption.
When Covid lockdown happened, he got to see that he and his staff could work from home effectively, so he finally agreed to leave.
I’ve seen California degrade and deteriorate every year. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating to see my once beautiful State become a moral shithole and an environmental mess. I’ve struggled with the bad, smokey air every year, the water price hikes because of the lack of new dams, the encroachment of homeless into my suburb, the feeling of malaise and a bit of doom.
And not least, the horrendous taxes I’ve paid year after year, along with new rules for small business to require things like annual sexual harassment training, and now CalSavers.
I said we escaped because that’s how it feels. Like escaping the pot of slowly boiling frogs.
You are a proponent of universal health care, but to pay for it I would, once again be forced, as a business, to pay more than my fair share for that - and not even have the option to keep private health insurance. No thank you. I had enough of being squeezed and watching unions rule our kleptocratic leaders, while BLM rioters ran amok and drug addicts took over parts of our cities. I’m sorry, but I’m done being victimized. I opted out instead of staying to fight a rigged system.
please run_ be aware at attempts to cheat by dems-also, as someone here mentioned, take strong positions re homeless drug addicted and mentally ill that emphasize two psychiatric consent, reimagine the psychiatric hospitals and make them larger. Reach out to other states because the homeless, mentally ill are often originally from elsewhere.
How did Newsom "win"? he gave himself the win when he decreed that all voters could print ballots at home. How would this work? all an unscrupulous politician and his people would have to do is scout the voter data (readily available from the ROVs) for people that are registered but rarely or never vote. The campaign would print ballots in the Voter's names, fill them in and, with the *magic* of ballot harvesting, drop the printed ballots into the system. Lets be honest, with the current state of California there is no way Newsom won the recall election...and certainly not by the huge margin he did. They will leverage this fraud against your campaign, how you and other candidates fight this will tell the tale of CA's future. If it were me i'd have my campaign's digital team run some forensic analysis on the recall election to see if this happened and publicly make the case against the practice of printing ballots.
Little that I know of you, I think you would be a great change for Cali. I've never lived there, but did lots of work as a lawyer for a global entity with presence there.
My gut says you are trying hard to please all significant CA constituencies to get elected. Probably trying too hard, unless you just want to say "I ran, I tried". Have you thought about identifying the positions that would turn enough voters your way? That is, taking on a posture that is not waffling, not weaseling, but that speaks to the needs, interests, of ordinary folks who will vote?
Here is an example: "We need cheap and reliable energy, but we also need to make progress on climate change." Really? If you put yourself into the shoes of a voter, that sounds like electoral BS. Please the folks who just want to drive their IC vehicles, but stroke the folks who just want to move to windmills and solar. That is unlikely to work.
You face an Everest of stasis in California politics. And the Governorship is the least of it. Even i9f you succeeded here, you'd face an intransigent legislature.
Good luck. you will need lots of it, even if you were to succeed this Fall.
I see no mention of the current governor's impending mandate that your children receive experimental mRNA shots to attend school. California removed nearly all -medical- exemptions to vaccines. That's insane! Frankly, I am a bit more concerned about my childrens' health than that of SF drug addicts and homeless. You should consider staking out a position on medical freedom. I think you may find that there is a growing and vocal part of the population that is against mandated medical treatments. I think there may be an explosive growth in support for medical freedom as the carnage wreaked by covid vaccines becomes increasingly difficult to hide.
We're leaving this summer. I'm one of a lot of knowledge workers that have the option to work remotely now. Don't get me wrong, the bay area is nice in many ways. But there are lots of equally nice places that don't have the Bay Area's many problems. And above all I am uncomfortable with the child Covid vaccine mandates. It's okay for them to be encouraged but choice in medical procedure must be allowed. Who knows what they will mandate next if this is accepted. Good luck with your gubernatorial campaign, we won't be here to vote for you, we are off to Utah.
Dear Mr, Shellenberger, I read this campaign statement, and it is short-sighted. Full disclosure: I do not do drugs, am a non-drinker, and have worked steadily since the late 1980's, and came very close to becoming homeless myself a few years ago after my dad died. But for the grace of God in the form of some REALLY lucky breaks, I'd be homeless. Contrary to your recitation of the "mental illness" script, the underlying issue is the economy. California has become out-of-reach for the average working-class person. 50 years ago, the American Dream was alive and well here, but endless regulations on businesses, taxes, fees, mandatory permits and Red Tape has driven the cost of doing business up to a point to where those businesses must raise their prices, so as each chain in the link has to pay more and more, we are stuck with the ever-increasing tab of housing, goods, groceries, gas, etc, the opposite of "we pass the savings onto you". John Cox, who ran in the recall election last year, pointed out this economic principle.
Regarding mental illness, once again, this, as is the case with so many other platforms of political hopefuls/office holders, misses the point. The question we should be asking ourselves is "WHY are there so many mentally ill people now, as opposed to before? What has changed? Obviously, the breakdown of the family unit, and to a larger extent, communities, has been a huge factor, but per the issue of homelessness, when a person is put in a situation where they become homeless--whether through their own fault-or simply because they got sick, lost their job, or got hit with some unexpected expense, and realize they have no way of ever getting back into permanent housing, thus will never have shelter security, and they're cold, tired, living in fear of being attacked, told to "move along", and simply realizing that no matter how hard they work, they will never be able to make enough money to afford to obtain a house/apartment, nor maintain the ridiculously high cost of keeping up with the cost of living in this state, they simply give up, take to drinking/drugs, or even if they don't self-medicate, they simply crack up from the stress, fear, and depression the results from being constantly cold, tired, running, hungry, isolated, and sleep-deprived. Yes, mental illness can be environmental. As for self-medicating, think of the fact that alcohol has become such a big industry in California. All the "wine culture" that's taken over: people who aren't homeless are so scared from trying not to be, they self-medicate on booze, even if dressed up as "culture". It didn't used to be this way.
Also, when I hear people say "Reagan closed the mental hospitals, that's why we have so many homeless people", I say, "Reagan's been out of office for 47 years, so why haven't those in power changed that, and why is it so much worse today?" Again, the root is economic.
The reason we have so many homeless people is because the cost of housing has skyrocketed to the point where the average working-class person cannot afford to live here. I know the prevailing attitude--even increasingly among supposedly-progressive Democrats is "If you can't afford to live here, leave". Great, but here's the thing, we DO live here and being told if we can't afford to run fast enough to keep up with the out-of-control increase of living that we need to leave is not going to cut it anymore.
You say you noticed this a few years ago? I noticed this DECADES ago. I'm glad you have a happy life and a nice family, but you are out of touch. Don't get me wrong, I can't STAND Newsom, but we need to step back and ask ourselves "why are the working-class being forced out by high prices?"
Even if we get someone competent for governor, what good does that do when we live in a state where the we have a supermajority in the state assembly AND the state senate? How many people can even name their state senator or assemblyperson? The whole Leftist legislature needs to be cleaned out and re-staffed.
So, whether it's the security guard getting crushed by the high cost of being required to commute to his job 34 miles away, the middle-aged woman struggling to support herself and her kids by taking an extra job at Door Dash, the retired disabled person whose too broke to stay, but too poor to leave the state, the economy is killing us gradually, the myth that the homeless and the getting-closer-to-being-homeless are simply drunks, drug users, and mentally ill flies in the face of reality.
Also, while you may be our next governor, (and I certainly hope Newsom and his ilk are replaced) your "we will win" is false bravado. I've heard many political aspirants say this, then lose.
Ask yourself "what were we doing differently BEFORE this became such a big problem?" and you will start your journey to a solution.
Why We Will Save California
You represent one of the biggest undertold stories of the decade — the mass wave of disgust felt by lifelong liberal Democrats (like me) with a party now captured by a faction that says any law violated disproportionately by people of color is racist, ipso facto, and must be loosened. Boudin stands for this belief. You could win this election as an Independent, Michael. Never before have so many party members on both sides felt betrayed. Millions yearn for a normal government, and yet the very word “normal” uttered at the Dem convention would evoke a rafter-shaking torrent of booing.
My family came to California in the late 1800s. I left for good to live in Texas this year. Seeing the infrastructure decay, forests burn, power outages the new normal, high taxes and passing of my tax money on pork barrel programs that inflame the degradation of California. Property values would seem to follow the downward trend. I hope you are successful Michael! California is an amazing piece of art the world made into a showcase of "good ideas" that don't work.
Good look Michael. Resist the pull to cater to the left by softening your critique of progressivism. I suspect there's a majority in California who are sick of it, some literally. Be yourself. I know you will.
After nearly 40 years in California, my husband and I escaped last year. I’d been wanting to leave for a long time but we own a business and my husband didn’t want the disruption.
When Covid lockdown happened, he got to see that he and his staff could work from home effectively, so he finally agreed to leave.
I’ve seen California degrade and deteriorate every year. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating to see my once beautiful State become a moral shithole and an environmental mess. I’ve struggled with the bad, smokey air every year, the water price hikes because of the lack of new dams, the encroachment of homeless into my suburb, the feeling of malaise and a bit of doom.
And not least, the horrendous taxes I’ve paid year after year, along with new rules for small business to require things like annual sexual harassment training, and now CalSavers.
I said we escaped because that’s how it feels. Like escaping the pot of slowly boiling frogs.
You are a proponent of universal health care, but to pay for it I would, once again be forced, as a business, to pay more than my fair share for that - and not even have the option to keep private health insurance. No thank you. I had enough of being squeezed and watching unions rule our kleptocratic leaders, while BLM rioters ran amok and drug addicts took over parts of our cities. I’m sorry, but I’m done being victimized. I opted out instead of staying to fight a rigged system.
please run_ be aware at attempts to cheat by dems-also, as someone here mentioned, take strong positions re homeless drug addicted and mentally ill that emphasize two psychiatric consent, reimagine the psychiatric hospitals and make them larger. Reach out to other states because the homeless, mentally ill are often originally from elsewhere.
Michael, I am with you brother. I live in San Francisco. When do we get together for coffee with the rest of this crowd?
As a conservative latino person I hope you win.
How did Newsom "win"? he gave himself the win when he decreed that all voters could print ballots at home. How would this work? all an unscrupulous politician and his people would have to do is scout the voter data (readily available from the ROVs) for people that are registered but rarely or never vote. The campaign would print ballots in the Voter's names, fill them in and, with the *magic* of ballot harvesting, drop the printed ballots into the system. Lets be honest, with the current state of California there is no way Newsom won the recall election...and certainly not by the huge margin he did. They will leverage this fraud against your campaign, how you and other candidates fight this will tell the tale of CA's future. If it were me i'd have my campaign's digital team run some forensic analysis on the recall election to see if this happened and publicly make the case against the practice of printing ballots.
Little that I know of you, I think you would be a great change for Cali. I've never lived there, but did lots of work as a lawyer for a global entity with presence there.
My gut says you are trying hard to please all significant CA constituencies to get elected. Probably trying too hard, unless you just want to say "I ran, I tried". Have you thought about identifying the positions that would turn enough voters your way? That is, taking on a posture that is not waffling, not weaseling, but that speaks to the needs, interests, of ordinary folks who will vote?
Here is an example: "We need cheap and reliable energy, but we also need to make progress on climate change." Really? If you put yourself into the shoes of a voter, that sounds like electoral BS. Please the folks who just want to drive their IC vehicles, but stroke the folks who just want to move to windmills and solar. That is unlikely to work.
You face an Everest of stasis in California politics. And the Governorship is the least of it. Even i9f you succeeded here, you'd face an intransigent legislature.
Good luck. you will need lots of it, even if you were to succeed this Fall.
Yes!!!! This makes me so happy!!!! So glad you are running and praying you will win!!!
I see no mention of the current governor's impending mandate that your children receive experimental mRNA shots to attend school. California removed nearly all -medical- exemptions to vaccines. That's insane! Frankly, I am a bit more concerned about my childrens' health than that of SF drug addicts and homeless. You should consider staking out a position on medical freedom. I think you may find that there is a growing and vocal part of the population that is against mandated medical treatments. I think there may be an explosive growth in support for medical freedom as the carnage wreaked by covid vaccines becomes increasingly difficult to hide.
We're leaving this summer. I'm one of a lot of knowledge workers that have the option to work remotely now. Don't get me wrong, the bay area is nice in many ways. But there are lots of equally nice places that don't have the Bay Area's many problems. And above all I am uncomfortable with the child Covid vaccine mandates. It's okay for them to be encouraged but choice in medical procedure must be allowed. Who knows what they will mandate next if this is accepted. Good luck with your gubernatorial campaign, we won't be here to vote for you, we are off to Utah.
I wish you the best Michael and I hope you win. I will pray for God to bless California with your leadership.
Leftists finally cracking under the strain of their absurd, hypocritical contradictions.
Dear Mr, Shellenberger, I read this campaign statement, and it is short-sighted. Full disclosure: I do not do drugs, am a non-drinker, and have worked steadily since the late 1980's, and came very close to becoming homeless myself a few years ago after my dad died. But for the grace of God in the form of some REALLY lucky breaks, I'd be homeless. Contrary to your recitation of the "mental illness" script, the underlying issue is the economy. California has become out-of-reach for the average working-class person. 50 years ago, the American Dream was alive and well here, but endless regulations on businesses, taxes, fees, mandatory permits and Red Tape has driven the cost of doing business up to a point to where those businesses must raise their prices, so as each chain in the link has to pay more and more, we are stuck with the ever-increasing tab of housing, goods, groceries, gas, etc, the opposite of "we pass the savings onto you". John Cox, who ran in the recall election last year, pointed out this economic principle.
Regarding mental illness, once again, this, as is the case with so many other platforms of political hopefuls/office holders, misses the point. The question we should be asking ourselves is "WHY are there so many mentally ill people now, as opposed to before? What has changed? Obviously, the breakdown of the family unit, and to a larger extent, communities, has been a huge factor, but per the issue of homelessness, when a person is put in a situation where they become homeless--whether through their own fault-or simply because they got sick, lost their job, or got hit with some unexpected expense, and realize they have no way of ever getting back into permanent housing, thus will never have shelter security, and they're cold, tired, living in fear of being attacked, told to "move along", and simply realizing that no matter how hard they work, they will never be able to make enough money to afford to obtain a house/apartment, nor maintain the ridiculously high cost of keeping up with the cost of living in this state, they simply give up, take to drinking/drugs, or even if they don't self-medicate, they simply crack up from the stress, fear, and depression the results from being constantly cold, tired, running, hungry, isolated, and sleep-deprived. Yes, mental illness can be environmental. As for self-medicating, think of the fact that alcohol has become such a big industry in California. All the "wine culture" that's taken over: people who aren't homeless are so scared from trying not to be, they self-medicate on booze, even if dressed up as "culture". It didn't used to be this way.
Also, when I hear people say "Reagan closed the mental hospitals, that's why we have so many homeless people", I say, "Reagan's been out of office for 47 years, so why haven't those in power changed that, and why is it so much worse today?" Again, the root is economic.
The reason we have so many homeless people is because the cost of housing has skyrocketed to the point where the average working-class person cannot afford to live here. I know the prevailing attitude--even increasingly among supposedly-progressive Democrats is "If you can't afford to live here, leave". Great, but here's the thing, we DO live here and being told if we can't afford to run fast enough to keep up with the out-of-control increase of living that we need to leave is not going to cut it anymore.
You say you noticed this a few years ago? I noticed this DECADES ago. I'm glad you have a happy life and a nice family, but you are out of touch. Don't get me wrong, I can't STAND Newsom, but we need to step back and ask ourselves "why are the working-class being forced out by high prices?"
Even if we get someone competent for governor, what good does that do when we live in a state where the we have a supermajority in the state assembly AND the state senate? How many people can even name their state senator or assemblyperson? The whole Leftist legislature needs to be cleaned out and re-staffed.
So, whether it's the security guard getting crushed by the high cost of being required to commute to his job 34 miles away, the middle-aged woman struggling to support herself and her kids by taking an extra job at Door Dash, the retired disabled person whose too broke to stay, but too poor to leave the state, the economy is killing us gradually, the myth that the homeless and the getting-closer-to-being-homeless are simply drunks, drug users, and mentally ill flies in the face of reality.
Also, while you may be our next governor, (and I certainly hope Newsom and his ilk are replaced) your "we will win" is false bravado. I've heard many political aspirants say this, then lose.
Ask yourself "what were we doing differently BEFORE this became such a big problem?" and you will start your journey to a solution.
Government destroyed California and you're here to bring more government, but a slightly different take on it than Newsome?