FLASHREPORT

JOHN BENOIT MUST BE REPLACED IN THE SENATE WITH A CONSERVATIVE

Russ Bogh, Candidate for State Senate

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The great communicator and mentor for many in the Conservative movement, including myself, once asked America: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

It was a question that President Carter could not truthfully answer.  Ronald Reagan went on to win that election and taught us all that in times of crisis, it’s conservative Republican values that time and time again solve many of our government’s pressing issues.

I’m running for State Senate because I believe in California and I believe the Senate Republican Caucus needs more conservatives in its ranks. Replacing John Benoit with a liberal big government Republican will doom California to higher taxes, bigger government and higher unemployment.  I believe in freedom and reject the big government Republicans who have forgotten our party’s core conservative beliefs.

So today I ask the question of my fellow conservatives:  Are we better off today than we were four years ago?  Certainly not.  Consider this: when I left my caucus leadership post, Republican influence in the Legislature was beginning to get California back to some form of fiscal sanity.  The over $24 billion dollar deficit created by Gray Davis and his liberal friends was almost eliminated.  While we did not solve all of the state’s problems, we had begun to steer the state’s fiscal ship in the right direction.

We accomplished this by simply applying Reagan Republican values to our policy — by cutting taxes and helping the private sector create jobs.  After the recall of Gray Davis, the new Governor’s first action was to cut taxes by eliminating the car tax increase.  We put dollars back into the hands of taxpayers who know better than Sacramento politicians how to spend their own money.

We also made significant reforms to the state’s workers compensation system.  This hard fought action saved California businesses millions of dollars; and they, as President Reagan knew so well, invested that money back into the Golden State’s economy.  The result, no surprise to Reagan Conservatives, was that tax revenues into the state coffers began to recover. 

Unfortunately, big government Republicans teamed up with Sacramento special interests and began to spend like liberals.  Big government Republicans abandoned Reagan’s principles and our state is once again in a fiscal morass. 

One can certainly argue that my years in the State Assembly qualify me to serve in the Senate. But I believe spending three years back in the private sector is my strongest qualification.  This experience has given me a fresh perspective and a renewed commitment to my conservative beliefs.   Sacramento needs a conservative with a real-world perspective like myself.  That’s why I’m running for Senate.

To solve our state’s fiscal crisis, we need to return to our Reagan roots.  We need to apply simple, conservative Republican principles to our state’s fiscal woes.   We need to focus on helping the private sector create jobs and get Californians back to work.  We need to rein in state spending while holding state employees accountable for their actions like we do private sector employees.  We need to demand a world-class education system.  No more excuses from Sacramento “educrats.”  Let’s remove the burdens imposed on local schools by Sacramento.  We ought to celebrate great teachers and reject complacency in education.  Competition works in the private sector and it will work in education.  And by the way, we can and should accomplish this with a part-time Legislature.

My opponent Assemblyman Bill Emmerson has decided to reregister and run in the 37th District.  Assemblyman Emmerson and I differ on many issues.  Here are some of the key differences and why I am the better choice: I am pro-life and oppose using tax money for abortions.  Because I believe only Republicans should be allowed to choose our candidates, I oppose Senator Maldonado’s open primary initiative.  Finally I oppose the expansion of government into Obama-style health care.

Since I am the only Reagan conservative in the race, Sacramento special interests who demand tax increases to fund their social programs will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat me and smear my good name.  They need a replacement in the Senate Republican Caucus for Abel Maldonado, whose liberal views have cost taxpayers millions of dollars and fanned the flames of our state’s fiscal mess.  I am not the choice of these free-spending special interests, because I won’t stand with them.  I will stand for Ronald Reagan’s conservative values —  and I will stand with California taxpayers.

I need your help and ask you will join me.
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