Highlights of Peninsula Harbor Republicans Meeting June 27: Craig Huey

June 27, 2012 -- Keller Williams Realty Training Room

The Peninsula Harbor Republicans assembled for their monthly meeting for a meet and greet with two prominent contenders for election in the South Bay.

Bill Bloomfield, Manhattan Beach resident who won the second-place spot to take on Henry Waxman for the 33rd Congressional District, was slated to speak. A surprise guest opened up the meeting, Craig Huey, the GOP candidate who edged fellow Republican Nathan Mintz for the opportunity to take the newly-drawn 66th Assembly district of the South Bay.

Huey reported that Nathan Mintz endorsed him for the Assembly seat. He also shared that prominent Republicans in the South Bay, including Torrance City Councilman Bill Sutherland, chose to endure Murastuchi, a reversal which has not received enough attention in the South Bay.

Mr. Huey has shocked the political establishment once again. First taking the number 2 spot against Janice Hahn for the 36th Congressional district last May, and now edging out a Republican challenger and taking in the top vote for the city of Torrance following the June 5th primary for the 66th Assembly district.
State party leaders up and down the state of California have evaluated cogently that the South Bay seat, which barely trends Democratic by three points, is a sure-fire swing district. If the Democrats pick up two more seats, they will command a two-thirds majority in both of chambers of the state legislature, with the disconcerting authority to pass tax and spending increases over the heads of the growing number of disillusioned Californians. Progressivism is a regressive political philosophy, one which expands state power at the expense of the individual while placing this ill-gotten power in the hands of disconnected elites.

This trend must not allow to continue any further.  Two major municipalities have already dealt a serious blow to the labor unions who have amassed considerable power by instituting pension reform. The rising number of voters in the Golden State will not tolerate business as usual in the statehouse. Businessman Craig Huey will put a stop to the Sacramento landslide of taxes and regulations that are killing jobs and frustrating city sovereignty and individual liberty. Huey could not hammer enough times the crucial importance of his victory over Al Muratsuchi in November. Labor unions are pouring money into the 66th Assembly race. Huey asked for donations, which he received in large numbers within minutes of his short speech.

The Republican Party is on the rise in the South Bay. The state of California is tired of one group of virulent lobbyists taking the time and money away from state lawmakers and forcing them to accommodate a narrow policy of enriching public unions at the expense of everyone else.

Sutherland Turns on GOP Nominee -- Backs Muratsuchi

Sutherland had backed Republican aerospace engineer Nathan Mintz of Redondo Beach in the June 5 primary but Mintz lost a place on the ballot to Republican businessman Craig Huey of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Huey is widely viewed as more conservative than Mintz, and several prominent GOP moderates are backing Muratsuchi, including Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, Gardena Mayor Paul Tanaka and Palos Verdes Estates Mayor George F. Bird Jr. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/06/democrat-muratsuchi-adds-gop-support-in-assembly-race.html)

Already voters have commented that the South Bay Republican Party is facing some infighting and disarray. Now some prominent GOP pols are lining up behind Democratic Torrance School Board member Al Muratsuchi in his bid for the Assembly. This is shameful behavior outright and outrageous. The future of California remains in the hands and minds of those voters and politicians who want to stop Sacramento from its scandalous spending spree. They recongnize that a policy of spending money that the state does not have for programs that we cannot afford while financing public employee benefits unchecked and unassumed is simply reckless. A great reckoning is forming against this state, which has already wrecked California's bond rating, followed by the ghost-budgeting which baldly (and badly) assumes that the  voters will support another tax increase in November.


Despite the Los Angeles Times' report announcing Mr. Sutherland's endorsement, Mr. Muratsuchi's campaign website (http://alforassembly.com/about/endorsements?_c=10oeyosm70dtyw9) has not listed the Torrance City Councilman's name along with the growing and glaring list of special interests which favor raising taxes and protecting state employee collectives at the expense of the well-being of the entire state. If Mr. Sutherland stands by his endorsement for the opposition party's candidate, then the Muratsuchi campaign should have the integrity to post it.

Sutherland originally endorsed the moderate GOP candidate Nathan Mintz before the June primary, who lost to small businessman Craig Huey, an experienced campaigner who surprised voters and party apparatus throughout the South Bay in winning second place against Janice Hahn for the 36th Congressional seat in 2011.

Mr. Sutherland's sudden shift to favor a  connected liberal politician is nothing but out-right foolishness. The state of California cannot afford a supermajority of Democrats who will tax and spend this state into oblivion. Does Mr. Sutherland really believe that promoting the lost cause of liberal dominance at in the state capital will serve the best interests of the state or even the city of Torrance?


Torrance City Councilman Bill Sutherland said in a statement released by the Muratsuchi campaign that he was “proud to give my wholehearted endorsement” to the Torrance school board member and deputy state attorney general. “I’m supporting Al because I believe we need common sense solutions and not extreme ideology in Sacramento,” Sutherland said.

Sutherland should be ashamed of himself for such empty reasoning as a basis for this endorsement. "Common sense solutions" have remained elusive in Sacramento because of the "extreme ideology" of the Democrats and the labor unions special interests who fund their campaigns. The extreme ideology of taxes and regulations as the answer to this state's fiscal woes is a recipe for mere fiscal anarchy, one which will frighten away businesses and entrepreneurs while securing nothing for our impoverished public schools.

Only Governor Brown's 12-point plan for pension reforms manifests the "common sense" solutions for the public entitlement spending programs which are bankrupting this state. The Republicans in Sacramento have endorse this sensible plan, yet the Governor's own party has militantly opposed these measures, refusing to articulate the proposals into any legislation. A supermajority of voters in San Diego and San Jose have signaled their support for pension reform, even though the Democratic majorities in the statehouse have still balked at these necessary measures for the entire state. Sutherland has patently demonstrated how out of touch he is with the well-being of the state and the voters, and his turn-coat endorsement of a union-backed liberal should not go unnoticed!

Mr. Sutherland does not deserve a pass out of political expediency of this erroneous endorsement, pure and simple.