Fiorina Moving Toward ‘Carlyfornia’
Are you ready for Carlyfornia?
If you love Sen. Barbara Boxer’s “Fighting for You” slogan (Boxer. Fighting. Get it?) or the ever-popular “Boxer” shorts (available for $9 a pair on her campaign website), what’s not to like about Republican Carly Fiorina’s attempt to revise the English language in the name of campaign-speak?
Of course, as the rather strange website just put up by the Senate hopeful puts it, “It’s Carly vs. Boxer. Coming Soon?”
Question mark aside, the barebones, placeholder website is a real step toward an actual, no-fooling Senate campaign and may be designed to answer recent questions both here and elsewhere about just how serious the former Hewlett-Packard CEO is about challenging Boxer.
The timing of the website launch also isn’t an accident, coming just days before this weekend’s state GOP convention in Indian Wells.
The Strategic Mistake Behind the Attacks on Whitman
I drove down to Fullerton at lunchtime Tuesday to watch Meg Whitman make the official announcement of her candidacy for governor.
It should have been a ho hum day. But Whitman’s political opponents and critics in the press took it as an opportunity to renew once again their demands that she produce more policy specifics and join in debates. Watching Whitman speak for more than half-an-hour in quite a bit of detail convinced me that this line of criticism is strategically foolish.
In action, Whitman reveals herself to be what she is: a grind, the sort of A student who triumphs not necessarily on brain power but by doing all the homework and the reading twice. The speech was dutiful but not exciting. It suffered from a desire to be careful, cover every base, and be complete in every way. She seemed, if anything, hyper-prepared. That can be problematic in a candidate, but over-preparation is an attractive quality in a governor.
So what’s wrong with the criticism that she’s not detailed enough and won’t debate? It’s dumb because such criticism is so easy to neutralize. In fact, it’s a sure thing it will be neutralized. By the time voters start to tune into the race next year, Whitman will be (happily, by my reading of her) suffocating voters with detail and debating all over the state. Voters who see her then will quickly discount the criticism that she’s not specific enough.
California’s Winning Prescription
Believe it or not, California could make a meaningful contribution to the national quest to bring down health care costs.
How so? California could point out that it has MICRA, and that has helped tether medical costs in the state.
MICRA stands for the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act. It was passed in 1975 amid a crisis marked by 300 percent increases in medical malpractice insurance premiums. Some doctors were defecting to other states back then.
MICRA stabilized the situation and brought down costs, so much so that several other states have adopted their own version of MICRA. A few holiday seasons ago, a doctor wrote in a trade journal that of all things to be thankful for, “No. 1 on this list for California physicians is MICRA.”
How Much Does That Law Cost?
There are 250,000 fewer Los Angeles County residents with jobs today than there were one year ago. The state’s unemployment rate rose to 12.2 percent in August and L.A. County rose to 12.3 percent, according to the numbers released Friday. All but 5,400 of those jobs were private sector employees.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stated in his State of the City address on April 14 and his inaugural on July 1 that creating jobs should be the city’s highest priority. He stated that the focus of the city’s efforts must be on promoting economic recovery. The L.A. Area Chamber applauded Mayor Villaraigosa for his renewed commitment to economic development and since then has been working with city officials to help improve the business climate and stimulate business and job growth. The unemployment numbers released Friday indicate that a dramatic effort needs to be initiated.
One of the biggest problems in Los Angeles is that we make decisions without asking: “How much does that law cost? How will it impact jobs, business and tax revenues?” Every law that elected officials pass either helps or hurts business — and we think these questions should be at the heart of every policy deba,1te.