I have zero interest in being a public servant. And I have no desire to hold any public office that requires real work. Which is why the only elected job in California to which I’ve ever aspired is lieutenant governor.
Lieutenant governor is quite simply the best job in this state. It’s got good pay, benefits, even staff — and you don’t really have to do anything. Yes, I know you serve on university boards and the state lands commission, but those can be treated as light duties and frequently skipped.
It’s perfect for an artist or a writer – someone who needs a steady salary to do their real work. Which is why I, casting all journalistic integrity to the wind, openly lobbied to be appointed to the job in 2009. Gov. Schwarzenegger made a terrible mistake by overlooking me even though I was the best qualified person in California to carry out the job’s one real task – checking on the health of the governor; I’d written a book about Schwarzenegger and was already checking on him pretty much every day.
For years, people have suggested my expressed interest in the job is not real, that I’m joking, that this is a cheap way to get a blog post or a column. They are wrong.
Let’s be clear: the job is a joke, but my interest in the job is very much real.
So I’m gratified that distinguished politicians of all stripes are coming around to my way of seeing things.
According to the LA Times, seven California leaders – Kevin de Leon, Mike Gatto, Mark Leno, Anthony Cannella, Ed Hernandez, Darrell Steinberg, Jeff Denham of the Central Valley — have opened campaign committees to run for lieutenant governor in 2018. Now a few cynics in the press and in political circles suggest that these pols do not intend to run for lieutenant governor—that they are merely using the job as a place to park political money while they contemplate their future or other opportunities. Please!
These are smart and ambitious and serious people, and so they must be serious about the lite gov thing. And they must have seen that, under the constraints of California’s governing system, there is not all that much one can do in other state legislative or executive jobs. In thosejobs, you have to work very hard for little notice or reward.
They’ve presumably made the calculation that it’s much better to not work that hard at your job for little notice or reward.
And they are right.
Now I’m not happy about having competition for the 2018 lieutenant governor’s race. And I would point out one defect among my fellow aspirants: as politicians, they would grab the job of governor if they were lieutenant governor and something happened to the governor.
If I were lieutenant governor and the governor departed, I would immediately resign the position and let a real public servant take over.