The Road Not Taken

by Jack Lee

Character seems so rare in politics these days that it’s almost shocking when someone puts the public interest before their own. The drama unfolding in Northern California this week involves three elected representatives, two of whom took the road less traveled.

State Senator Doug LaMalfa (shown left) is likely to be elected to Congress in November, which would normally trigger a special election to fill the senate seat vacancy. But on Friday, at the close of the legislative session, LaMalfa resigned his seat early so that Governor Brown could save $2 million of state and county taxpayers’ money by consolidating that special election with the normally scheduled November election.

The man likely to replace LaMalfa in the Senate is Jim Nielsen, who represents the area in the Assembly. For precisely the same reasons, Nielsen did not run again for Assembly. If he had done so and been elected to the Senate, it would have triggered yet another series of costly special elections.

Lew Uhler, President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, singled out both men for doing the right thing, and saving taxpayers millions. LaMalfa, who will be filling the vacancy created by Congressman Wally Herger’s retirement, and Nielsen are both fiscal conservatives who have placed the interest of the people ahead of their own.

Northern counties are obviously delighted to be spared the cost of a special election, since that money would come right out of vital services like police and fire protection. So, it’s no small thing they’ve done. In the best of circumstances, the two parties will consolidate around a single candidate so that we can also avoid a run-off election.

There’s a chance that may happen, since the only other Republican mentioned, Assemblyman Dan Logue, promised only four months ago that if voters elected him to the Assembly, he would not run for the LaMalfa seat. “Absolutely not!” said Logue, “I have no plans in that direction.”

We hope that Logue keeps his promise, otherwise we risk holding a costly special election.

Logue, who is already on the ballot running for another term in the Assembly, must decide if he wants to break his pledge and also run concurrently for LaMalfa’s vacant senate seat. In the unlikely event that he beat Nielsen, taxpayers would have to foot the bill for a special election and subsequent run-off election to fill the Assembly vacancy. The choice to keep his promise should be obvious, but his staff are already calling for a special meeting of the Butte County Republican Central Committee to promote a Logue candidacy for senate.

If he goes forward, it’s fair to ask the obvious political question, will the Democrats argue voters should vote against Logue for Assembly in November precisely because his immediate resignation would cost taxpayers millions? Will voters cast ballots for Logue for Assembly knowing that he has every intention of resigning and sticking taxpayers with the millions in special election costs?

I can see the mailers now “How many teachers and firefighters will we have to lay off just so Dan Logue can run for two offices at once?” Unfortunately, these are not unrealistic fears. Logue has never been particularly strong in general elections. In 2008, Logue bested his Democrat opponent with only 55% of the vote. Then, in 2010, he won with only 54%. And that was in the old gerrymandered “safe” Republican district, by the way.

So, two of the players in this drama took the high road and put the public’s interest before their own. The third, Dan Logue,stands at the crossroads. And if he runs in two elections, he could be defeated for both and that would not bode well for Republicans.

I wish he would stay where he is and do the job we elected him to do.