Meet Kevin Kiley, Republican lawmaker running in the California recall election

Name: Kevin Kiley

Political party: Republican

Residence: Rocklin

Occupation: California legislator

Education: I hold a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a law degree from Yale, and a master’s in secondary education from Loyola Marymount.

Experience: I was elected to the Assembly in 2016. In 2020, I received more votes than any Republican in California history. I am the only 100 percent citizen-backed California elected official, refusing all funding from special interests.

I began my career as a high school teacher in Los Angeles. Later, I became a deputy attorney general, representing the people of California in cases against violent felons. In 2020, I sued and won a trial against Governor Newsom for violating the separation of powers.

Website: kileyforcalifornia.com

What precautions, if any, should California continue to take to cope with COVID-19 and its variants?

California has been a national outlier in the COVID era, imposing both the longest school closures and the most severe lockdowns. Other states that have taken a more balanced approach have allowed their kids to remain in school and their businesses to remain open, while also having better overall public health outcomes than our state.

Californians are well informed on how to protect themselves from COVID-19. The state should continue, where appropriate, to provide educational resources. But decision-making going forward should be in the hands of local communities and their citizens.

California provided cash support to individuals and small businesses during the pandemic. To what extent should that assistance continue?

The best thing we can do to help small businesses and create jobs is to allow our economy to fully reopen. Our unemployment rate remains one of the worst in the country and many small businesses are permanently closing their doors.

Our state needs a fundamental course correction that sets high expectations for a swift recovery and unleashes California’s full economic potential. If elected I would assure every school is open full-time so parents can go back to work, provide businesses with the confidence to resume operations without fear of further shutdowns, and structure unemployment assistance to incentivize a return to work.

Furthermore, I would forgive all COVID-related fines, penalties, and license revocations, provide liability protection for businesses, and reform PAGA and other litigation traps. I’d also propose restoring meaningful tax relief such as Net Operating Loss carrybacks, and removing arbitrary barriers to work such as Assembly Bill 5.

What more would you do to address California’s housing crisis?

My first act as governor after ending the State of Emergency would be to immediately call special sessions of the Legislature to address our failing schools, soaring cost of living, rising crime rates, and jarring homelessness. The Legislature would have two choices: pass the necessary reforms or face accountability from voters in 2022.

We need to eliminate the overregulation that makes housing so difficult and costly to build in California, while pushing back against policies like the rooftop solar mandate that increase the price of a home by tens of thousands of dollars.

What should California do to build up its middle class?

The quality of life for the middle class is declining because government is failing. This last year we reached a tipping point, as for the first time in California’s 170-year history more people moved out of the state than moved in.

The burdens imposed on the middle class by our state government take two forms: an unaffordable cost of living and barriers to economic opportunity. Both have the same cause: More than any in the nation, our Capitol has fallen captive to powerful special interests and their lobbyists. These interests use the power of government to benefit themselves at the expense of ordinary Californians.

For example, Assembly Bill 5 banned most forms of independent contracting and made it impossible for thousands of Californians to earn a living.

Our government needs to stop interfering with the lives and livelihoods of Californians, and instead get back to basics: Pave our roads, store our water, manage our forests, maintain our grid, fund our police.

Would you propose any new policies to address climate change?

I am grateful to live in a state that is at the forefront of clean energy innovation, and I appreciate the important contribution that clean energy makes to our economy and environment. I voted for the Buy Clean California Act to leverage California’s substantial purchasing power to promote the production of low-carbon products and clean fuels. I also supported legislation to incentivize the development of new recycling centers and help the state meet its greenhouse gas emission targets by restricting the use of hydrofluorocarbons in refrigeration, air conditioning, and aerosols.

The future of clean energy will be driven by innovators, and the role of the state government should be to nurture such innovation. But too often, our state has done just the opposite and gotten in the way of it by imposing overly burdensome regulations and by picking winners and losers in the clean energy market.

What should California do in the long term to address wildfire and drought conditions?

Our state needs to substantially increase its forest management and fire prevention measures, and we need a governor who will not mislead the public about these efforts.

Second, we need to empower local communities in fire prevention, authorizing local fire departments to conduct fuel management on nearby state lands and providing them with additional state funding.

Third, we need real accountability for PG&E. The utility has used its political influence to evade proper oversight, and our communities have paid a devastating price.

California’s recurring water shortages are entirely avoidable. But we have failed to invest in the necessary storage and infrastructure.

My plan would allocate a percentage of the state’s general fund for construction projects to increase the annual sustainable supply of water to California’s cities and farms. It would also require state agencies to spend the money as intended and safeguard projects against excessive litigation and liability.

This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Meet Kevin Kiley, Republican lawmaker running in the California recall election."