Who is Ted Gaines, Republican candidate in the California governor recall election

Name: Ted Gaines

Political party: Republican

Residence: Shingle Springs

Occupation: Board of Equalization member and business owner

Education: Lewis and Clark College

Experience: I’ve been fighting for the rights of my constituents for the past 20 years, starting with my position as Placer County supervisor as well as elected office in the state Assembly and Senate. I’m now the highest ranking Republican in the state, representing 10 million Californians on the Board of Equalization. In addition, I own an independent insurance agency and have been in the industry for over 40 years.

Website: www.tedgaines.com

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

The experience of this pandemic has been unique to each person, and I believe Californians are perfectly capable of making decisions for themselves based on their own levels of risk. We are now at a point in the pandemic where everyone who wants vaccines can get them, everyone who likes the masks can wear them, and everyone who wants COVID information updates can find them. Precautions should continue to be available for those in need, but it’s time to allow life to continue for everyone else.

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

Too many people are eager to talk about relief programs without taking a moment to consider why they were needed in the first place. It was the knee-jerk reaction of this administration that artificially gutted our economy with arbitrary and unconstitutional edicts. The hard truth is that no government program can replace the benefits of long term gainful employment. No amount of $600 checks will fill the void that these lockdowns have left in the heart of our economy. It will be no easy task to bring our economy back from the damage of the past year and a half, but in order to close the wound we will first need to address the bleeding.

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

Recently, finance company WalletHub compiled a report of the 10 worst cities for new home buyers, and found that 9 out of 10 of those cities were here in California. This housing crisis we’re in is daunting, but at its core it’s a simple issue.

We need to make homes plentiful and affordable enough to meet the demands of prospective home buyers. Unfortunately, the price of building and buying new homes has been heavily burdened by overreaching legislation and environmental over-regulation. Is it any surprise that new homes are so expensive when builders are required to include new solar panels and sprinkler systems that can easily add $40,000 to the cost of a new home? Or when CEQA can put decades-long holds on construction projects? Or when local fees and permits can run to more than $100,000 per home? Home prices affect everyone in California, whether they are renting or buying. It’s time to introduce reforms that will ease the burden on construction and reduce the cost for buyers.

What should California do to build up its middle class?

It’s obvious to anyone with a wallet that California is in the midst of an affordability crisis. In any other state, a middle class income could barely cover the bills we’re left with here. Between gas prices, housing costs, electricity, and income taxes, the government takes so much of each earned dollar that Californians are struggling to keep their heads above the water.

One of the immediate priorities of my administration will be to remove the unnecessary burdens that have been keeping prices sky high across the state. If we want to see a real revival of our middle class we will also need to welcome back the kind of jobs that built it in the first place. Manufacturing, construction, energy- these are good paying jobs that have been largely abandoned by the political elite running this state. It’s not enough that California become job friendly again- we must be industry friendly as well.

Would you propose any new policies to address climate change?

I will not sacrifice the livelihoods of California’s hard working men and women on the political whims of fringe environmentalists. Other states- not to mention our rivals abroad- continue to surge ahead in industry and economic development, and I will not leave California in the dust. There is no reason that we cannot maintain economic momentum while also maintaining a business environment that allows green companies to thrive and expand. Tesla began in California, and through competitive innovation made itself into a towering leader in the green vehicle industry (that is, until Elon Musk moved to begin investing in business friendly Texas instead). I want to see more companies like Tesla succeed, and stay, in California.

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

We need to form a coherent and cooperative framework of our natural resources to finally put an end to these yearly disasters. For the past decade, we have seen water shortages threaten the livelihood of our farmers, wildfires devastate our communities, and power outages continue to be a far too frequent thorn in the sides of Californians everywhere. These issues all affect each other, and it’s time we address them ambitiously. New water storage projects must be approved and built, and existing projects must be expedited. Forest management must be tackled head on through manual thinning and we must launch a revival of our lumber industry through public-private partnerships that allow for logging on public lands.

This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Who is Ted Gaines, Republican candidate in the California governor recall election."