SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - The days of cookie-cut Republican candidates may be gone in California, as voters will soon choose between GOP contenders with contrasting views in the coming California primary.
Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the race for governor, as the two competing Republican candidates, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly and Neel Kashkari, campaign against each other for the right to take on California's governor, Jerry Brown.
A Tea Party favorite, Donnelly currently represents California's 33rd District in the State Assembly.
During the recent California Republican Convention, Donnelly told the gathered crowd California "ought to ... drill our way to prosperity rather than sitting on an ocean of oil and importing it from our enemies."
Donnelly also touched on the immigration issue, saying the only immigration problem he wants to talk about in California "is the tsunami of U-hauls leaving for (Gov.) Rick Perry's Texas."
Donnelly led the movement to overturn the California DREAM Act - a bill that would give illegal immigrants college tuition money.
On his campaign website, the assemblyman highlights his stances on cutting government waste, protecting the right to bear arms, supporting pro-life and enacting tort reform.
"Frivolous lawsuits have a highly negative impact on our economy and business environment," Donnelly says on the site. "We must seek solutions that protect citizens and small businesses from lawsuits that are extortionary and baseless."
Conversely, Kashkari has run on a platform of fixing public schools and making higher education more affordable.
Throughout his campaign, Kashkari has said he believes education and growing the economy are the keys to empowering Californians.
"Economic growth is the most powerful force we have to lift people up," Kashkari says on his campaign website.
"If we empower people, give them economic empowerment, that starts with a quality education and we grow the economy so there's good jobs available ... that's the American dream."
During a March 19 interview on Fox Business Network's Varney & Co, Kashkari discussed Brown's impact on the middle class and looking to oil and gas to help put people back to work.
Kashkari's interest in public policy and service took him to Washington, D.C., in 2006, when President George W. Bush appointed him to the Department of the Treasury, according to his website.
The statewide primary election is June 3.
From Legal Newsline: Reach David Yates at elections@legalnewsline.com.
Republicans running for Calif. governor taking different stances
