Written by William Hekman
With Kamala Harris having vacated her seat and Alex Padilla being appointed to fill that seat, Californians will vote on one of their senators. Padilla is running but has a challenger ahead of him. Attorney Mark Meuser is running against Padilla to become the first Republican Senator to be elected in California since Pete Wilson was re-elected to his Senate seat back in 1988.
Meuser is a Constitutional Law attorney who has fought Gavin Newsom a number of times over the last few years. Meuser has brought 22 lawsuits against Newsom and has been a member of four legal teams that have argued in front of the Supreme Court and won. Meuser said the reason he is running is that he is seeing unelected bureaucrats dictating everything, especially when it comes to emergency powers, and that he wants to rein in the power, “ People who are not being held accountable are coming in and just dictating how we live our lives, and that is tyranny” Meuser said in an interview to KUSI. Meuser began his career as an entrepreneur selling cherries he picked from his family’s orchard and as an owner of a pizza restaurant before going to law school.
Meuser highlighted that there are two elections for the Senate seat this November which many people do not know about. Due to the seat being vacated by Kamala Harris, voters will be voting on someone to represent the remainder of her term from November 9th to January 3rd. The second election will be for a full six-year term, “My name will be on the ballot twice” said Meuser. This rule dates back to the adoption of the 17th Amendment which made Senators elected by voters rather than appointed by state legislatures. However, a ruling by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said that governors are not required to call a special election when there is a vacancy, but the remainder of the term must be on the ballot in the next election cycle, hence why there will be two Senate elections on the ballot in November.
Meuser said that voters should vote for him because he will fight for constitutional rights and has been on the front lines of those fights and is ready to take that fight to Washington D.C, “I’m the person who’s been on the front lines fighting for their constitutional rights, the right of self-governance.” Meuser has been endorsed by the California Republican Party.
Photo Cred: Mark Meuser for Senate
