The race for the 77th Assembly District is heating up as newly-minted Democrat Brian Maienschein came under fire from his Republican opponent, June Cutter, over his recent campaign finance disclosure report. Cutter’s campaign highlighted the fact that Maienschein received over 92% of his donations from Sacramento-based PACs and special interest groups, not the San Diego County district he represents.
This collapse in local support comes after Maienschein made national news by winning his fourth State Assembly race as a Republican last year and then re-registering as a Democrat in January.
Cutter’s campaign consultant, Duane Dichiara, went as far as to add: “Pretty hard to argue that you are a ‘community candidate’ when almost all your money comes from Sacramento. June is a true community-focused candidate, and I believe she has a strong case to replace a career politician like Brian Maienschein in 2020.”
Cutter, who is officially endorsed by the Republican Party of San Diego and a slew of notable Republican elected officials, has based her campaign on a fiscally conservative platform that highlights the forgotten needs of California’s middle class.
Cutter posted a strong fundraising report with nearly $110,000 raised since she announced her candidacy in mid-February. An analysis of her report showed that over 88% of those donations came from San Diego County.
It’s plain to see that Maienschein’s choice to publicly join the Democratic Party is a much deeper issue than just a simple change of heart. Maienschein’s defection to progressive liberalism exemplifies the shady political tactics that have become the hallmark of decades of single-party Democrat rule in Sacramento.
The latest example of these dangerous political games is Gavin Newsom’s signing of SB27 – a bill that requires all presidential candidates to release five years of tax returns in order to be eligible for the state primary. This is a direct maneuver to keep President Trump off the ballot in 2020.
The bill, however, is far more deeply problematic in that it will suppress GOP turnout in the primary election, engineering a series of down-ticket problems for local candidates and ballot measures. If there is no Republican presidential candidate on the ballot, many Republicans may think their vote does not matter; and in California’s jungle primary system, that could very well mean two Democratic candidates make it to the general election up and down the ballot.
While the veto-proof Democrat majority in Sacramento continues scheming ways to keep their power, California citizens are seeing sharp rises in homelessness, crime, and the cost of housing. Our education system and roadways are in disrepair; and despite boasting a $21 billion budget surplus last year, Democrats continue to vote for higher taxes.
Brian Maienschein’s choice to join the party of sanctuary cities, homelessness, Medicare for All, and sky-high taxes was an affront to the people he was elected to represent. If his first campaign finance disclosure is any indication, he will have a tough time getting enough community support to win his first election as a Democrat in 2020.
Photo by Pepi Stojanovski
