Feature | The Hollywood Race
Written by: JP

Chuck Walker (Republican)
Web Site: www.chuckwalkerforgov.com

Chuck Walker is the former Mayor of Scotts Valley.
One of the few candidates with experience in government.

M. On the ballot you are among the last 10 of over 100
candidates. Do you believe this will hurt your
chances?

C.W. Actually no. Each assembly district has a different
order of names on the ballot. The state conducts an
alphabet lottery for each election, as they have for
this one. They go by last name. The order that was
pulled had me as the second letter. R was first, W was
second. But they are supposed to rotate these through
the 80 assembly districts where district 1 has R
first, W second. Then district 2 has W first and R is
last, etc. Every county is sending me a copy of the
ballot for that county. After seeing the ballots, I
realized that some of them understand the rotation,
but others clearly do not. So, I am counting on
election official's ignorance or laziness to give me a
slight advantage over the rest of this primordial soup
of candidates.

M. What type of election reforms do you believe
California needs?

C.W. I think they need to eliminate PACs (Political Action
Committees). The PACs get around the $21,200 limit and
that is wrong. Plus, I think all candidates should be
given free television, radio, and print space mandated
by the state. Once those media "duckets" are spent,
that's it. That way everybody would have the same
amount of media exposure to get his or her message
out, and it would really level the playing field. I'm
sure that would tick off a lot of the media people,
but this is an important democratic process and there
shouldn't be any economic advantages when running for
office as there are now.

M. Most of your platform involves tax cuts. But the
legislature says the government needs more money.
Where is the money going to come from?

C.W. Where it comes from normally – a thriving economy. It
irks me when the politicians say they "must" raise
taxes, because of they need to spend more of our
money. Nonsense, they need to cut spending. The
legislature has become the proverbial drunk saying,
"Just one more beer." The Assembly and the Senate have
a spending problem and they are living in denial. My
tax cuts are aimed at bolstering the economy. When the
economy is healthy, revenues streams needed to provide
the critical services are healthy. There is a
symbiotic relationship between business and
government, and it should be a friendly partnership,
not an adversarial one. Business provides prosperity,
not government. Taxes, in general, suppress the
economy and oppress the citizenry by limiting
financial freedom.

M. There is a display window in the capitol building
for each county and for the governor. What do you
want in your display window as governor?

C.W. Golf clubs and Starbucks coffee. The staples of life.

M. You are mayor of Scotts Valley and a programmer
analysis by profession. Has your technical background
helped in running government?

C.W. Actually, I am a former mayor of Scotts Valley, not
the current one. Being an analyst obviously helped me
when analyzing any given issue. But it takes more than
just analysis, it takes leadership. Effective
leadership requires vision, along with a plan in order
to achieve or at least move toward that vision. So
from a technical point of view and from an analytical
perspective, that is where the fact gathering starts
in order to offer a solution, but that must be guided
with an overall vision.

M. There are a number of electronic petitions directed
toward state issues. Some are just ways to earn money
(pay us to host your petition). Some are sincere, but
clueless that electronic petitions cannot be
verified and are invalid. What is the best way for
someone with a concern to address government?

C.W. Well just like elected officials do, build a
consensus. Nothing speaks louder the a large group of
voters. Politicians look for that, because it saves
them a lot of time when looking for votes.
Unfortunately, that is the downside of government.
Then special interest groups have a skewed
representation. It is inherently unfair to those
outside of that special interest group. Many
politicians function under the assumption that for
every 1 protest made by the public, there are 100
silent people with the same opinion. That may be a
false assumption on their part, but that's how many of
them think.

M. If the state seal were copyrighted it would be
easier to convict forgers. This would require a design
change. What would you like to see on a State seal?

C.W. Gosh, I don't know. No matter what you do with that,
it will no doubt irritate some special interest group.
I can't relate to the gal that's on it right now with
the weird looking hat. Maybe something like redwood
trees and bumper to bumper traffic to show the
contrasts of living environments within the state.

M. Do you believe there should be more qualifications
for elected offices? Such as an exam?

C.W. No, because that would be manipulated to eliminate
everyone but those in charge. I think the best way to
judge competency is by their experience and their
stand on the issues. More open debates would be a good
way of getting their positions known.

M. Why enter the race now during the recall?

C.W. Because I won't be eliminated by the Primary election,
which is what would happen in a "regular" election.
This is a unique election in that regard. Plus, this
will have national coverage, for good or for bad, and
that is a great vehicle to get my ideas out into the
mainstream and maybe get picked up by someone who is
in a position to make a difference. In fact, that may
even be me at some level. You just never know what
will come of this kind of exposure. I suspect I may
find out AFTER the election. Certainly by becoming
well-versed on the issues confronting Californians,
has brought a new level of awareness to me,
personally. I hope that will transfer to others.

M. A lot of California land is being slated for
acquisition by tribes to build casinos. This will
lose tax revenue. What would you like to see done
about this?

C.W. I'm not sure how much tax revenue will be lost. I
would like to see the casinos gone. They are sucking
money out of the economy and into the hands of the
few, which in turn arms them with powerful lobbies. I
say let's get rid of the casinos. We don't need them,
we need businesses that contribute to the economy, not
detract from it.