Assemblyman Muratsuchi's Unimpressive Press Release

Former Torrance Unified School Board Member Al Muratsuchi leaves one cash-strapped institution for another. A first-term Assemblyman for the South Bay, Muratsuchi now represents the 66th Assembly district, having won the most expensive and hard-fought campaign in the state of California. Six Republicans betrayed their party to endorse a Democrat who took in more money from outside the district than other statewide races.

Muratsuchi's "victory" has tipped the balance of power in the state legislature toward Supermajority Democratic rule for the first time in decades. The party bosses, the imposing John Perez in the state Assembly and super-imposed Darrell Steinberg in the state senate, can push legislation which even the liberal Governor may oppose. Furthermore, they can bypass his veto with a unified override. The voters in this state are going to get a taste of complete and uninterrupted one-party rule, and Muratsuchi is the dot and the cross for this liberal hegemony.

Last week in his first press release, the former state prosecutor's self-absorbed bravado was arrayed in full display. This time instead of relying on the banner-waving of loud sycophants, Muratsuchi can depend on the easy role he will play in Sacramento, a seat-warmer and easy vote for the Democratic elite's tax and spend agenda.

I'm especially proud to chair the Veterans Committee so that I can serve the men and women who have served our nation in the military.

Muratsuchi did not earn the seat with a vision to restore and prosper the state of California. Claiming that he was not "an ideologue", he merely ran his campaign based on the same empty elitist ideology of tax, spend, and regulate. Perhaps he should begin with a dishonorable discharge from the Assembly.

I will fight to restore funding for our schools through the Budget Committee. 

The state’s budget committees and Governor Brown have outlined spending increases to poor-performing schools, which do not include the districts in the South Bay. The same legislature which proposed meager pension reforms has not tackled the outrageous pension obligations which are dragging down the fiscal solvency of our state. The interests which intimidate reforms and frustrate reforms bankrolled his campaign.

As a former prosecutor, I will fight to protect our families and neighborhoods through the Judiciary Committee.

During his campaign, the state prosecutor accommodated malicious lies about his opponent Craig Huey in his race to represent the 66th Assembly District. Now he joins the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Where's the justice in all of this? Muratsuchi has not shaken away the "truth" problem from his lavish negative-ad campaign. He even took donations from the California Teachers Association, which helped kill SB 1530, a bill which would have hastened the dismissal of immoral teachers from the classroom. How can anyone esteem that he will make decisions in the best interests of our students?

As a surfer and committed environmentalist, I will protect our beaches and our environment through the Natural Resources Committee.

How about the state's economic resources? So busy protecting the green of nature, Muratsuchi has ignored the diminishing green in our wallets. What good will it do to protect the trees if people cannot find work? What about the lack of “green” in our schools or for the entitlement programs in the state? California’s fiscal environment is far more foreboding and hostile than anything that “Mother Nature” can dish out.

Muratsuchi’s press release declared "I will" three times. What “will” can he exert in Sacramento, since special interests funded his fraught fight against his opponent for the seat? As with state Senator Ted Lieu, the voters in the South Bay can only wonder whose interests Muratsuchi he will serve, whose "will" he will advance while in office.

Now Democratic leaders in Sacramento are sharpening their knifes to carve a piece out of Prop 13, the first of many anti-tax backlashes to the "spend without end"  Sacramento agenda. This profligate legacy started under Governor Edmund "Moonbeam" Brown, who turned the Reagan surpluses into Brown-and-Out deficits. Contrary to one artless assertion in the local press, Prop 13 is not a signal of declining public service. Over the past decade, a spend-thrift legislature which offered handsome pensions and benefits to well-connected public sector unions typifies "declining public service."

Muratsuchi resented the insinuation from opponents and critics who assumed that he would not protect Prop 13. Yet he refused to sign the "Protect Prop 13" pledge. He is a member of a party elite that wants to raise taxes and bring in more revenue from a diminished coterie of the state, rich entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even civil servants who work for their pay just like everyone else.

Muratsuchi claims to represent the South Bay, but the policies of his party have put him in line with the same train of brain-drained elites that want to tax the wealth-creators at the expense of everyone else in California. For the next two years, voters should pay close attention to this "fiscal conservative", whether the convictions of the local media and voters will in fact convince this Democrat to vote in the best interests of the state instead of the party.