Elections Matter and This Was No Exception
The votes have been counted. At least some of the votes have been counted. Enough so that there appears to be two front-runners for governor: Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra. I won’t use vote tabulation because we’re at least three weeks from the final tally, this being the Democrat-run state of California, and counting votes is not something they’re very good at.
One would have thought that a month would be enough time for everyone and anyone who wanted to vote to do so. But no, there is apparently a large group of stupid people who have a tough time figuring out exactly how to vote and what to do with their many ballots when they get them.
But, as things stand right now, former FOX Cable TV host Hilton is atop.
And that’s a very good – and surprising – thing.
Equally exciting is Spencer Pratt’s position as the likely second-place candidate for the Los Angeles mayoralty. Pratt is the former Reality TV star of “The Hills,” in which he played – for want of a better term – “the bad guy” on the show. After his and his parents’ house burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire, he took on the real dimensions of his Reality TV “troublemaker” persona and launched a campaign to run for mayor of Los Angeles, challenging the hopelessly incompetent (DEI pick?) mayor, Karen Bass.
Pratt’s campaign utilized the work of several independent AI content creators to great effect, and he’s put himself in position to possibly get himself elected mayor come November 3rd.
We wish him the best and certainly hope he wins.
A Man With a Plan
Back to Mr. Hilton, who also has a chance to become governor of California, and what a prize that would be.
On that note, I had a brief telephone conversation with candidate Hilton before the election.
Here’s what I garnered from our exchange:
Steve Hilton has been committed to the goal of becoming governor of California for at least the past two years and has thought about it for much longer.
He is serious.
He has a plan.
You should know that:
1) He grew up in England (his family fled Hungary in 1956; Steve was born in London)
2) He served as Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s Director of Strategy (2010-2012) and had been immersed in British political affairs.
3) His distinct clipped public school upper-class accent sets him apart from most other would-be politicians.
4) His neatly trimmed beard (goatee) and bald dome force you to seriously consider what he has to say.
In other words, candidate Steve Hilton is not your typical American glad-handing politico.
But California has his full attention. When asked how he felt about Nigel Farage’s recent success in British sub-elections, for example, he asked “Why? What happened?” It was all over the news, but Hilton had only one thing on his mind: California.
I suggested that Farage would likely be named Prime Minister
“within the next two or three years,” which I thought he’d be interested in contemplating.
“How’s that gonna happen?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” but it seems like pretty exciting news,” I said.
“I’m not following it,” Hilton replied.
He also had nothing to say about New York City Mayor Mamdani’s pied-a-terre tax in New York City.
“I’m focused on California,” he says, noting that “We’ve reached a breaking point in California. You see that in L.A., you see it across the state. We can’t go on like this. Sixteen years of one-party rule, total disaster, complete failure on every front.
“America was built on checks and balances, and we don’t have that anymore in California because Democrats control everything and have for so long… This totally failed blue state governance model,” he stresses, “needs to be rejected. Comprehensively.”
Just Some of Steve Hilton’s Proposed Policies
Hilton’s tax plan features no state income tax on one’s first $100,000. After that, a flat 7 ½% tax. He also would do away with the small business tax of $800 annual registration.
Here’s more:
He’d add California to the states that honor the “No tax on tips” policy the federal government has put in place.
Would implement a flat $71 vehicle registration charge.
There’s be no income or property tax on retirement income for veterans.
“The main thing we have to battle in California,” he says, “is a sense of apathy and hopelessness, that there’s nothing that can be done, that we just have to either put up with this or leave.
“And I think that’s simply not true,” he concludes. “There’s a majority of Californians who want change and we’re going to lead that majority to victory.”
He was very much behind Spencer Pratt’s campaign for mayor in Los Angeles. He was also much appreciative for President Trump’s full endorsement.
I brought up the idea of challenging the legality of the collusion of public sector unions with the Democrat Party a la former Governor Scott Walker’s success (now president of Young America’s Foundation) in Wisconsin. He agreed, “there is a strong argument that has been made that government unions themselves are unconstitutional, but” he says, “that’s a federal argument that needs to be taken to the Supreme Court.”
Hilton is under no illusion that things will go easily, should he become California’s governor.
“Obviously, everything that we do is going to be challenged by the interests that we’re taking on,” he says.
I don’t know if Steve Hilton will break through and win the election. We’ll know that after November 3, but I do know that he is more than capable and prepared to govern should such an event occur.
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In his book, “Califailure, Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst Run State,” Hilton details many of his proposals. “If you look at the policies section on my campaign website,” he says, “there are all sorts of sources of information where you can see the planning that I’m already doing.” To learn more – much more – you should visit that website: stevehiltonforgovernor.com
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