August 2017 BayAreaGOP Newsletter Articles
Gas Tax Repeal Proponents Challenge Biased Title and Summary from AG Becerra
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has released a negative and misleading title and summary for the initiative to repeal the gas tax, causing proponents to challenge his language in Superior Court.
Initiated by Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach), the ballot measure seeks to repeal SB 1 by Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose) that is projected to raise $52.4 billion over 10 years from a tax increase on gas and diesel, a new vehicle registration fee, and a new fee for zero-emission vehicles.
The Attorney General’s title for the measure consisted of the following language:
Eliminates Recently Enacted Road Repair and Transportation Funding by Repealing Revenues Dedicated for Those Purposes.
Here is the title that was proposed by proponents of the initiative:
Repeals Recent Legislation That Created New Gas Tax, Diesel Tax, Vehicle Registration Fee, and Zero-Emission Vehicle Fee.
Click here to view a comparison of the title and summary submitted by the Attorney General and proponents.
The law firm Enterprise Counsel Group of Irvine was retained to file the lawsuit (Travis Allen vs. Xavier Becerra) that charged Attorney General Becerra created a title and summary that “impermissibly misleads the electorate…by omitting the words “tax” and “fee” from the title and by stating that an office that does not yet exist will be eliminated. The complaint states Becerra’s title and summary does not provide the “chief purposes and points of the proposed measure,” and other requirements for title and summary as stated in the Election Code. A hearing date has been requested for mid-August. Click here to read the Complaint.
2018 Governor’s Race Develops: Cox and Allen Are Running
Several recent developments have left businessman John Cox and state Assemblyman Travis Allen as the most prominent Republicans in the race for governor of California. Governor Jerry Brown will be termed out at the end of 2018.
Cox announced his candidacy in March, after significant groundwork last year. Allen declared in June. At the end of June San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, likely the most prominent Republican elected official in the state, announced that he would stick with his campaign pledge in San Diego and not run for governor.
A few days later former Assemblyman David Hadley entered the race, only to withdraw a couple of weeks later, citing the need to consolidate the field to insure a Republican reaches the 2018 general election.
Republicans hope for a single GOP candidate facing a large Democratic field in order to put a Republican in the top two on the November 2018 ballot.
Both John Cox and Travis Allen seek to be that Republican.
John Cox is a businessman who was born, raised and educated in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Accounting and Political Science, followed by a law degree while attending night school at ITT/Chicago Kent College of Law. Over the years he built several businesses, including law and accounting firms, an investment advisory firm, and a venture capital firm. Over the past 35 years he has built these businesses up to over $200 million in assets.
Cox has served on a local school board and on several non-profit boards in Illinois, including the USO, American Cancer Society, and United Charities. He ran for Congress in 2000, U.S. Senate in 2002, and started to run for U.S. President in 2006. He moved to the San Diego area about nine years ago. He is the father of four daughters.
John Cox’s most significant proposal is the Neighborhood Legislature Initiative. In an effort to remove “the corrupting influence of special interest money”, he has proposed that each Assembly district be divided into about 100 neighborhood districts of 5000 people. Each neighborhood would elect a neighborhood representative, presumably in an inexpensive campaign, and these representatives would pick one of themselves to go to Sacramento. More details are available at neighborhoodlegislature.com.
Learn more about Cox’s governor campaign at johncoxforgovernor.com.
Travis Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cal State Long Beach, and also studied at Cal State Los Angeles. He is a long time resident of Huntington Beach, where he has lived and surfed for almost 20 years. He worked as a manager of securities firms before starting his own financial planning company.
After seeing the damage done by “Sacramento’s overregulation and big government policies” and people leaving the state, Travis Allen supported efforts to elect more business friendly candidates to office. He has also supported various community causes, including helping homeless people with Orange County Rescue Mission and supporting a number of pro-Israel charities.
In November, 2012 Travis Allen won his Assembly seat in a surprise win by defeating another Republican who had held local office and had most of the endorsements. Allen won 55.7% of the vote in Orange County’s AD72, which contains much of Garden Grove and Huntington Beach. It has substantial Vietnamese, Latino, and white communities.
After the Democrats in the Legislature passed the gas tax increase, Travis Allen authored the initiative measure to repeal the tax increase. Signatures are now being collected. Find out more about the initiative at nocagastax.com. Since Allen has been running for governor, the initiative has been a key issue in his campaign.
Information about Travis Allen’s campaign is available at jointravisallen.com.
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