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Wesley Chesbro Comes, Goes

September 21, 2009

California State Assembly member Wesley Chesbro visited Gualala California's Independent Coast Observer on September 16, 2009, where he was interviewed by Glenn O'Hara.

The ICO article (September 18, 2009), while interesting, left out a bit of "Wes" Chesbro's political history. He was born in the middle of the baby boom in 1951. One could say that he has devoted his life to public service, or that he is a career politician. He has been on the public payroll since being elected to the Arcata, California City Council in 1974 and held onto that seat until 1980. He was on the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors from 1980 to 1990. Then he spent eight years on the California Integrated Waste Management Board. From there, in 1998, he moved on to the California State Senate, representing District 2, including Mendocino and Humboldt Counties.

Given the power of the Democratic Party machine's donors in this area, Wesley might have stayed in the State Senate indefinitely if it were not for term limits. He went back to the Waste Board in 2007. In 2008 he won the California State Assembly seat, normally considered to be down the ladder from the Senate seat.

Fiscal crisis? Government waste? Mismanagement? High taxes? The ICO is not noted for asking hard questions to members of the Democratic Party machine. Yet what Wesley said was revealing. He is able to work well with Republicans. That seems strange; I had not noticed any well-working between Democrats and Republicans during this budget crisis. He attacked Governor Schwarzenegger, a safe political tactic in a mainly Democratic district. He was against closing the state parks to help balance the budget. "Chesbro blamed his Republican counterparts for snuffing the vehicle license surcharge to aid in keeping parks open."

Sure, environmentalists are anti-car, although in this rural district almost every environmentalist I know owns one. But this guy has been in government for 35 years. Has he bought a car lately? Does he know how much the sales tax is on a new car? It is a pretty nice chunk of money, the kind of money that working people in rural areas don't have to spare unless they are doing successful black market gardening on the side. And the annual license fees may not bother a rich man, or a assemblyman who gets a travel allowance, but it is a bill atop far too many other bills we all pay out to the powerful.

I am sure Wesley Chesbro has done some good things during his 35 years in office. But he is a dinosaur. Higher taxes is a feudal solution to our economic problems. We need to motivate the citizens, not to demotivate them.

We need some new blood in California politics. We need a lot of new blood in California politics. Since the two-party machine is so good at raising money for its cogs, this will not be easy. I think all Californians should call for a Clean Slate in 2010. Let's not re-elect a single incumbent. Collectively the governor, State Senate, and State Assembly have been a failure. Re-electing the lot of them will just lead to more collective failure.

William P. Meyers