Endorsement of Louis Marinelli for California Governor
Californians are presented with many candidates for governor in this recall election and on September 14th I plan on casting my vote for Louis Marinelli. Louis Marinelli (Campaign Site) has a background in organizing for California Independence and was previously a candidate for state assembly. I recently interviewed Louis Marinelli about his campaign platform and I endorse his candidacy for California Governor. Marinelli is running in support for the cause of California Independence, pledging to “Create an independent, non-partisan ‘Roadmap to Independence’ panel to investigate California’s options for a peaceful and legal separation from the United States and determine the state’s ability to govern itself as an independent country.”
Louis Marinelli has invited me to be an advisor, tweeting that “Robert Stark has great insight and knowledge about property taxes and housing issues in California. I was so impressed with his work that I asked him to be an advisor. I'm excited that he has agreed and am looking forward to putting together some sound policy.”
While Calexit is Marinelli’s signature issue, he has a long list of Campaign pledges dealing with crucial California issues. His vision is pragmatic and attuned to the needs of Californians rather than partisan or ideological commitments and he can appeal to Californians across the political spectrum.
On the economy Marinelli calls for California to “Open a California State Bank as a public banking option for residents and government…Reopen a Pacific Coast Stock Exchange and Index as an alternative to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)…Deregulate the ‘gig economy’ to give California workers the ability to earn additional money to provide for themselves and their families…help business owners who lost their businesses as a result of Gavin Newsom’s lockdowns…establish a rental history score to replace the use of credit scores with rental applications [and]…end predatory lending practices, including from payday loan lenders and tribal lenders.” Marinelli also calls for building “more infrastructure to collect, store, and transport water” and to “create and transport clean power to end rolling blackouts.”
Marinelli has a strong stance on protecting social safety nets without raising taxes and a strong emphasis on supporting families. He calls for expanding “paid maternity leave and job protection to a minimum of eighteen months,” expanding “access to state-funded Pre-K to all children from the age of three,” as well as paid sick leave from three to seven days,” and establishing “a taxpayer-funded public healthcare option that provides non-elective healthcare services to all California residents as a public service through state-run health clinics and hospitals while leaving extended plans and services to be covered by private health insurance.”
Marinelli takes a strong stances on protecting Civil Liberties including enacting comprehensive police reforms to “reduce the frequency of police brutality,” comprehensive criminal justice reforms” that “focus our system on rehabilitating offenders” and that “reduce the prison population.” He also calls for the “decriminalization of drug procession,” and to “legalize, regulate, and tax sex work.” He also opposes “mandatory vaccination and vaccine passports and discrimination against the unvaccinated.”
Marinelli stands out for aggressively addressing issues that most California politicians outright ignore. For instance he has taken a strong stance against the exodus of jobs and citizens out of California calling to “establish a California Resident Repatriation Program that encourages former California residents who were born in California to return home,” and establishing “a California Business Repatriation Program that offers businesses that have left California certain incentives to encourage them to return their business and jobs to California.”
California is losing a lot of human capital including innovators in business and culture as well as millennials looking to start families. Besides demonstrating a failure of leadership, the exodus is also a safety valve for discontent. Besides the long term economic benefits, this call to repatriate lost Californians is ground-breaking in that it views Californians as a people with an identity beyond Americans: a de facto Californian diaspora across the nation who have a birthright to this state. It is also a good response to the detractors who bash California for being transient and losing its citizens. Marinelli also calls for proportional representation in Presidential elections (as seen in Maine and Nebraska) to politically empower Californians by making the state more competitive in elections.
The basic right to freedom of expression and speech is under siege with our political leadership failing to guarantee those rights. If cancel culture and opposition to Tech Censorship is a major concern, Marinelli calls for passing “an Internet Bill of Rights that protects free speech, among other freedoms, by recognizing the Internet as the public square of the 21st Century.”
California’s one party leadership lacks any long term vision for the future but these Campaign pledges that Marinelli vows to pursue as governor are a long-term forward thinking vision. He states that “some of these plans may not be possible to achieve in a single year before the next regular election in 2022, some of them not before the next scheduled election after that. But a long time ago a great French Marshall went out to his gardener to ask him to plant a tree. The gardener said, ‘Why plant it, it won’t flower for 100 years’. In that case, the Marshall said, ‘there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!’” This is the mentality and long term oriented vision that Californians need in their leadership and I look forward to working with Marinelli on policy issues for his campaign.