Press Enterprise - GOP Candidate for Governor Visits High School

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By Jeff Horseman

Students at Murrieta Valley High School got an impromptu civics lesson Oct. 1 as Republican candidate for governor Neel Kashkari visited the campus.

It was the latest visit to the Inland Empire for Kashkari, a Laguna Beach resident who is challenging Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown in the Nov. 4 election. He spoke with a robotics class, was serenaded by a choir and listened to English students talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald during the roughly hourlong visit to the public high school.

"My campaign is all about jobs and education. And this school is clearly giving kids a chance to get a great education," Kashkari said at the end of his visit.

The Inland region has been a frequent stop for Kashkari during the campaign. He has visited Phenix Technology, a fire helmet manufacturer in Riverside, as well as a Riverside auto body shop.

He toured Monster Beverage Corp. in Corona in September, the same month he spoke with a group of conservative activists in Redlands.

By comparison, Brown's last trip to Riverside was in January. He was in San Bernardino in October 2013 to attend the grand opening of Amazon's fulfillment center.

The Inland Empire, and southwest Riverside County in particular, could be more receptive to Kashkari's campaign than other parts of California. There are more registered GOP voters than Democrats in the county, and Republican voters make up almost half of Murrieta's electorate.

The region shares the same concerns as the rest of California -- namely, the need for quality jobs, Kashkari said.

"(Inland residents) want a state government that's supporting them, not working against them," he said.

Kashkari, a former U.S. treasury official in the Obama administration with degrees in mechanical engineering, visited Murrieta Valley at the invitation of Kris Thomasian, president of the Murrieta Valley Unified School District board. She heard him speak at an earlier event and said she wanted him to see her district's success stories.

His first stop was the robotics lab, where students have won numerous awards. From there, Kashkari, two school board members and school officials stopped by marching band and choir practices.

Kashkari, 41, won the right to take on Brown after finishing ahead of Inland Assemblyman and Tea Party favorite Tim Donnelly in a contentious campaign leading up to the June primary. Brown has a financial advantage -- he had $22 million in his campaign account this summer compared to just under $200,000 for Kashkari -- and most political forecasters expect the governor to win another four-year term.

A Field Poll released in August showed Brown leading Kashkari by 16 percentage points among likely voters. Kashkari, however, said he's gaining momentum.

"In March, I was at 2 percent in the polls. And all the naysayers said I was finished," he said. "And we got through the primary at 19 percent … Literally, it's all going to come down to the last few weeks before the election when voters really start to pay attention, and we're going to work very hard to get our message out."

Kashkari's support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and his admission that he voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, don't sit well with some conservatives.

To win their support, Kashkari has emphasized his opposition to Brown's high-speed rail project and his desire to make California more business-friendly.

"No two people are going to agree on 100 percent of the issues," he said. "But the issues that I'm actively fighting for, Republicans strongly agree with. But by the way, so do Democrats and so do independents."

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