Letter: Assembly candidate not beholden to special interests

EDITOR,
California has a new primary process. There’s a lot of information about how the top-two primary works. But not a lot about why the process is so important for our area. The top-two primary changes how we think about voting. Instead of voting along party lines, we need to break that habit and start to vote using strategy. The strategy is to make sure that the strongest challenger makes it to the general election, regardless of party. We all know that California is in a tough spot. Our unemployment rate is higher than the national average, and we’re not growing fast enough to bring that rate down. Our state is dead last in business rankings. Our state budget is $16 billion in the red. And now we’re being told to send “professional politicians” back to Sacramento, just because the party elders say so? Well, if the “professionals” can’t do any better than a $16 billion deficit — and many different faces have been trying for many years now — then maybe it’s time for a new kind of leader. The only candidate in the 29th Assembly District race who isn’t backed by the status quo special interests is Bob Fultz. Bob isn’t a career politician reaching for the next rung on the political ladder. He’s like the rest of us — a commonsense business owner who wants to restore common sense to our state budgets so that our children and grandchildren will have a brighter future. A vote for Bob now means we’re not wasting our vote come November. The other candidates are just same old, same old. All part of the same group that got us into this mess. I don’t expect those party- and special interest-backed candidates to go against their backers. No one should. We need someone who can’t be pushed around by the special interests. It’s time for the people to tell Sacramento who is in charge.
Dave Pedersen, Scotts Valley