Living in California, I almost forgot that there is an Asian American running for governor for the state – Indian American candidate Neel Kashkari. If his name sounds familiar, it’s most likely that you’ve heard of Kashkari due to his involvement in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), where he administered the funds.
If you ever want to see someone grilled in a Congressional hearing and take a lot of heat, you need to see Kashkari on C-SPAN during the oversight hearing. I remember my brother and I watching this for a while and amazed at how much of a beating Kashkari took.
I am fairly confident that Kashkari has 0% chance of winning against Governor Jerry Brown, who is running for re-election (which will be his *fourth* time being elected to governor). California is a fairly Democratic state and Kashkari has very little name recognition. Also, I think the voters of California realize that Brown is governor for the right reasons – because he loves the state of California, and at his age, could have retired a long time ago and has nothing to prove.
I had partially listened to the one and only debate between Kashkari and Brown, and it was sort of entertaining and sort of sad, where Kashkari repeatedly try to attack Brown. But most voters are happy that Brown has been able to stabilize the California state budget, pissing off both Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature, to attack some of the major issues that California faces.
To be honest, I’m not sure why Kashkari would want to be a sacrificial lamb to run against Brown. Maybe there were no other Republican candidates that could partially self-finance their campaign and knowingly would want to lose? Like I’m saying, it’s not whether or not Brown will win, but by what margin.
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Disgusted
- Sad
- Angry
