Political observers are watching the not-subtle trial balloons for the 2014 political season, and in California’s statewide races the big news is that a former Goldman Sachs Group executive who ran President George W. Bush’s “Troubled Asset Relief Program,” or TARP, is likely to run for governor. It is interesting for civil court observers to note that the political liabilities attributed to Gov. Jerry Brown nearly always cite the prison overcrowding and other issues, but never the civil court cuts that destroyed our neighborhood justice system.
Bloomberg News, a Republican trial-balloon venue if there ever was one, floats it this way: “Neel Kashkari, the former Goldman Sachs (GS) Group Inc. executive chosen by ex-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to help rescue the U.S. banking system, is readying a challenge to California Governor Jerry Brown even as the world’s 10th-largest economy reaches its highest level in more than three decades… Kashkari, 40, who ran the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program under President George W. Bush, has assembled a team of Republican campaign strategists and is talking to potential donors about taking on the 75-year-old Democrat, said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Kashkari.
A quick review of nine other stories about Gov. Brown’s challenge turned up no mention of the court cutbacks or layoffs. If anything, political pundits seem to lump the court issues into the wildly successful effort to balance the state’s budget. Granted, most of those supporting a courts revival are also likely to be Democratic voters, so perhaps they have limited options.
Here’s the Bloomberg story, which has excellent background details on the likely candidate’s divorce and home in Laguna Beach.