Your first paragraph acknowledgement “Yes, the billionaire” in your recent endorsement of Steyer for Governor is perhaps the best reason not to vote for him. The Independent is putting its hat in the ring for someone who has never had to build coalitions or approach with candor and imagination two opposing constituencies who hold equally valid but opposite views. He has only had to out-bid those with differing views.
Steyer’s accomplishment? To demonstrate that he can use money as power. We can all be grateful that in recent years he has directed that power toward “good” causes. But now he is spending millions on media (the billionaire advantage) to tell us he will cut our utility bills by 25 percent, and that he will somehow find the right formula to tax the rich whose tax returns show no such riches. Money can make claims — but his are pipe-dreams unlikely to prove achievable in the caldron of representative government. Worse than that, his money is blotting out all ability for the other very good and experienced candidates to make their cases to the public.
Shame on the Independent for falling prey to the Pied Piper.
