Governor Brown is currently riding a wave of good news coming out of Sacramento in the fiscal sense and is considered almost a shoe in. His age is being brought up but that is unlikely to be a factor for voters but it might affect his personal decision on whether to run or not.
After words of welcome by Roger Niello, president and CEO, Sacramento Metro Chamber, Sanjay Varshney, Dean of the College of Business Administration at CSU Sacramento said that he was glad to be a part of a team that wants to see the region as more vibrant and business friendly.
He recognized dignitaries present including CSU Sacramento president Alexander Gonzalez. Sanjay also took the opportunity to introduce keynote speaker Neel Kashkari.
Neel said that he was here to talk about California, the California economy and the future of California as he saw it.
He started out by sharing his family’s story, how his parents came to America about 50 years ago in pursuit of higher education. He said that they faced a number of unknowns when they were coming here, his father landed from India in Detroit, Michigan to pursue his studies with a scholarship, and later moved to Akron, Ohio for work.
He added that his parents knew that their ticket to the middle class here was through education, and that is why they struggled to make sure that his sister and he got a good education. His sister became a doctor and he an aerospace engineer who moved to California to work on NASA missions and later served in the federal government.
“The American dream is truly an American experience,” he said. “This doesn’t happen to folks in Germany. It doesn’t happen in France. It doesn’t happen in China. It doesn’t happen in India, only America.”
Neel said that the reason he shared this story was because millions of people in California today are struggling, worried about keeping their jobs, worried about keeping a roof over their head and worried about what school they are sending their kids to.
(Above): Roger Niello, Neel Kashkari and Sanjay Varshney at the Sacramento Business Review event.
More and more regulations coming out of Sacramento is making the state less economically attractive. “This is the state I love,” he said. “But I can’t believe that our state is failing so many of our people.” He went on to describe the condition of education in the state which now ranks 46th in K-12 education in the country. Neel had more to add on the job front in the state. “Almost one in five Californians has either no job or is stuck in a part-time job,” he said. He also added that California ranked last in small business. “Dead last. Fiftieth out of 50 states,” he said. “The status quo is unacceptable.” He added that the intersection between jobs and education was very strong and that everyone knows that good education is the key to a better future but the lack of good jobs can prevent people from getting an education in the first place, and one has to have both.
Kashkari said that almost 24% of Californians live in poverty today. He spoke against the proposed high-speed ‘crazy train’ project that would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles and said that there were other higher priorities to address. He added that these problems in California were solvable. “We can absolutely do it.” He spoke about a school in East Palo Alto, Calif., which focused on kids from low-income families with great success, with a high number of those kids graduating from college.
Neel spoke of the contest between all 50 states to attract jobs but that California is not competing. Governors from other states come to California to lure jobs away. California is the most beautiful place in the country, one of the most beautiful places in the world. California does not have to be the cheapest place to do business but it still needs to be competitive. He added that California alone could create hundreds of thousands of good jobs amongst many sectors like hi-tech, agriculture, Hollywood, biotech, financial services, and aerospace.
No state comes close, but California is like a rocket ship running at half throttle. “If we throttle up, we can create a lot of good jobs.”
Kashkari said he had traveled all over the state and during his travels, he discovered that people do not want welfare, they want jobs. “They want a fair chance to work hard.” “There is something that all of you can do and there is something I can do to make it happen.” He added that “Here today I am announcing that I am running for Governor of California.” “Jobs and education. That is my platform.” He added that he spent a few years in Washington, D.C., tackling one of the worst economic crises in America’s history and that experience is relevant to his plans for California and the first step is to get both Republicans and Democrats to work together. He ended his speech with an appeal for people to join his effort.
It was great to see a bit of history being made right here in Sacramento with an Indian American with both Washington and Wall Street experience throwing in his hat into the upcoming Governor’s race, come November.
Governor Brown’s official confirmation of his running again is still not out but Neel Kashkari’s campaign managers have their work cut out for them as Democrats have other well-known figures including Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Kamala Harris, another Indian American, who could be very strong candidates as well.
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Ras Hafiz Siddiqui is a South Asian American writer. He lives in Sacramento, Calif.
