Dave Jones would be best-balanced attorney general
In the Trump era, the already wide-ranging responsibilities of the California attorney general have expanded greatly.
In addition to managing more than 4,500 employees, representing the state and its officials in court, assisting local law enforcement and protecting Californians from fraud and public safety threats, the attorney general must now defend against an assault from Washington.
The challenge in the June 6 election is finding the candidate who will protect the state’s values against Trump’s onslaught without politicizing other operations of the office.
For that, the best candidate is Dave Jones, state insurance commissioner since 2010 who has aggressively protected consumers while being fair to the industry he oversees.
Jones brings strong legal background as a Harvard Law School graduate, legal aid lawyer, special assistant to former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, state assemblyman and now insurance commissioner, where his agency pursues fraud and other insurance-related crimes.
He understands that the job of attorney general is part politics, part policy and part neutral arbiter. It can require defending the state or the state’s voters even when he might not agree with their position.
Jones, for example, promises to uphold California voters’ insistence on the death penalty even though he opposes it because of the continuing revelations of mistaken convictions.
Meanwhile, he promises to resist what he calls the Trump administration’s “encroachment on California values.” On that, he differs from the two Republicans in the race: Retired El Dorado County Judge Steven Bailey, who faces state Commission on Judicial Performance charges of misconduct while in office (which he denies), and Los Angeles private lawyer Eric Early. They both side with President Trump and don’t plan to challenge him in court. Californians deserve better in their top attorney.
On the other side, there’s the current attorney general, Xavier Becerra, a Democrat and former congressman appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to serve the remainder of Kamala Harris’ term after she was elected in 2016 to the U.S. Senate. Becerra has made challenging the Trump administration his defining issue, filing 31 lawsuits against the administration. But he has at times given short-shrift to, or inappropriately politicized, other issues.
He delayed implementation of a statewide prescription database to curtail opioid overdoses while collecting $70,000 in campaign contributions from the medical industry and doctors, who had resisted the program.
When it came to writing summary wording for initiative petitions to reverse the state’s gas tax increase and road fees, Becerra abandoned his role as neutral arbiter by insisting it not mention repeal of “taxes and fees.” Instead he wrote that the initiative would “repeal revenues” for roads and transportation.
Becerra won’t say why he suddenly stopped representing the governor’s state Supreme Court challenge to the California’s public employee pension vesting rules, a position unpopular with politically powerful labor unions backing the attorney general.
Nor will he explain the status of his office’s three-yearold investigation of Brownally Michael Peevey’s atrocious behavior as president of the California Public Utilities Commission.
We had higher hopes for Becerra when he was appointed. But, beyond his legal challenges to Trump, he’s often been a huge disappointment.
In contrast, Jones understands the multiple demands of the office and will provide much-needed political independence. State residents deserve nothing less.
Election 2018