BALDWIN PARK, Calif. — Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly announced today he is running for governor in 2014, saying “it’s time for a new vision.”
“I’ve traveled up and down the state over the last year talking with voters and it’s clear to me they want a new voice in politics,” Donnelly said at a furniture factory in Baldwin Park. “Our current system has failed Californians.”
“California has a jobs crisis, which this governor and the Democrat majority Legislature have done little to solve, yet they continue to pass more intrusive laws to restrict our civil liberties.”
Donnelly announced his candidacy exactly one year before the 2014 general election.
Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has not announced his plans, but is expected to seek an unprecedented fourth term.
Former Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is also running for governor in the first gubernatorial election under the “top two” system adopted in 2010, where all candidates appear on a single primary ballot and the top two finishers advance to the November general election.
“Abel Maldonado is the only candidate for governor with the experience, leadership skills and ideas needed to move California in a new and better direction,” his campaign’s senior adviser Ron Nehring told City News Service.
“Abel Maldonado is committed to protecting Prop. 13, reducing and simplifying taxes through tax reform, repealing AB 109 to protect public safety and giving parents more choices in education.”
There was no response to an email sent to an official of the California Democratic Party after the close of regular business hours.
Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, was elected to the Assembly in 2010 and re-elected in 2012, representing a San Bernardino County district.
Donnelly authored legislation to designate every Feb. 1 as Freedom from Slavery Day and each January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
Donnelly also introduced, AB 351, the California Liberty Preservation Act, which would criminalize any attempt to indefinitely detain American citizens.
In 2005, Donnelly founded California’s largest chapter of the Minutemen, an effort by the public to monitor the border to discourage illegal immigration.
A member of the Legislature has not been elected governor since Democratic state Sen. Culbert Olson in 1938.
