Gaines not fazed by insurance commissioner loss; plenty to do as Tahoe’s state senator
By Kathryn Reed
Even though Ted Gaines will not be California’s next insurance commissioner, he is happy with many of the outcomes from the Nov. 4 election – namely propositions 45 and 1.
Gaines’ loss in the statewide race means he continues on as Lake Tahoe’s state senator. District 1 encompasses a large swath of the northeast part of the state. His term is up in two years. He’s not sure if he will run for another four-year stint in the Senate or go for a statewide office in 2018. He also knows his wife, Beth, who is in the Assembly, would one day like his Senate seat.
Running for insurance commissioner made sense because that is the business he came from before getting elected to the Assembly in 2006. His daughter and son-in-law now run the day-to-day operations of the business. But Gaines was running against the incumbent – Dave Jones. Jones won with 56.4 percent of the vote compared to Gaines’ 43.6 percent.
Controller or treasurer are also on Gaines’ radar because he has always been interested in financial issues.
State Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Rocklin, is contemplating his options. Photo/LTN file
For now, though, he will be focusing on issues relevant to his district and the state as a whole.
He brought Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, to Tahoe about a month ago to explain the environmental and economic issues affecting the basin.
“We went out on the lake and looked at milfoil, found out what is happening with Asian clams and talked about how those issues need to be addressed,” Gaines told Lake Tahoe News.
While he doesn’t have any specific pieces of legislation he plans to introduce, he is looking at how to create more jobs in the state that pay a decent wage.
“I would like to see us provide some relief of burden for small business owners so they can hire people,” Gaines said. “Studies show 80 percent of job creation comes from small businesses. We need to look at regulatory reforms; specifically how they impact business.”
He is concerned with county jails being overcrowded and inmates being released prematurely. Redding, which is in his district, is encountering what Gaines calls a “dramatic” increase in crime committed from criminals who are getting an early release. Gaines would like to create a revenue stream so sheriffs have the option to transfer people to facilities in or out of state that have room for the inmates.
Proposition 45 would have given the state insurance commissioner veto power when it came to rate increases for individual and small-business health insurance policies. Gaines was against this measure, with much of his campaign wrapped around it.
The $7.5 billion water bond was another issue Gaines supported.
“It will take a lot of time to get water storage built, but at least we have the means of funding it. It will help us in the long run,” Gaines said.
As a skier who has a second home in Truckee, Gaines has seen what the natural snowpack has been like the last three winters.
“I’m hoping for an awesome season that dumps lots of fresh powder,” Gaines said. “Looking at the ‘Farmers Almanac’ it says normal precipitation for the Pacific. I hope that is in the form of snow in the Sierra Nevada.
“So much of the economy is driven by that. I pray the snow falls at the right time and we can break through the drought.”
Why was there not another party on the ballot?
We had a choice of republican or republican which is no choice. When we were trying to get senators to vote yes on AJR1 to get money out of politics he voted no going along with party line vote. Come on people, The GOP is not the answer.
Between voter apathy, laziness and the mis informed common voter elections are awoke. Get the money out of politics and maybe our voice could be heard.
Gains is following in mcclintocks footsteps. VERY SAD the gop hacks will get us to the precipice sooner than later, just watch…
Looks pretty smug to me.
Yes as they have the rest of the nation, all that will be left for the democraps will be San Francisco and Berkley
His wife is in state politics too?
Should unseat them both. The family dynasty thing is not good, in a republican or a democratic sense.
They can have SF and Berkeley. Both are Liberal central. I’ve met some pretty whacked liberals from both places.
Teabag Ted and Mrs. Teabag get elected locally for the same reason that the developer’s money won in ElDo County. It’s easy to dupe the low info foxbots, fundagelicals and bigots.
His loss in this race happened because the majority of state voters are not as willfully ignorant, they don’t vote against their best interests just because hate radio and a gazillion wingnut TV ads tell them to.
The election rules in California changed so that the top two vote getters in the Primary election run off in the general election. So we can have two Democrats or two Republicans. I think it was one of the former ballot measures that set that up. I don’t like it. Voters should have the choice of party
Well put kevin. :)
Michael. Thanks to Prop 14 (Top Two Primary Act of 2010) we only get the top Two winners in the Primary on the General Election Ballot, even if they are both from the same Political Party. Prop 14 was written by Republican Senator/Lt Governor Abel Maldonado under Arnold and passed with 54% of the vote.
Whooooeeeeeee! Whole lotta name calling from those who accuse others of being low-info.
And yes, in California, you can have two candidates of the same party running for the same office in a general election. Happened down south where there were two Democrats running for state senate. The carpetbagger, Sandra Fluke had her butt handed to her. Hope she can afford her own birth control without the cushy job she was counting on.
I struggle with name calling in any forum for any reason. I say disagree without the disparaging labels. Especially if you’re going to do it anonymously.
Civil discourse and disagreement are our only hope for understanding our differences. My two cents.
Mr. Wilvers,
Your two cents is worth a million dollars. I agree 100%! I like LTN because it provides great info in a timely manner. Bloggers should be required to provide true identity or not allowed to post. The dialogue would change instantly. Disagreement is fine, in fact thought provoking. Throwing stones from a glass house with no accountability is juvenile.
People will post with whatever name they want through Facebook or any other system there really is no absolute verification, if you want that call Bummer or the NSA and report yourself. The point really is the 1st Amendment allowing free speech.
Thanks Dan Wilvers. I’d love to see the tone of our local bloggers once they use real names.
I for one still learn or am reminded of truths by fellow citizens, there are a handful of you no names i will not even read anymore because you are so negative and narrow minded. Too bad, i might learn something.
Justice, free speech is still possible with real names.
Rock, thanks for the clarification on the law.
1st amendment has nothing to do with cowardice blogs. Say what you want, with a positive dialogue and have the where with all to put your name on it!