Office: State Assembly District 38
Name: Deborah “Deb” Baber
Website: https://www.votedebbaber.com/
Current Occupation/Service: Retired Book Publishing Executive; Past President-Channel Islands Republican Women; Past Sargent-at-arms-California Republican Women Federated; Current Elected Member-Ventura County Republican Party (2nd term)
1. Why Me?
I have followed politics since I was 15. I majored in Political Science, graduating summa cum laude from Hunter College in New York City. I am 68. The 2020 election theft from Donald Trump was consequential then, making this November’s election the MOST consequential in my lifetime. My lived experience, common sense understanding of the world, and profound appreciation for our American system of government, a representative republic, motivate me to run for the state legislature. Explain why you are the person voters should give this position of leadership. The choice voters will make is between two world views: Which authority should govern? Man (made in the image of God) versus Government (made by men). My opponent can never provide lasting solutions because he governs for an ideology that recognizes government as an authority that should be involved in nearly every aspect of our public and private lives. I believe there’s a single moral authority in the world. Our nation was founded by men and women seeking a new life free from government intrusion and persecution. The American system of government is unique in history. Our founding documents, refined in law by our Constitution, strive to create a government structure that provides liberty and opportunity to everyone. Properly interpreted, the result is small governments narrowly focused on providing solutions for public problems.
2. Pressing Issues
Governments are too big; they take too much money out of our pockets; and too often, they act outside their authority. How, specifically, do you intend to help solve these problems?
TOO BIG: California is one of only 10 states with a full-time legislature. This requires full-time staff and administrative bureaucracies. I offer the Floodlights Statute. All legislators would be required to post on their constituent service website, in the upper right-hand corner, the legislator’s salary and per diem. The per diem number would be linked to detailed reports of how that money is spent and where it is spent. Currently, the Assembly per diem expense is nearly $200 million annually, with 90% of the money spent on salaries and employee benefits. Https://www.assembly.ca.gov/system/files/2024-07/year2023-24expenditurereport_6-monthss_0.pdf
TOO MUCH: I call this my Poison Pill Bill. This bill would examine major capital expenses by project. Talk of high-speed rail has been around since 1979. A bill was signed in 1982 but lost traction due to a lack of funding. The current incarnation was signed in 2008. The project is nearly $100 billion over budget and years late. The Poison Pill Bill would require any capital improvement that misses its budget and/or deadline by a factor, a factor determined by what is considered best business practices, would immediately appear on the next ballot. Voters would be asked for a simple thumbs up or down to continue the expense/project.
TOO OFTEN: This is my favorite bill! I call it Sticks and Stones-Words Matter legislation! This bill is simple. It would require every measure appearing on any ballot in California to be written at a 5th-grade reading/comprehension level as judged by an objective standard such as the Flesch–Kincaid readability standard. This reading analysis tool was developed by the Navy in the 1970s and has been widely adopted by the military and other industries, particularly insurance. There are easy-to-use calculators that put at a voter’s fingertips a tool to assess whether a measure on the ballot meets the 5th-grade reading level standard. If it does not but has made it onto the ballot and passes, the measure would be declared null and void.
3. Present Leadership
My opponent has been in some elected/appointed government positions for over 40 years. Most of his adult life he has lived with this as a major feature of his persona. This limits his perspective. He is not one of us “regular folks.” A perverse, often unconscious, incentive for people with elected/appointed government/civil service positions is to maintain and grow the political landscape. A good analogy is the Cancer Society. While the organization does some good, if it ever achieves its mission to destroy cancer, it puts itself out of business. If the government worked within the American system, its presence in our lives and hands in our pockets would be limited and should be [non]intrusive.
What has present leadership done well? California’s present legislative leadership does not govern well. The positions should not be full-time. Importantly, a super-majority rule by a single party is anathema to the essence of the American system of government. Simple majorities, 50% plus one, facilitate decision-making. Super majorities, two-thirds votes, marginalize over 30% of the population. This means millions of Californians with differing views are not [re]presented but are required to share the cost for decisions they do not agree with.
4. What Else?
I believe in personal responsibility in a moral society, balanced budgets, and an accountable, strategic social safety net with measurable results. I believe in putting America FIRST in the world and making California BEST in the nation. I will govern for the district’s benefit and not for special interest groups, lobbyists, or Sacramento’s governing elite. I promise to work hard to recapture, reintroduce, or introduce for the first time an understanding of what the rights and responsibilities are for self-governing men and women.
One way I will do this is to establish satellite virtual offices throughout the district. Importantly, I will attend virtually as many Sacramento meetings as possible from these local offices, inviting constituents to join me “in the board room.” Boss voters should not be compelled to spend their time and money to appear for a few minutes before the legislature. That is my job. And while on the job, I want others in Sacramento to see my bosses sitting behind me. All of us need to be reminded regularly that in the United States, governments are created of, by, and for the people.
