Speier pledges to be a people's advocate as California Lieutenant Governor

California State Senator Jackie Speier
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

By Pat Murphy

February 6, 2005

State Senator Jackie Speier dedicates her campaign for California Lieutenant Governor to championing higher education, statewide oversight hearings and consumer advocacy.

She laid that framework in a Friday reception introduced by San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin.

"Jackie does things for the people of California that are truly remarkable and she is truly fearless," Peskin noted.

"Water flows up hill to money in the United States of America.

"When you go and get a credit card they sell your private financial information - you have no control over that. It is a fundamental breach of your privacy.

"You want to get along in politics, you want to move up in politics - you don't fight those people. That's the rule.

"Jackie Speier led the State of California against a governor who was dubious, against a state legislature that was dubious.

"And she fought that fight and she lost. Twenty-five million dollars they rained down in the California State Senate and the California Assembly.

"And she came back the next year, and then she came back the next year and it became the law of the land."

Speier noted actions speak louder than words.

"I am here running for Lieutenant Governor not to provide you with lip service but with leadership," Speier reflected.

"I am not going to be an elected official that looks at polls and then decides what to do.

"Part of my job is to education. Part of my job is not to plan for the next election but to plan for the next generation.

"The (office of) Lieutenant Governor in this state is not well understood - the role and the responsibility.

"Most people know, as Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy used to say, he used to get up every morning and his first task of the day was to check the obituaries."

The California Lieutenant Governor succeeds an incapacitated Governor.

"I don't put in quite those terms, but...beyond that the Lieutenant Governor has many opportunities to be a truly impactful person among the constitutional offices," continued Speier.

"The Lieutenant Governor serves on the Board of Regents UC and on the CSU Board of Trustees. I'm carrying a bill this year to also require the Lieutenant Governor to also serve on the Community College Board.

"I'm going to turn that office into the guardian of higher education and then forevermore the expectation...of all of the people of the state is that the Lieutenant Governor is looking out for higher education.

"What has happened to higher education?

"When I was a student at UC fifty percent of the funding came from the State of California. Today it is 27%.

"At the same time we have ratcheted up tuition by 64% at UC, 74% at CSU and almost double the per-unit costs in Community College.

"There are 165,000 students at UC. There are 165,000 inmates at state prison. We spend three times as much money on the inmates in state prison as we do on the students at the University of California.

"We've built 18 new prisons in the last 20 years. We've built but one new UC campus in the last 40 years.

"The salary on average for a prison guard with a GED or high school diploma is $67,000 a year. The salary of an assistant professor at UC -- $54,000."

If elected Lieutenant Governor, Speier would preside over the California Senate as president.

She pledged to hold oversight hearings throughout California.

"I'm going to go around the state and hold oversight meetings much like I've done in the legislature whether it was on methamphetamine abuse a couple of weeks ago, or gender equity at the University of California, or the way the Department of Corrections wastes money.

Speier also would use the office to serve as consumer advocate, she said.

"Consumer advocacy doesn't get a lot of play in the legislature because the truth of the matter is there is no political action committee...but the public cares deeply about whether or not their financial information is being sold, or whether or not the food they are buying is indeed organic or not," Speier stated.

Democratic Party stalwart Fred Naranjo hosted the event, suggesting Speier remains attuned to Californians due to her humble roots.

Fred Naranjo (left)

"Jackie and I have had a relationship for many, many years...we go back to humble beginnings.

"Jackie comes from humble beginnings. She understands...the average individual's struggle - what it means and also what it means to be successful.

"But more importantly Jackie has really been committed to representing everyone.

"There is no one who has fought for consumerism for the average person...she really does. I've never meet anyone who has championed that like Jackie."

Elizabeth Whipple

Laura Rose, Jaime Jensen, Alex Skillman, and Toni Stinton

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