California Today: A Republican Candidate for Governor Talks About Corruption

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/us/california-today-john-cox-governor-race.html

Version 0 of 1.

Good morning.

(Want to get California Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Kevin Faulconer, San Diego’s mayor, was viewed as the best Republican shot for California governor.

So his announcement that he wouldn’t run left supporters deflated.

It also renewed attention on the few Republicans who have entered the race, including John Cox, a San Diego area businessman who says he would root out political corruption.

To accomplish that, Mr. Cox, 62, is pushing an audacious initiative known as the Neighborhood Legislature.

The idea is to all but eliminate the influence of money in politics by shrinking legislative districts down to neighborhood size — 12,000 altogether. Each district would elect a representative, who would in turn elect representatives from among their number to go to Sacramento.

We caught up with Mr. Cox by phone. Some excerpts:

Q. What’s the first issue you would tackle if elected?

A. The corruptive influence of special interests. Voters across the state get what’s going on in Sacramento. The big union bosses and the big corporate bosses control Sacramento — big oil, big tobacco, big pharma, big telecommunications. Go down the list and look at what they give to candidates to the Legislature. You’ll see why Sacramento is broken.

Tell me about the Neighborhood Legislature.

It makes every campaign to the Legislature door-to-door, person-to-person.

Right now, to run for the Legislature you’ve got to have tons of money or you have to have tons of connections or you’ve got to sell your soul to funders. With tiny districts, which is what the Neighborhood Legislature is all about, we’ll have true small campaigns where voters get a say.

Are people going to want to devote time to that?

It’s funny you mention that. I’ve spoken to 100 rotary clubs.

These are people who know their community. Every week they come out to rotary and talk about how they could help the community. Do they get paid to do it? No. Do they feel a sense of community enough that they want to get involved? Absolutely. Would any of them want to run for the State Senate or the State Assembly with the current humongous districts? Not on your life. And the reason is they would have to give up their entire life. But they are happy to give up a portion of their life.

You’re a wealthy guy. Why not kick back?

My mom was a Chicago public-school teacher. I witnessed the effects of corruption firsthand growing up. There were many principals who got their jobs because they were friends of the alderman. My mom was a liberal Democrat and a union member, but she hated that corrupt system because it put politics ahead of students. That really, really formed me.

We’ve got to start taking back the government. But what happens in Sacramento is that special interests get their way. And it’s corrupt. And it’s wrong. You want to know why I don’t sit back? It’s because that system is unsustainable.

This interview has been edited for space and clarity.

(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)

• U.S.C. is facing intense scrutiny: Did it ignore evidence of drug use by a prominent dean? [The New York Times]

• With Arnold Schwarzenegger by his side, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to extend California’s cap-and-trade program. [The New York Times]

• Video of a man toppling a street vendor’s cart set off widespread outrage. Now a fund-raiser is planned for the victim. [ABC 7]

• Barbara Sinatra died at 90. The Palm Springs socialite was Frank Sinatra’s fourth wife and fought against child abuse. [The Desert Sun]

• An economist said building a bunch of housing in California was about “as likely as an alien attack.” [Los Angeles Times]

• Does raising the minimum wage cause job loss? Taking a closer look at a worrying study. [The New York Times]

• Berryessa Snow Mountain, once a charred region, is flush with flowers, foliage and hope. [The New York Times]

• Elon Musk called Mark Zuckerberg’s knowledge “limited” in an escalating feud over the risk of killer robots. [Reuters]

• A Silicon Valley investor was anonymously accused of sexual harassment. Now he claims to have unmasked his accuser’s identity: a male business rival. [The Mercury News]

• Hampton Fancher, one of the writers of “Blade Runner,” led the kind of fantastic life that seems the stuff of fiction. [The New York Times]

• Charlize Theron knows you see her characters as broken or psychopaths (or both): “I am not fearful of the darkness.” [The New York Times]

• Recipes that showcase the best of Bay Area seasonal produce. [San Francisco Chronicle]

It’s bioluminescence time off the California coast.

The phenomenon of glowing water is caused by tiny plankton that emit light when agitated.

On Sunday night, Philong Nguyen was taking photos at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, about 40 miles south of San Francisco, when he noticed something strange in the ocean.

“There were all these glowing waves of water around the rock formations,” said Mr. Nguyen, 18. “At first I didn’t believe it.”

He shared a photo he captured using a long exposure to draw out the faintly lit scene. Still, he said, the bluish glow was easy to see with the naked eye.

Bioluminescent plankton can be spotted up and down California’s coast, said Julianne Steers, a marine biologist at the Ocean Institute, an educational group. But the displays tend to peak in the warmer months of summer.

Nighttime boat tours are offered in Marin County’s Tomales Bay, and off the coast of Dana Point, in Orange County.

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Los Osos.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.