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58 industry in California is to get the government out of the way of the free market. "When you do that with a degree of certainty, capital with an 'A' returns, and capital with an 'A' represents opportunity; capital with an 'O' oppresses and drives capital out," Donnelly explained, illustrating the tug-of-war taking place in Sacramento between its two political schools of thought. e field of 12 declared candidates for the California governorship will be narrowed to two when voters name their top picks for the state's highest office in the direct primary election on June 3. e two with the most votes in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, will remain in the running down the final stretch. While Brown and Donnelly are widely expected to make it onto the November ballot, there's a name recognized within housing circles vying for the No. 3 spot—and although a third-place victory in June means he's out of the race come November, that hasn't stopped Neel Kashkari from making some waves along the California campaign trail. HOUSING HEAVY-HITTER JOINS RACE Kashkari was assistant secretary of financial stability at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2008–2009 and oversaw the federal government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). He claimed 2 percent of the votes in the mid-April poll, campaigning on a Republican platform of job creation and elimination of government waste. Kashkari helped craft the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and was Treasury's strongest proponent of relieving banks of their toxic mortgage assets, but within 10 days of the legislation's passage, TARP had morphed into a capital infusion mechanism. ese days, the former Goldman Sachs VP keeps his political rhetoric clear-cut and simple. His campaign slogan: "Jobs and Education. at's It." In March, Kashkari published his 26-page economic plan for job growth in the Golden State titled, "Rebuilding the Middle Class." As part of that plan, Kashkari promised to "reform the regulatory system by spearheading a law that will require a 10-year rolling regulatory sunset whereby all regulations are evaluated in light of changing economic conditions, evidence that the regulation is ineffective, or at the emergence of a superseding federal regulation that may require better coordination." Even though the likely outcome of the June primary election will mean an end to Kashkari's 2014 run for governor, his blueprint for job growth has local pundits taking notice. "Kashkari's plan includes a lot of good ideas and … even losing campaigns sometimes churn up ideas that later are adopted by the victors," wrote CalWatchDog.com's managing editor, John Seiler, who's spent the last 25 years studying and reporting on California's economy and politics. Local media describe Kashkari as someone whose appeal stretches across demographics— Latinos, young Californians, even the state's gay GOP organization. e Sacramento Bee recounted Kashkari's statement to reporters at the Republican convention in Burlingame in mid-March: "You know what Republicans want? ey want their kids to get a good education, and they want a good job. at's the same thing that independents want. at's the same thing that Democrats want. I think we can unite Republicans and unite Californians around these messages." "Give Neel Kashkari credit: He's thinking big and telling people his thoughts," George Skelton, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, told his readers. In early December, nearly a full month before Kashkari announced his candidacy, Secretary Paulson spoke with Bloomberg News about his former Treasury aide. "He has great courage and self-confidence," Paulson said. "He was cool under pressure. … He'd be an excellent candidate and excellent governor." Kashkari believes his work at Treasury stabilizing the nation's sinking economy is a mark of merit for the governorship. "If we got [Republicans and Democrats] to work together to break the back of the worst economic crisis our country has faced in 80 years, then we can get them to work together to break the crisis that is hammering millions of California families," he told the Los Angeles Times. THE REACH OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION In bailing out the nation's banks, Kashkari commanded what was arguably the federal government's most intrusive and most unpopular undertaking to date; paradoxically, he maintains that government's continued interference has disrupted the free market. Donnelly agrees. He says right now, we're seeing government's overreaction to the crash of 2008—a frenzy Donnelly contends government itself created. "[U]sing 'homeownership' as the definition of the American Dream is a lot of what got us into this trouble in the first place," Donnelly said. In its push to extend the American Dream to all Americans, Donnelly says the government began mandating lenders take certain risks. "en when it all fell out, the government's response was to regulate and penalize the people they forced into taking risks," he said. Donnelly pledges his first act as governor will be to impose a moratorium on all new regulations. He says he'll "veto every single new restriction on businesses, on freedom, and on our constitutional civil rights." Brown has a very different view of the regulatory exercise of government. As he signed into law California's landmark Homeowner Bill of Rights, he made the statement: "We are here to tell the banks to do what's right. Doing what's right does not mean kicking people out of their houses. We are here to … keep [people in] their homes and restore their dignity." With Brown in office, California enacted sweeping changes to the laws governing servicing and foreclosure procedures. e changes tilt practices heavily in favor of homeowners and, according to industry professionals, impede normal market movement and inevitably will raise mortgage costs in the Golden State. HELP FOR HOMEOWNERS Brown was less concerned about "keeping people in their homes" when hundreds of "For a decade, budget instability was the order of the day—a lethal combination of national recessions, improvident tax cuts, and too much spending … but three years later, here we are—with state spending and revenues solidly balanced." —Jerry Brown

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