Millions will be spent on senate election

California Senate District 1 contains all of Alpine, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, and Siskiyou counties, as well as parts of Placer and Sacramento. Its population is just shy of 1 million, including 200,000 children. About 80 percent of its residents are white, 11 percent Latino, 5 percent Asian, 2.5 percent Native American, 1.8 percent black. Almost 12 percent live below the poverty line, 15.9 percent depend on EBT, which is lower than the California average, yet still too high. Ted Gaines certainly knows how to play politics. He was elected to Senate District 1, California's top three GOP strongholds by county — Modoc, Lassen and Shasta — exist in Gaines' territory, so he ran in a district in which a Republican was next to certain to win. Some 42.6 percent of the district's registered voters are Republican — fully 15 percent above the statewide GOP registration — in a region stretching from Folsom and Roseville to the Oregon border. He ran in the second most conservation Senate District in the State almost guaranteeing the R, not necessarily merit, after his name would get him elected. When he left the Assembly to run for the Senate, his wife Beth conveniently and successfully, ran for his Assembly seat and served for five years. Gaines recently left his Senate seat before his term was up, necessitating a special election and providing him time to plan to replace himself with fellow Republicans such as Kiley or Dahle or Hime. He had time to recruit his replacements with his encouragement and with his political machinations before others even knew his seat was up for grabs. The March 26, Special Election will cost Placer County taxpayers about $1 million but the cost does not end there. If no candidate receives 50 percent, then another million-dollar election must be paid for by Placer County taxpayers, costing another million dollars. In this election, if no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, then another election must be funded by Placer County taxpayers. Then, if Assemblyman Kiley wins, another special election involving over 180,00 Placer County registered voters must be held to replace his Assembly seat, costing taxpayers another possible million dollars. If Brian Dahle wins, then another election must be paid for to replace him in the California Assembly District 1. Because Gaines implements a carefully planned, self-serving manipulation for himself and his Republican colleagues, Placer County taxpayer could be on the hook for as much as $4 million. And the costs for the remaining 10 counties needing to repeat the same possible election procedure outlined for Placer County could cost the California Senate District 1 taxpayers could total $30 million or more to accommodate Ted Gaines political ploy. It appears, when Gaines finds a way to help himself and his Republican colleagues, fiscal conservatism goes out the window and the taxpayer pays the bill and Gaines has qualified himself for a Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) pension for life. In California Senate District 1, consider voting for Silke Pflueger (silke4senate.com), a woman, a Democrat, an environmentalist, a cancer survivor and an immigrant. Jack Sanchez is an Auburn resident.