Candidate Resumes: Meet The CA Contenders In Tuesday's Election

LOS ANGELES, CA — Your elected leaders are supposed to work for you, so why not put them through a little job interview?

On Tuesday, California voters will head to the polls to hire a governor, a senator, 55 House members and a myriad of local and down ticket candidates in primary elections. What better way to hire a new governor than to examine candidate resumes?

CALmatters, the nonprofit devoted to explanatory journalism, put together a series of resumes for every candidate running in the major races along with background research on the hotly contested races up and down the ballots. They even put together scouting reports on each of the five statewide ballot measures.

Taxpaying California voters/employers want to know: does gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom have the chops to handle tough budget decisions during a financial downturn? Does would-be governor John Cox have the kind of experience needed to wrangle a Democratic legislature to support his Republican agenda? What about those Congressional candidates? Which candidates support Universal healthcare? Who has a checkered personal past that I should know about? Who went to Berkeley and who went to UCLA?

CALmatters has you covered. A candidate’s typical resume includes work history, contact information and letters of recommendation (endorsements). They even include a note from H.R. with tidbits a candidate might wish a potential employer didn’t know about. For example, Newsom’s Note From H.R. includes this bit, “While mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom had an affair with his appointments secretary (and the wife of his campaign manager), who subsequently sought out treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. When the news broke in 2007, Newsom said that he was “deeply sorry.’”

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The nonprofit even put together detailed job descriptions for every open position. For example, your U.S. House of Representatives candidate must be prepared to write and vote on bills and:

• Help investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 election
• Help investigate the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election
• Channel the concerns of the 700,000 or so people who live in their district and convince 434 other colleagues to care about them too
• Spend a lot of time asking donors for money

Don’t get stuck with a bad employee. Study the CALmatters resumes here. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news from your California neighborhood. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app. Also, be sure to follow your local Patch on Facebook!)

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