Clint Paulson: Donate to Charities (not My Campaign)

Clint Paulson

The Daily Breeze columnist Nick Green published some thinly veiled attacks against some Torrance City Council candidates, mostly arbitrary as well as inappropriate.

Green identified Charlotte Svolos as a Republican, but neglected to do the same for John Paul Tabakian – and why did he neglect to mention the party affiliation of the other candidates, including Decline to State Clint Paulson?

Traffic Commissioner Milton Herring received more treatment than the other "long-shot" candidates, most likely in part because he was endorsed by the paper.

Because the Daily Breeze endorsed candidates because they were likely to win, as opposed to candidates whom the paper wanted to see win, one can surmise that Herring was endorsed because of his skin color as opposed to his policy proposals, which have not been particularly outstanding.

The treatment of Clint Paulson in the Nick Green piece also caught my attention, because of the candidates which the writer focused on, I have endorsed him (as well as Leilani Kimmel-Dagostino and Alex See):

•Clint Paulson, an Air Force veteran and aerospace industry manager, proudly announced he would accept no campaign contributions, but that has translated into little visibility and likely little chance of winning election.

I chose to endorse Mr. Paulson because he took a hard-line, face-reality approach to the fiscal problems affecting the city of Torrance. He did not hold back his concerns, and he was not afraid to call out the sitting appointed incumbents running for a seat in their own right. When a city council member says that $800,000 in savings is noteworthy in the face of $400 million pension liabilities, that person is not fit for a full-term.

About Paulson, it is true that he is not taking any campaign donations, but he has opted to use his own money to set up signs and reach out to voters with mailers as well as personal visits. One charity, Family Promise of the South Bay, can be reached at familypromiseosb.org.

Here is a description of the charity's purpose:

From the Family Promise of the South Bay website

An estimated 6,788 people in the South Bay are homeless. 1 in 4 homeless people is a child. The families of homeless children are overwhelmed by the daily demands of seeking food, shelter, transportation and child care and the result of their struggle is that the children suffer.

It's hard to imagine, but hunger is affecting even residents in the South Bay!

Paulson's decision to rely on his own money and encourage investments in other charities brings out a controversy worth discussing – the obscene amount of money which politicians, PACS, and independent groups are spending on politics. All that money could build schools, hire teachers, fix roads, restructure crumbling infrastructure, and enforce welfare-to-work programs to improve men and women struggling to make ends meet in this anemic economy.

His well-place priorities signal another reason why I chose to endorse him for Torrance City Council.