Former Westminster Mayor Tri Ta has been a reliable vote for fiscal responsibility in Sacramento since his election to the Assembly two years ago.
As a Republican, he is naturally constrained by the supermajority, but that hasn’t stopped him from fielding legislation and standing up for his district.
Ta supports school choice, wants to see California continue to streamline housing regulations so more housing can get built and will be a reliable vote against tax increases.
He also just rightly wants to see California government become more effective at solving the problems of the state.
“I have consistently called for accountability and audits of the billions spent on [the homeless] crisis,” he notes. “We need effective solutions, not just more spending—because what we’ve been doing is only making the problem worse.”
His challenger Jimmy Pham has understandably raised concerns with Ta’s association with disgraced Supervisor Andrew Do. Absent direct evidence of wrongdoing by Ta, however, there’s not much to do with this.
What we do know is that Pham is mostly wrong on major issues.
While he is open to reform of the California Environmental Quality Act to limit abuses, he spoke favorably of Proposition 33 (rent control), supports the high-speed rail boondoggle and believes price gouging is the driver of high gas prices (as opposed to flawed government policies).
While Pham, as a Democrat, would no doubt see more legislative success working within the supermajority, he will no doubt be another vote for the mismanagement of California. Tri Ta at least recognizes that what California has been doing isn’t working.
Given the choices, it’s an easy call: re-elect Tri Ta.