Tom Campbell has been getting a lot of favorable media coverage for being the supposedly moderate candidate in the Republican field. But his May 19 endorsements strike me as a rather right-wing stance and ought to call into question his claims to being a “moderate”.

Campbell argues for yes on all the initiatives except 1B and 1C, which he opposes. That’s not an inherently conservative position to take. But it’s the reasons he gives that suggest Campbell is very much a right-winger. Specifically, he firmly believes government spending is a problem and that in a severe recession, that spending ought to be cut, Keynes and historical fact be damned. For example, his argument in favor of Prop 1A:

This creates a real rainy day fund, and constrains the growth of state spending… This is almost as good as Prop. 76, the legislative version of which I authored, that cut spending across-the-board when revenue fell. The public employee unions defeated Prop. 76, but the Governor negotiated with them to hold off criticizing 1A; so this has a real chance of passage.

Prop 76 was the hard spending cap Arnold backed in 2005, and was soundly rejected by the voters. That Campbell, who knows Prop 76 well, sees 1A as “almost as good” should be troubling to any progressive considering backing Prop 1A.

Campbell’s desire to attack public spending comes out in his endorsement against Prop 1B:

No one wants to see fewer resources for schools, but more money does not guarantee better performance either. The key to my recommending NO is that in a tough economic environment, all state spending should be on the block. Indeed, in Prop. 76, of which I was the chair, automatic across-the-board cuts went into effect when revenue dropped by as little as 1% in any given quarter. We’re all in this together, schools too.

A progressive case against Prop 1B can be made. But this isn’t it. Campbell’s criticism of Prop 1B is insidious. He denies that public schools are getting destroyed by the budget cuts, which are going to make it impossible to provide students with a quality education. Further, he believes that cuts are a wise move no matter their effect – cuts for cuts’ sake. This should not inspire confidence in his potential leadership skills. I’m genuinely curious to see how California’s economy can recover without restoring the education cuts. That’s not to say Prop 1B will actually restore those cuts, but it’s clear Campbell believes that teachers should be fired.

His endorsements for 1D and 1E are of the same attitude – in a crisis, we must cut. It’s a recipe for ruin, sending California into a death spiral that our economy might never recover from.  His opposition to 1C is a more philosophical opposition to using a lottery at all to fund public services, but that doesn’t change the overall right-wing thrust of his May 19 positions.

One would hope that this would end the lie that Campbell is some kind of moderate Republican. He isn’t. He’s not a knuckle-dragger, but as these endorsements make clear, he is very much a conservative Republican when it comes to government services. And in this economic climate, that’s all you need to be a right-winger.