After giving up his Assembly seat to mount an unsuccessful run for governor, it seemed Travis Allen might be headed for an exit, stage right, from California politics later this year.
But the Huntington Beach Republican has found a second (or is that third?) act: On Tuesday, he announced the formation of a political action committee, Take Back California, to fight the "liberal elites out of San Francisco" and return power to the people.
It's an opportunity for Allen to continue the conservative movement he built, particularly through his large social media presence, during his gubernatorial campaign.
But it's unclear how much assistance the new PAC will offer to California's struggling GOP, whose leadership Allen has not always aligned with. Allen and the California Republican Party did not respond to requests for comment.
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Nearly a month since the June primary, Allen still has yet to endorse his former Republican rival, businessman John Cox, for governor. He walked away from a Bee reporter when asked last week whether he was going to endorse Cox, then shouted back that he would "vote for any Republican over Gavin Newsom."
INFLUENCER OF THE DAY
When robots take California jobs, what happens next? Influencers have plenty to say.
“It's not a foregone conclusion that technology is bad for workers. We need to harness tech to make work easier for workers, use it to create good jobs. To do so, workers must have a voice in re-imagining work. How do farmworkers use new tools to test for food safety while machines do the backbreaking picking of our food? How do caregivers use tech to lift patients while they get trained to become health providers? It’s time for workers, tech companies, venture capitalists, policymakers, employers to come together and forge a path to re-imagine work and use tech to create good jobs, not eliminate them.”
— Angie Wei, chief of staff of California Labor Federation
MUST-READ: Feces, blood, syringes at California Capitol: Workers unprepared for clean up, OSHA says
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