States News Service
May 15, 2012
Headline: NFIB /California Announces Endorsements of 31 Legislative Candidates
SACRAMENTO,CA The following information was released by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB):
The National Federation of Independent Business/California SAFE Trust today announced its endorsement of 31 candidates in California Senate and Assembly races. Today’s endorsement comes from NFIB’s California Save America’s Free Enterprise Trust, the organization’s political action committee, and is based on voting records (if applicable) and positions on key small business issues to evaluate the candidates’ views on legislative issues affecting small business. “NFIB/California commits to taking all measures possible to support these candidates in their elections this June,” said John Kabateck, NFIB/CA executive director. “These candidates have been vetted and found to be the best and most qualified to help get jobs, small business and economy back on track.”
NFIB/California represents more than 20,000 member small and independent businesses. The endorsed candidates are:
California State Senate
District 1: Ted Gaines District 5: Bill Berryhill District 21: Steve Knight
District 23: Bill Emmerson District 27: Todd Zink District 29: Bob Huff
District 31: Jeff Miller District 37: Mimi Walters District 39: George Plescia
California State Assembly
District 3: Dan Logue District 5: Rico Oller
District 6: Beth Gaines District 8: Peter Tateishi
District 12: Kristen Olsen District 21: Jack Mobley
District 26: Connie Conway District 32: Jon McQuiston
District 33: Tim Donnelly District 34: Shannon Grove
Distr.35: K. Achadjian District 40: Mike Morrell
District 42: Brian Nestande District 44: Jeff Gorell
District 55: Curt Hagman District 65: Chris Norby
District 68: Don Wagner District 71: Brian Jones
District 73: Diane Harkey Dist. 74: Allan Mansoor
District 75: Marie Waldron Dist.77: Brian Maienschein
The political clout of small business is more influential than most people know:
” A study by thePewResearchCenteron the negative and positive views people hold on various American institutions found small business ranked first-39 percentage points higher than labor unions, 46 points higher than large corporations, and 49 points higher than banks and financial institutions.
” Small business owners comprise 15 percent of all registered voters in theU.S., by comparison union voters make up 11.9 percent. When small business employees are added, the small business voting bloc swells to 43 percent.
” The most common public affairs and political activities in which small employers engage, according to the NFIB Research Foundation, include initiating discussions with employees regarding the impact of a policy issue on the firm.
” Voters prefer candidates supported by small business by a margin of 3 to 1 over those supported by organized labor, according to the Winston Group.
” Since 2000, Save America’s Free Enterprise Trust, the political action committee of the National Federation of Independent Business, has raised $23.7 million and has an endorsed-candidate winning record of 84 percent. In the last election cycle, 25 NFIB members were elected to Congress.