Kashkari launches attack website on GOP rival Donnelly

Gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari launched a scathing online attack on Friday against fellow Republican Tim Donnelly, the state assemblyman who is the GOP front-runner in the governor’s race.

Kashkari launched a website, timdonnellyfacts.com, highlighting Donnelly’s brushes with the law and inconsistencies between his conservative ideology and his voting record. The site also accuses the assemblyman from San Bernardino County of living “a life of luxury” on taxpayer dollars.

It asserts that a Donnelly victory in June, allowing him to compete against Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall, would be disastrous for the Republican Party.

“Tim Donnelly will have Democrats partying in the streets,” the site says, over a picture of actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus dancing awkwardly in an episode of “Seinfeld.”

“He won’t just ensure a Jerry Brown victory. He will crush the entire GOP ticket,” the site says.

The website marks a shift for Kashkari, who has largely avoided mentioning his main GOP rival and aimed his fire at incumbent Brown. Kashkari, a neophyte candidate who is virtually unknown among California voters, is trailing badly in the polls and failing to raise as much money as he had hoped.

Donnelly, who launched a Kashkari parody site on April Fool’s Day, said the new Kashkari site showed the strength of his own campaign.

“I wear it as a badge of honor that they consider me such a threat that they feel the need to attack me and make my name even bigger,” he said in an interview Friday, after holding a news conference at a liquor store in Burbank to talk about his support of tax credits for Hollywood.