Kashkari mailer features ‘conservative Republican’ wielding ax

GOP gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari’s first mail pieces should be hitting mailboxes soon, four-page fliers that declare the first-time candidate a “conservative Republican” and “political outsider” who can end wasteful spending and create jobs.

“Neel Kashkari will start strong and stand up to the career politicians to end the wasteful spending that got us in this mess,” the flier says. “Neel Kashkari is a problem solver with real world experience and a record of getting things done.”

The mailer features images of a casually dressed Kashkari with an ax, taking aim at a toy train perched on a tree stump. The train represents the high-speed rail plan, championed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, that Kashkari has highlighted as a misguided priority.

“The first thing on his chopping block? The high-speed crazy train,” the flyer says.

The mailer does not mention Brown or the GOP front-runner, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, only “career politicians.”

With reference to Kashkari as a “conservative Republican” who worked for President George W. Bush and who wants to “get able-bodied people off welfare, food stamps, and unemployment and into the workforce,” the mailer is clearly aimed at likely GOP voters who can be expected to cast ballots in June’s low-turnout election.

Typically such voters hail from the most conservative wing of the party.

Kashkari, who has described himself a fiscal conservative and social libertarian, has faced skepticism among some of these voters, in part because he cast a ballot for President Obama in 2008.

Kashkari’s campaign said the mailer is being sent out statewide, but declined to specify the number of pieces or identify the targeted voter group.

The mailer also glosses over specifics on Kashkari’s resume that some voters would not like – that he worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and that he ran the $700-billion taxpayer-funded bank bailout – saying only, “He’s helped Silicon Valley high tech companies grow and create California jobs. He worked for the U.S. Treasury under President Bush, helping to lead our nation through the 2007 financial crisis.”