Pringle Says State Needs New Pioneers

California’s future will depend largely on its ability to rekindle the pioneering spirit of its history, long before the days of big government, Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle told an audience of insurance executives Tuesday.

“To unleash California’s potential, we have to tap back into the deep wells of entrepreneurial energy that have characterized our citizens from the earliest pioneer days, through the gold rush, and up to the high-tech boom in Silicon Valley,” Pringle (R-Garden Grove) said before about 1,000 people at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“Our No. 1 priority right now in the state Assembly is to get government out of the job of killing jobs. . . . We have to support policies that put overbearing government and bureaucrats into full retreat,” he said in a speech titled “A New Vision for California.”

Pringle spoke for about 25 minutes at the sprawling convention center only a block and a half from his home. He did not mention the controversy that now swirls around indicted Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), the man whose election last November helped thrust Pringle into the Assembly’s leadership role.

According to sworn testimony before the Orange County Grand Jury, Pringle’s office last September orchestrated a failed scheme to draft Laurie Campbell, a friend of Baugh’s, to run as a Democrat to siphon votes away from Baugh’s main Democratic opponent. A Pringle aide is one of three GOP operatives who have pleaded guilty to their roles in the plot.

Baugh, who has declared his innocence, was indicted on four felony counts and 18 misdemeanor violations of the state election laws.

Pringle, who has maintained that he knew nothing of the scheme to recruit Campbell, left the convention center after his speech without talking to reporters.

In his speech, Pringle proposed a “new limited partnership” between government and families, neighborhoods and businesses. He said the Assembly this year will pass new welfare reform legislation, “the most sweeping in the nation’s history,” that includes a recently approved bill establishing state tax credits for charitable contributions.

“This would encourage the transfer of resources and authority from government bureaucrats in Sacramento to those individuals and institutions that have proven most effective in caring for our citizens--families, churches, civic groups and local voluntary relief programs,” he said.

Pringle also said that he and Gov. Pete Wilson are promoting what Pringle called “opportunity scholarships” for children attending the poorest-performing 5% of public schools in the state. The scholarships will allow parents the option of either sending their children to better public schools or private schools.