Meet the other recall candidates: Daniel Watts

What experience has prepared you to take over leadership of the world’s fifth-largest economy?
The governor doesn’t “lead” the economy — the people do. I’m a free speech attorney who’s spent a decade helping people defend their civil and constitutional rights, especially their 1st Amendment right to free speech and petition. No one else can say the same. No one else understands the structure of the state government, where it’s exceeded its authority, and where it needs to be pared back.

Do you believe Joe Biden was lawfully elected president?
Yes

Should an ethnic studies course be required for high-school graduation?
(Left blank)

Defund police?
(Left blank)

Should government make any vaccine mandatory, including for polio and smallpox?
(Left blank)

Under California law, low-income women are eligible for taxpayer-funded abortions. Do you support this?
(Left blank)

Should the governor’s emergency powers be altered, and if so, how?
The governor exceeded his constitutional authority by suspending laws through executive order. He went way beyond what the Emergency Services Act allows him to do. Shuttering the courts in spring 2020 deprived defendants of their right to a speedy trial and eliminated the right of petition.

If you had $25 billion to spend on homelessness, what would you do with it?
I’d make every community college, trade school and university 100% tuition free, and then make it easy to apply. The best way out of poverty is education and skills, which allow you to find better jobs. Higher ed should be free — and for $7 billion, it can be. $25 billion? That’s bonkers money.

As governor, would you direct the state to do more to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement?
No. I’ll tell you what I would do: I’d make every public college and university tuition free as soon as they stop violating the 1st Amendment. UC San Diego, for example, spent $800,000 on attorneys squashing their students’ free speech rights in Koala vs. Khosla. Never again.

What would you do to decrease the chance of destructive wildfires?
Tell public utilities to bury their power lines in the ground so they don’t fall down and light stuff on fire. Seriously, why hasn’t this been done? PG&E needs to stop burning down the state every couple years. Just bury your power lines already.

What emergency steps would you take during a drought to allocate water usage among Californians?
I’d leave that to the water experts. The governor is not the water king.

Do you support California’s climate change initiatives. If no, what would you change?
Why no questions about the free speech crisis, L.A. Times? Why no questions about the UC system passing a perpetual fee hike this year? There are other issues the governor can help with. Free speech rights and the rights of students should not be ignored.