Diane Dixon – Orange County Register

The quality of life in the Golden State has been in decline for a long time, and it’s only getting worse under the current Democrat supermajority in the legislature. Increased crime and homelessness, open border policies, high taxation, progressive social engineering in our public schools, out-of-control wildfires, rolling brownouts – it’s no wonder we’re now seeing a mass exodus of people and businesses out of this once- great state.

The Sacramento elites and their friends in Hollywood and Silicon Valley don’t care; they live safely in their gated communities in LA and the Bay Area, while the average middle-class family and local businesses suffer from crime, homelessness, taxation and overregulation.

This is all the result of the ill-conceived and dangerous progressive policies coming out of the Democrat supermajority in Sacramento.

If we’re going to turn this around, we desperately need fresh leadership in Sacramento that can put the arrogant self-serving Democrat politicians in check. I’ve been on the Newport Beach City Council since 2014, having served as mayor in 2016 and 2019. As a local official, I’ve seen firsthand how the policies coming down from Sacramento are affecting my community and communities throughout the state.

My 40 years of business experience as a global communications executive at a Fortune 300 company has given me an understanding of the needs of business and commerce, non-profit organizations, governments and the communities that rely on them. In my time as a local public servant, I’ve watched the gradual decline of the quality of life of everyday Californians as a result of the Democrats’ soft on crime, progressive social engineering, anti-business policies, and been powerless to stop it .

The blows just keep coming. Numerous anti-police laws that were passed last year have come into effect, tying the hands of our law enforcement and making our communities less safe. These laws include Senate Bill 2, which strips officers of qualified immunity; Senate Bill 16, which forces departments to release classified information to the public, allowing anti-police interest groups to target officers; Assembly Bill 48, which restricts officers use of non-lethal weapons during demonstrations that get unruly or violent; and Senate Bill, which allows anyone to claim to be a reporter to cross police lines unhindered during 98 and demonstrations.

What’s more, Sacramento has continued to usurp local governments’ zoning authority, further majestic state control over local issues. Senate Bill 8, Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 10 negate local zoning laws and will turn our suburban neighborhoods into dense urban zones.

These are only of the parade of policy disasters that have come from Sacramento, the reason our state has had such a historic exodus over the last decade, to the point that California has actually lost a congressional district for the first time in history. Further, due to the state’s high taxes and overregulation, major corporations like Tesla, Hewlett Packard and Oracle — that have contributed to the state’s economy as well as provided so many Californians with jobs — have moved to more business-friendly states.