Ryan Carter
This is part of an occasional series of profiles on local candidates
running in the March 2 primary election.
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- In the late 1960s, Dave Wilcox read the
book "Cliches of Socialism." It changed his life.
"That really did it," he said. "I couldn't understand why anyone
would want to be socialist. How could anyone buy into the ideas of
socialism?"
He has been a staunch Republican ever since.
Wilcox touts the ideologies of Republicans such as Barry Goldwater
and Ronald Reagan. An aeronautical engineer educated at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Caltech, Wilcox wants to unseat Assembly-
woman Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) in the November election. He
believes he is the right man to represent the 44th Assembly District,
with more than 230,000 registered voters stretching into the San
Gabriel Valley. The majority of those voters are Democrats.
Wilcox is running against Pasadena Republican Lynn Gabriel for the
Republican nomination in the March 2 primary. Whoever wins the party
nomination will run for Liu's seat.
"It's all about serving the voters and giving something back to my
district, state and my nation," he said. "This is about public
service."
Wilcox envisions a state government in which policy revolves
around fiscal conservatism.
He blames Democrats and former Gov. Gray Davis for wasteful
spending and what he said was the exodus of business from the state
to others with friendlier workers' compensation premiums. He also
called for more control of borders and illegal immigration while
bolstering education by ending what he called micromanagement of
schools by Sacramento. Ousting Davis was a local victory for Wilcox,
who by some accounts is a voracious local party organizer.
"He was one of the original organizers of the recall movement,"
said state Sen. Tom McClintock (D-Thousand Oaks), who has endorsed
him. "When the Republican establishment derided the recall as an
unwelcome distraction, Dave Wilcox was in the trenches."
Wilcox founded the Foothill Republican Club in the mid-1990s in
his effort to start a more activist group, apart from the La Canada
Flintridge Republican Committee. The club successfully rallied for
the recall, with Wilcox supporting McClintock for governor. Some
admire his devotion to politics and the party. Others lament what
they say is a lack of polish.
Some, like 44th District Republican Central Committee member
Martin Truitt, have blasted Wilcox for the strains of Libertarianism
in his views, adding that they hurt the party's chances to win.
