Summer Dispatches
A Bay-Area Liberal in King Arnold's Court
Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: Features
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By Jason Elliott (MPP2)
Expectations are dangerous. That's what I learned this summer.
I expected that working in a Republican Administration would be a masochistic but necessary exercise in demonstrating my commitment to the State of California. I expected to feel awkward all summer without my copy of "Atlas Shrugged" and my pocket squares, and with an abiding belief in a strong government. As it turns out, there are a lot of smart, principled people running the State of California who care more about good ideas than political expediency.
I'm a liberal Democrat from the San Francisco Bay Area. Taking a job with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this summer in sleepy Sacramento, California seemed antithetical to my political and policy interests, and silly in terms of planning for a career in Democratic politics and governance. But I care deeply about my home state, and I plan on spending my professional life there. With this in mind, I wanted to get a jump on it while still in grad school.
Career services set me up with an internship in the Office of the Special Advisor for Jobs and Economic Growth. My role was loosely defined: the governor's close advisor and closer friend, David Crane, needed someone to do some thinking for him around greenhouse gas and economic development issues. California just passed a landmark piece of legislation, A.B. 32, which aims to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. To say this is a challenge is an understatement, and policymakers are struggling with ways to meet the targets.
I know a bit about environmental policy, I know a little bit about the state's labor market and I know a lot about California. Armed with my regression calculator and an ability to fake my way through memos, I set about solving climate change through market mechanisms in California's $1.7 trillion economy. I read a lot, I contemplated a lot and I wrote a lot. The summer turned out to be incredibly rewarding, not only because of the deliverables I created, but also because of what I learned about nonpartisan policymaking.
Expectations are dangerous. That's what I learned this summer.
I expected that working in a Republican Administration would be a masochistic but necessary exercise in demonstrating my commitment to the State of California. I expected to feel awkward all summer without my copy of "Atlas Shrugged" and my pocket squares, and with an abiding belief in a strong government. As it turns out, there are a lot of smart, principled people running the State of California who care more about good ideas than political expediency.
I'm a liberal Democrat from the San Francisco Bay Area. Taking a job with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this summer in sleepy Sacramento, California seemed antithetical to my political and policy interests, and silly in terms of planning for a career in Democratic politics and governance. But I care deeply about my home state, and I plan on spending my professional life there. With this in mind, I wanted to get a jump on it while still in grad school.
Career services set me up with an internship in the Office of the Special Advisor for Jobs and Economic Growth. My role was loosely defined: the governor's close advisor and closer friend, David Crane, needed someone to do some thinking for him around greenhouse gas and economic development issues. California just passed a landmark piece of legislation, A.B. 32, which aims to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. To say this is a challenge is an understatement, and policymakers are struggling with ways to meet the targets.
I know a bit about environmental policy, I know a little bit about the state's labor market and I know a lot about California. Armed with my regression calculator and an ability to fake my way through memos, I set about solving climate change through market mechanisms in California's $1.7 trillion economy. I read a lot, I contemplated a lot and I wrote a lot. The summer turned out to be incredibly rewarding, not only because of the deliverables I created, but also because of what I learned about nonpartisan policymaking.
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