Craig Huey, the Torrance businessman who shocked many political analysts with a strong but ultimately unsuccessful run against Janice Hahn for the 36th District congressional seat earlier this year, will run for the newly created 66th Assembly District, which covers most of the South Bay, including the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Beach Cities.
Huey, a Republican who lives in Rolling Hills Estates, announced his intentions at a news conference outside an abandoned warehouse in Torrance on Tuesday. He was surrounded by about two dozen supporters, including his wife Shelly, at the time.
"What's going on in Sacramento is killing business right now … and we're on a path that is only going to get worse," Huey said in a speech, later adding that "we have a crisis and we've got to stop this insanity."
Huey aims to bring the power in Sacramento back to the local level, he said. He also wants to stop what he called job-killing legislation and out-of-control government pensions.
"I will be on the warpath," he promised supporters.
He said he plans to run a clean campaign for positive change. After Huey finished talking, his wife, Shelly, addressed the audience.
The Congressional campaign "wasn't just grassroots," she said. "This isn't a shallow [effort] … this is an uprising."
"We live in a land that's a promised land here, and it's been hijacked," she later added, noting that her husband has the ability to rally the troops.
"It's going to be a fresh wind for Sacramento," Craig Huey said.
And as for Nathan Mintz, a Republican who declared his candidacy for the 66th Assembly District seat over the summer?
"We're hoping that Nathan will drop out of the race," Huey said.
