Michael Shellenberger
Michael Shellenberger (independent) ran for election for Governor of California. He lost in the primary on June 7, 2022.
Shellenberger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Michael Shellenberger was born in Galesburg, Illinois and lives in Berkeley, California. Shellenberger's career experience includes working as an author and investigative lead journalist. He founded and has served as the president of Environmental Progress. Shellenberger has been affiliated with the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.[1][2]
Elections
2022
See also: California gubernatorial election, 2022
General election
General election for Governor of California
Incumbent Gavin Newsom defeated Brian Dahle in the general election for Governor of California on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Gavin Newsom (D) | 59.2 | 6,470,104 |
 | Brian Dahle (R) | 40.8 | 4,462,914 | |
| Total votes: 10,933,018 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Governor of California
The following candidates ran in the primary for Governor of California on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Gavin Newsom (D) | 55.9 | 3,945,748 |
| ✔ | | Brian Dahle (R) | 17.7 | 1,252,800 |
 | Michael Shellenberger (Independent) | 4.1 | 290,286 | |
 | Jenny Rae Le Roux (R) | 3.5 | 246,665 | |
 | Anthony Trimino (R) | 3.5 | 246,322 | |
 | Shawn Collins (R) | 2.5 | 173,083 | |
 | Luis Rodriguez (G) | 1.8 | 124,672 | |
 | Leo Zacky (R) | 1.3 | 94,521 | |
 | Major Williams (R) | 1.3 | 92,580 | |
 | Robert Newman (R) | 1.2 | 82,849 | |
 | Joel Ventresca (D) | 0.9 | 66,885 | |
 | David Lozano (R) | 0.9 | 66,542 | |
| Ronald Anderson (R) | 0.8 | 53,554 | ||
 | Reinette Senum (Independent) | 0.8 | 53,015 | |
 | Armando Perez-Serrato (D) | 0.6 | 45,474 | |
 | Ron Jones (R) | 0.5 | 38,337 | |
 | Daniel Mercuri (R) | 0.5 | 36,396 | |
 | Heather Collins (G) | 0.4 | 29,690 | |
 | Anthony Fanara (D) | 0.4 | 25,086 | |
 | Cristian Morales (R) | 0.3 | 22,304 | |
 | Lonnie Sortor (R) | 0.3 | 21,044 | |
 | Frederic Schultz (Independent) | 0.2 | 17,502 | |
 | Woodrow Sanders III (Independent) | 0.2 | 16,204 | |
 | James Hanink (Independent) | 0.1 | 10,110 | |
 | Serge Fiankan (Independent) | 0.1 | 6,201 | |
 | Bradley Zink (Independent) | 0.1 | 5,997 | |
| Jeff Scott (American Independent Party of California) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 13 | ||
| Gurinder Bhangoo (R) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 8 | ||
| Total votes: 7,063,888 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Errol Webber (R)
- Laura Smith (R)
- Chaz Flemmings (Independent)
- John Drake (D)
- Mohammad Arif (D)
- Hilaire Shioura (Independent)
Campaign finance
2018
- See also: California gubernatorial election, 2018
General election
General election for Governor of California
Gavin Newsom defeated John Cox in the general election for Governor of California on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Gavin Newsom (D) | 61.9 | 7,721,410 |
 | John Cox (R) | 38.1 | 4,742,825 | |
| Total votes: 12,464,235 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Governor of California
The following candidates ran in the primary for Governor of California on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Gavin Newsom (D) | 33.7 | 2,343,792 |
| ✔ | | John Cox (R) | 25.4 | 1,766,488 |
 | Antonio Villaraigosa (D) | 13.3 | 926,394 | |
 | Travis Allen (R) | 9.5 | 658,798 | |
 | John Chiang (D) | 9.4 | 655,920 | |
 | Delaine Eastin (D) | 3.4 | 234,869 | |
 | Amanda Renteria (D) | 1.3 | 93,446 | |
| Robert Newman (R) | 0.6 | 44,674 | |
| Michael Shellenberger (D) | 0.5 | 31,692 | |
 | Peter Liu (R) | 0.4 | 27,336 | |
 | Yvonne Girard (R) | 0.3 | 21,840 | |
 | Gloria La Riva (Peace and Freedom Party) | 0.3 | 19,075 | |
| Juan Bribiesca (D) | 0.3 | 17,586 | ||
 | Josh Jones (G) | 0.2 | 16,131 | |
 | Zoltan Gyurko Istvan (L) | 0.2 | 14,462 | |
| Albert Caesar Mezzetti (D) | 0.2 | 12,026 | ||
 | Nickolas Wildstar (L) | 0.2 | 11,566 | |
| Robert Davidson Griffis (D) | 0.2 | 11,103 | ||
 | Akinyemi Agbede (D) | 0.1 | 9,380 | |
| Thomas Jefferson Cares (D) | 0.1 | 8,937 | ||
 | Christopher Carlson (G) | 0.1 | 7,302 | |
 | Klement Tinaj (D) | 0.1 | 5,368 | |
 | Hakan Mikado (Independent) | 0.1 | 5,346 | |
| Johnny Wattenburg (Independent) | 0.1 | 4,973 | ||
 | Desmond Silveira (Independent) | 0.1 | 4,633 | |
 | Shubham Goel (Independent) | 0.1 | 4,020 | |
| Jeffrey Edward Taylor (Independent) | 0.1 | 3,973 | ||
| Total votes: 6,961,130 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Boris Romanowsky (Independent)
- Robert Kleinberger (R)
- Lindsey Neil Shortland (Independent)
- George Konik (R)
- Scot Sturtevant (Independent)
- Ted Crisell (D)
- James Tran (Independent)
- Jacob Morris (R)
- Michael Bilger (Independent)
- Andy Blanch (Independent)
- Daniel Amare (R)
- David Bush (Independent)
- David Hadley (R)
- Grant Handzlik (Independent)
- David Asem (D)
- Stasyi Barth (R)
- Michael Bracamontes (D)
- Analila Joya (Independent)
- Harmesh Kumar (D)
- Joshua Laine (Independent)
- John Leslie-Brown (R)
- Frederic Prinz von Anhalt (Independent)
- Timothy Richardson (Independent)
- Brian Domingo (R)
- Doug Ose (R)
Campaign themes
2022
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released March 29, 2022 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michael Shellenberger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shellenberger's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Michael has a plan for California, to push aside the partisan politicians who have allowed these problems to fester, and rebuild our communities with tough love, mandatory drug treatment for people who break the law, and a new statewide mental health system. He'll end the open air drug markets in our cities, and restore safety and sanity to our state.
- Since 2010, homelessness has increased 31 percent in California but declined 18 percent in the rest of the United States. Gavin Newsom has throughout his career diverted funds away from shelter and towards housing. The result? Over 116,000 Californians sleep on the streets. We need a new statewide agency, “Cal-Psych,” that is responsible for ending homelessness. Cal-Psych will procure enough shelter beds so every homeless person will have a place to sleep at night and end unsheltered homelessness by requiring the homeless to use shelter, if no Cal-Psych housing is available. Because many of the homeless are drug addicted or severely mentally ill, Cal-Psych will provide psychiatric and addiction care to any Californian that needs it.
- California is in chaos. A catastrophe of supposedly progressive reforms and pro-crime big city prosecutors have swung the pendulum too far in favor of criminals and have left Californians in danger. Gavin Newsom’s administration has opened wide the doors of prisons and utterly failed to provide parole and programs to actually rehabilitate offenders. I will swing the pendulum back to the middle. Hold criminals accountable and appropriate funds and operate programs to rehabilitate those that can reform their lives.
- California’s schools are failing our children with just 30 percent of students proficient in math and 50 percent proficient in reading. The covid shutdowns were too long because schools put the adults before the kids. Gavin Newsom won’t stand up to the teachers unions and politicians who have created the disaster our kids now live through. I will. My parents were teachers. I learned from them that no one hates bad teachers as much as good teachers. If teachers are to have tenure then we need a way to get rid of bad teachers. Most importantly, parents need more choice for where to send their kids to school; I will expand the charter system.
Michael believes that Prop 47 should be overturned because it has enabled mass shoplifting and has prevented police from arresting addicts, which holds addicts accountable and encourages sobriety.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Shellenberger's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Homelessness California spends more per capita on homelessness than any other state and has the worst outcomes in all of America. The number of homeless in California has increased 31% since 2010 even as the number of homeless in the rest of U.S. has declined 18%. The reason? Governor Gavin Newsom invited them to come here.
California spends more per capita on homelessness than any other state and has the worst outcomes in all of America. The number of homeless in California has increased 31% since 2010 even as the number of homeless in the rest of U.S. has declined 18%. The reason? Governor Gavin Newsom invited them to come here. During his 20 years in power, as governor, lieutenant governor, and San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom has made homelessness worse. Every instinct he has is wrong. Newsom thinks California taxpayers should give free apartment units to every drug addict who comes to California from out of state to camp illegally on our sidewalks. Why? Because he gets kickbacks in the form of campaign contributions from housing developers. Shelters are just too cost-effective for Gavin. And they’re not “homeless encampments.” They are open drug scenes. In 2020 and 2021 Newsom invited addicts from around the country to California to live in them. The result? Skyrocketing crime, violence, and drug overdoses. Desperate addicts break laws to support their drug habits. As a result, our cities are increasingly dangerous and unlivable. Newsom claims to be compassionate. He’s not. His policies are cruel and immoral. From 2019 to today, I have gone into the open drug scenes and interviewed hundreds of people in them. I went to the Netherlands to see how they eliminated homelessness by treating addicts and the mentally ill with tough love. I wrote a bestselling book on the issue, San Fransicko, and organized a statewide coalition of parents of homeless addicts, parents of children killed by fentanyl, and recovering addicts to change how California helps drug addicts and the severely mentally ill. As governor I will take immediate action to shut down the open drug scenes, establish a “Shelter First,” right to shelter policy, and ban illegal camping. Free housing is not something addicts are entitled to. Subsidized housing should be earned when drug addicts go through recovery and get a job. Seriously mentally ill people who are disabled, such as my aunt was with schizophrenia, should receive residential care. If they come from outside California, the federal government must help pay for it. I’m also going to create a statewide psychiatric and addiction care system, “Cal-Psych,” that will be a model for the U.S. A statewide system will allow us to treat addicts and the mentally ill in parts of California where the cost of living is lower. This statewide system will be more cost-effective than the individual county systems, which are failing to do the job. If California is going to treat America’s drug addicts and mentally ill, then I will make sure we are reimbursed for it by the federal government. California is being taken advantage of, and I will put an end to it.
Crime is out-of-control. California’s cities are in a crisis of chaos. The reasons are obvious. California’s cities are failing to enforce the law. Radical Left “defund the police” activists have demoralized the police. And Governor Gavin Newsom is failing to protect our children and citizens.
Crime is out-of-control. California’s cities are in a crisis of chaos. The reasons are obvious. California’s cities are failing to enforce the law. Radical Left “defund the police” activists have demoralized the police. And Governor Gavin Newsom is failing to protect our children and citizens. What is happening in our cities is immoral. Teenage girls are being raped and murdered in open drug scenes in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Open air drug markets are destroying communities of color like the Tenderloin in San Francisco and Skid Row in Los Angeles. Even suburbs and rural areas are being ruined by meth and fentanyl. When cities fail, and when civilization is failing, it is the role of the governor to step in and take strong action. Gavin Newsom refuses to do so because he is beholden to George Soros and the ACLU, whose money he wants in order to run for president in 2024. Newsom is weak and lacks courage. As governor, I’m going to fix this crisis. I’m going to inspire our police to start enforcing laws again. I’m going to demand that radical Left-wing District Attorneys either start doing their jobs or get removed from office. I’m going to do everything in my power to shut down the open air drug markets. We don’t have to choose between mass incarceration and mass crime. I’m going to use the “Three Key Ps”: Policing, Psychiatry, and Probation to end crime in humane and efficient ways. Everything the radical Left has said about crime and policing is wrong. Liberal European nations spend more money on police and have more police than we do in the U.S. Police are good. They prevent crime. I’m going to make sure that cities hire more of them, and that they are trained well, so as to prevent violence, corruption, and abuse.
California’s schools are failing our children. Just 30% of public school children in California are proficient in math; less than 50% are proficient in reading. This is unacceptable. The reason for this is obvious: somehow teachers’ unions and elected officials forgot that schools are supposed to be, first and foremost, for educating children, not coddling adults. Governor Gavin Newsom works for the teachers’ unions, not for the children, or their parents.
California’s schools are failing our children. Just 30% of public school children in California are proficient in math; less than 50% are proficient in reading. This is unacceptable. The reason for this is obvious: somehow teachers’ unions and elected officials forgot that schools are supposed to be, first and foremost, for educating children, not coddling adults. Governor Gavin Newsom works for the teachers’ unions, not for the children, or their parents. Newsom and many school districts went too far on Covid. It was reasonable to take precautions early in the pandemic to avoid hospitals being overwhelmed. But the continued masking of children and the demand for vaccination against a virus that hurt children the least was unreasonable. The shutdown of schools was devastating to children. Nobody stood up for the kids. I will. My parents were public school teachers. My mother was a teachers’ union rep. But nobody hates bad teachers more than good teachers. If teachers are going to have tenure then we need a way to get rid of bad teachers. Most importantly, parents need more choice for where to send their kids to school. As governor, I’m not going to let the teachers’ unions dictate how our schools are run. I’m going to fight for parents and all kids, including the ones being failed by both the system and their parents. I’m going to significantly increase school choice. I will raise standards and enforce them. Our schools are stuck in the 19th Century. I’m going to bring them into the 21st Century. We need to reform the school day and school year. The current school day doesn’t work for parents or children. The school day should mirror the workday so working parents can take their children to school and pick them up. The school day should be longer so younger children can rest during the school day and older children can get proper physical exercise. The school year must be longer than nine months. There should be a summer break, but the current summer break is far too long, putting a strain on working families, depriving children the time they need to learn, and causing learning loss. And education must be personalized. Not all students are going to get PhDs. We need better vocational education, while also teaching children the basics. Education is controversial. I know how to build agreement among all the different societal groups. I will create a “citizens’ jury” where hundreds of ordinary citizens can debate these issues in 2023 and 2024, and build consensus for lasting reform.
Energy is life. Abundant and cheap energy means we can have abundant and cheap water. As governor I’m going to end the unnecessary war between city-dwellers, farmers, and environmentalists. With abundant energy we can create abundant fresh water through water storage, water recycling, and water desalination. We can have green lawns, water for farmers, and water for fish. I have the vision for how to do this.
Energy is life. Abundant and cheap energy means we can have abundant and cheap water. As governor I’m going to end the unnecessary war between city-dwellers, farmers, and environmentalists. With abundant energy we can create abundant fresh water through water storage, water recycling, and water desalination. We can have green lawns, water for farmers, and water for fish. I have the vision for how to do this. I have pioneered and created a pro-human environmental movement. I am a Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment.” I won the Green Book Award. I wrote a bestselling book, translated into 17 languages, on how we can have economic growth and environmental protection. I was an advocate of renewables, and for strong action on climate change, for over 20 years. Ten years ago, I overcame my fear of nuclear power and came to see that we need nuclear energy, too, to end air pollution and carbon emissions. I spent the last six years building a global grassroots movement to keep nuclear plants around the world operating and fighting against anti-human environmentalists trying to shut them down, including here in California. People are rapidly coming around to our vision. Europe became dependent on Russia for its energy, which allowed Putin to invade Ukraine. I warned policymakers in Europe, New York, and California that they must keep nuclear plants operating. Now, people can see that I was right. Elon Musk recently joined our movement, calling on the European governments to keep operating and even restart their nuclear plants. As governor I’m going to keep California’s nuclear reactors operating. Governor Gavin Newsom, who owes his career to the Getty Oil fortune, is trying to replace our last nuclear plants with fossil fuels. Already Newsom and his colleagues made California’s electricity prices rise 7 times more than they did in the rest of the United States. Newsom has been causing blackouts ever since he took power in 2019. He cut in half the budget for fighting forest fires. Why? Because he is in the pocket of Pacific Gas and Electric, and always has been. When PG&E went bankrupt due to its greed and mismanagement, Newsom used taxpayer money to bail them out. Not me. When PG&E announced in 2016 that it would shut down California’s largest source of zero-pollution energy, Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, I stood up to them. I went into PG&E’s headquarters to protest. I would not be silenced. I fought back. And I’ve been fighting back ever since. As governor, I’m going to reverse Newsom’s dangerous and deadly policies. I’m going to demand PG&E serve the interests of the people, not Newsom’s buddies. As governor, I’m going to make sure California is on the cutting edge of energy, water, and the environment. I am going to build consensus through a citizens’ jury on energy and the environment, just like I will do on education. Housing also deeply divides our state and we need the thoughtful deliberation citizens’ juries provide on this key issue. We need more housing, but we also need to protect the character of our neighborhoods. All cities around the world grow the same way. All cities add taller buildings near mass transit like subway systems and buses. But they also add more housing in the suburbs. We are blessed to live in the greatest state in the greatest nation in America. We can protect the natural beauty of our state and our communities, and add more housing so young families can afford to live here and stay here.[3] |
” |
| —Michael Shellenberger's campaign website (2022)[4] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Governor of California |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Michael Shellenberger, "About," accessed May 4, 2022
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 25, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Michael Shellenberger for Governor, “Issues,” accessed April 28, 2022
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