Meet local Republican rising stars
| Saturday, Oct 31 2009 11:51 AM
Last Updated Saturday, Oct 31 2009 05:42 PM
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Jeff Flores, manager of government affairs at U.S. Borax
Bill Lind, head coordinator of the Bakersfield/Kern County Tea Party Patriots
Dana Culhane, press secretary for Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield
Martin Bertram, candidate for Bakersfield City Council Ward 7.
Bryan Williams, field representative for Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield
Russell Johnson, candidate for Bakersfield City Council Ward 7.
Who is Bakersfield’s next Kevin McCarthy? We’ve gathered a half-dozen names of up-and-comers you might see on a future Republican ballot.
RUSSELL JOHNSON, 30
The former Bakersfield planning commissioner got more fame than most from his planning commission stint after City Councilman Ken Weir, a Mark Abernathy client, tried unsuccessfully to boot him early.
Johnson currently works as a staffer for Kern County Supervisor Mike Maggard, the former city councilman who’d appointed him to the commission. He previously worked for state Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, and as a catalog sales manager for AmeriPride Uniform Services.
Johnson graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2001 with a history degree.
His grandfather was Bill Park, a onetime political kingmaker in these parts as well as a city councilman, chair of the Kern County Republican Party and key staffer for four-term Congressman (and double Olympic gold medalist) Bob Mathias of Tulare County.
Johnson was just 10 when his grandfather died, so much of his political passion came from another source: potholes.
In the late 1990s, while in student government at Bakersfield College, he was part of a successful effort to get the campus’ “atrocious” parking lots repaved.
“That’s why I fell in love with the process,” he said.
He belongs to Kern County Young Republican Federated, a conservative group with about 25 members.
Might he try to topple Weir in 2010? Carpetbag into outgoing Zack Scrivner’s ward? Shoot for a state Assembly or Senate spot?
“My future is wide open” is all Johnson will say.
JEFF FLORES, 38
A former staffer for Ashburn, Flores is now manager of government affairs at U.S. Borax.
Flores has been a Kern County planning commissioner since February 2008; Maggard appointed him.
He earned a political science degree from UC San Diego in 1996 and a master’s in public administration from Cal State Bakersfield in 2009. He’s a member of Kern County Young Republican Federated and is on the board of the Bakersfield Police Activities League and the Kern County Economic Development Corp..
Flores said he’s “keenly interested” in running for office. Of the seats up for grabs in November 2010 he’s most drawn to a local government post, though the state water battle is also something he’d love to take part in.
DANA CULHANE, 24
Culhane’s surname might be familiar. Her mother, Holly Culhane, a human resources specialist and president of PAS Associates, is well known in the local business community.
Dana Culhane works as press secretary for Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield. She’s also the Kern County chair for Meg Whitman’s gubernatorial campaign and administrative vice chair of Kern County Young Republicans, a group of about 110, many affiliated with Abernathy clients.
The Bakersfield native caught the politics bug during a week-long trip to Washington, D.C., her junior year of college when her class met with senators, Congress members and foreign officials.
That “lit the fire,” she said.
Culhane graduated in May 2007 from Eastern University, a Christian college in Pennsylvania, with a history major.
Culhane isn’t sure yet whether she’ll seek office.
“It depends on the day,” she said. “I’ll be honest.”
BRYAN WILLIAMS, 26
Williams, a field representative for Fuller, was born and raised in Ridgecrest. He graduated from San Francisco State in 2005 with a political science degree.
He’s heavily involved in party activities, serving as chairman of Kern County Young Republicans, vice-chair of the California Young Republicans and western region director of National Young Republicans.
Williams doesn’t believe there are deep ideological divides between the Young Republicans and other groups.
“I don’t think a lot sets us apart,” he said. “We all like to see Republicans elected and like to work together.”
He has “a wish to serve,” but hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll run in 2010.
BILL LIND, 41
Prior to April 15, Lind — now a co-organizer of the Bakersfield Tea Party Patriots — had never previously been involved in politics.
The self-described “average working Joe” became increasingly unhappy with actions started in the Bush administration and continued in Obama’s: bank and automaker bailouts, the stimulus bill.
“Those type of things angered me,” said Lind, who works in oil production. “A lot of that money is still not accounted for.”
None of the local group’s 250 active members have yet decided to run for office in 2010, Lind said.
But he and others are keeping a close eye on candidates and incumbents. They visit and write representatives, attend public meetings and are helping with the Tea Party Patriots’ first state ballot proposition, one that would restrict unions from using public employee dues for political purposes without permission.
Even in Tea Party world, there are divisions.
The Tea Party Patriots aren’t affiliated with the Tea Party Express folks, a group that rolled through Bakersfield last week on its second national bus tour. The Express people aren’t adversaries, Lind said, but they are affiliated with a Republican political action committee that is more partisan than Patriots prefer.
MARTIN BERTRAM, 33
Bertram became first vice president of the Republican Assembly of Kern County, the local chapter of the conservative California Republican Assembly, after Bakersfield’s Ken Mettler became statewide president. The group has about 120 members.
Bertram, a computer networking pro, is “definitely considering” a run in 2010.
The Lansing, Mich., native has an unusual feather in his cap: a novel published in 2005, Vanity of Vanities, sold on Amazon.com. It’s a medieval adventure story, Bertram said.
He’s always been interested in politics but didn’t become heavily active until 2006. That’s when he felt the government was getting “way out of hand” with excess spending and disregard for the constitution.
He thinks more people need to get involved.
“Politics is kind of like the military, but in a civil sense,” he said.
Soldiers protect us from foreign threats, he said, but politics “protects us from ourselves.”
