Also-ran in '06 to test Farr
By DAWN WITHERS
Salinas-area businessman Jeff Taylor is taking a more conventional route this year in trying to convince local voters to send him to Congress.
Taylor, a Republican who used a late-announced write-in campaign to take on seven-term U.S. Rep. Sam Farr in 2006, said Monday he plans to get his name on the ballot this year.
"My main concerns are immigration, education, energy, the environment and the economy," he said.
Taylor made his quixotic run in 2006 after Republican candidate Anthony De Maio, a finance entrepreneur, failed to campaign although his name was on the ballot. Taylor has never held elected office.
Farr, D-Carmel, won that election with 70 percent of the vote to Taylor's 3 percent. De Maio received the rest of the votes.
During the 2006 election, Taylor described himself as a staunch advocate of "traditional family values" and focused his campaign on the need to rebuild society's moral structure based on Christian principles.
For this campaign, he said he wants to focus on education - giving parents a choice on where they send their kids to school - and reducing what he calls government's intrusion into Americans' private lives.
Last year, Taylor's campaign received about $3,200 in individual contributions, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Farr, whose campaign has $156,000 in cash, according to the FEC, said he is running on his years of public service and his ability to serve the needs of the Central Coast. He has represented the 17th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Monterey County and most of Santa Cruz County, since 1993.
Farr attributes his multiple re-elections to "getting results and doing what people want."
"I think leadership is just not representing an agenda," he said. "It's also leading, and I'm very proud of the role I've played in leading the issues."
