Rollins wants to take on Calvert again

Editor’s note: California will hold its 2024 Presidential Primary Tuesday, March 5. Besides the races for president and the U.S. Senate, to succeed Diane Feinstein, many local races need a primary to determine the November candidates.

The Town Crier is writing about the races for the U.S. Congressional District 41, California Assembly districts (AD) 36 and 47 and the Riverside County Board of Education District 4.

Incumbent Ken Calvert and two Democrats — Anna Nevenic and Will Rollins — are on the primary ballot. The two candidates receiving the most votes March 5 will advance to the November ballot.

Will Rollins, 39, of Palm Springs is seeking his second nomination to challenge incumbent Ken Calvert for the 41st District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rollins is a former federal prosecutor. After Sept. 11, he wanted to combat terrorism. Rather than join the military, he graduated from Dartmouth University and earned his law degree from Columbia University.

“I’ve worked in law enforcement my entire career, protecting communities from terror,” he said. “Whether it’s murder, cartels, terrorism or public corruption, I’ve wanted to stop those threats to our neighborhoods.”

Beyond the physical threats, Rollins is very concerned about the damage to our trust in government that political corruption has created — and he stresses that both parties share the blame.

He offers several ideas to change the political behavior of elected officials and to improve citizens’ faith in government. He is an advocate of term limits. Rollins favors six terms for members of the House of Representatives and three terms for senators. However, he often poses a qualification.

He would vote for these limits if Congress also adopted prohibiting a lifetime ban on lobbying after a congressman or senator retires. Also, he would ban an elected official’s right to trade stocks. He foresees bipartisan support for these steps.

During his campaigning, which barely stopped after November 2022, he said he has identified three most frequent issues constituents throughout the district raise at his meetings. The first is the economy, which he describes as “… more money in the pockets of working families. Nurses pay more taxes than billionaires.”

The second is the district’s infrastructure, particularly the roads. “This includes access to Idyllwild and modernizing the transportation system,” he observed.

The third is the concern over the fairness of the political system and the potential corruption of it.

One of his other major concerns is the federal tax system. His condemnation begins with the ability of billionaires to pay zero taxes. As an example, he noted that both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have paid no taxes twice in the past decade. He described this as “unfair.”

If he can raise taxes on the 400 wealthiest families, whose total wealth is greater than 60% of the country, he would lower taxes on salaried workers.

This also extends to his views on the Social Security aystem. The Congressional Budget Office and other economic analysts have forecast the Social Security system will be in deficit by the late 2030s. One common fix is to raise the age for eligibility of Social Security payments.

Before imposing restrictions on those who pay Social Security taxes, Rollins urges making the income tax system fairer and applying the Social Security tax to all incomes evenly. It is now limited to only the first $168,000 of income in 2024.

“Personally, I’m opposed to an increase in the retirement age,” he said.

He also recommends extending California’s minimum wage law to the entire country. He argues that California’s small businesses are at a disadvantage when required to pay the higher minimum wage compared to small businesses in states with a lower minimum wage.

Among his environmental policies, Rollins does favor expanding the electric vehicle (EV) market with the use of rebates. When asked if that did not seem in conflict with his income policies, since the wealthy are the biggest purchasers of EVs, Rollins responded that California needs to create incentives so that EV manufacturers can produce the cars at much lower prices and for folk across the income spectrum.

He also recognizes that as this market grows, there will be a need for more charging stations similar in number to today’s gas stations. But he also noted that new technology has extended the range of EVs and the time between charges.

Rollins is a firm believer in a strong border. He lamented the House and Senate Republican’s agreement to table a bipartisan compromise border bill at the urging of candidate Donald Trump.

“But a secure border is not sufficient,” he added. “We need to change and improve our work permit system. We need a meaningful and efficient guest workforce program. This has to allow our small businesses to hire folks legally. These workers will then be paying income and Social Security taxes, too.

“This system takes money,” he stated. “More law enforcement at the border and more immigration judges will require funding.”

Rollins and Republican Ken Calvert opposed each other in the 2022 election for the CD 41 seat. Calvert won reelection by 11,000 votes or 5%.

Registration in the district has barely changed in the 15 months since that election. There are 7,000 more voters, out of a total of 470,000. Party registration is essentially the same as October 2022.

But Rollins is optimistic about his chances this November. Since this is a presidential election year, he expects a much higher turnout. In 2022, the turnout was barely 51%. A turnout of 75%, about normal for presidential elections, would bring another 100,000 voters to the polls, in his opinion, and those would more likely be Democratic voters.

“In 2022, it was my first time running,” he admitted. “It was a steep learning curve and it takes time proving yourself to the voters.”

To improve voters’ awareness of him, Rollins is spending more time campaigning in the western portion of the district to improve his name recognition there.

As of Feb. 14, Rollins had about $2.4 million in his campaign account. For the 2022 campaign, he raised a total of $3.5 million and spent $3.7 million.

When asked how much would be necessary this year, he replied, “Too much!! The need to get funds from the public to run for office and raise contributions is a horrible feeling,” he stated. “Whatever amount is needed it is too much.”

He noted that more than 90% of his contributions have come from individual donors. “I’m proud of the grassroots support that I have,” Rollins said. “I’ve said ‘no’ to corporate PACs.”

In conclusion, Rollins described his special feeling for Idyllwild and the Hill which he visits frequently and often wishes he lived here.