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Max Steiner
Max Steiner (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 1st Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Steiner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Max Steiner was born in Sacramento, California. Steiner served in the U.S. Army from 2005 to 2009 and has served in the U.S. Army Reserve. He earned a degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 2011. Steiner's career experience includes working as a diplomat with the Foreign Service and a policy analyst with the RAND Corporation.[1][2][3]
Elections
2022
See also: California's 1st Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 1
Incumbent Doug LaMalfa defeated Max Steiner in the general election for U.S. House California District 1 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Doug LaMalfa (R) | 62.1 | 152,839 |
 | Max Steiner (D)  | 37.9 | 93,386 | |
| Total votes: 246,225 | |||
| = 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 U.S. House California District 1
Incumbent Doug LaMalfa and Max Steiner defeated Tim Geist and Rose Penelope Yee in the primary for U.S. House California District 1 on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Doug LaMalfa (R) | 57.1 | 96,858 |
| ✔ | | Max Steiner (D) | 32.8 | 55,549 |
 | Tim Geist (R) | 6.7 | 11,408 | |
 | Rose Penelope Yee (Independent) | 3.4 | 5,777 | |
| Total votes: 169,592 | |||
| = 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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Marcus Godfrey (L)
- Robert Lydon (D)
- David Zink (D)
- Jonathon Ramos (Federalist Party)
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Max Steiner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Steiner's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Forest Management: We need to adopt best practices to manage our forests to create resiliency in the face of climate change.
- Fire Management: We need to return to a strategy of aggressive initial attack. We also need a more flexible way to manage wildland firefighters through pre-trained, part-time, reserve crews that the government can activate as needed.
- National Security: The US faces an international environment that requires active diplomatic engagement with a military that stands ready. However, we don't need armchair generals. We need fighters in Congress that know the stakes.
We need to cut down many of the small- and medium-sized trees to create space. This space will facilitate tree growth and fire safety while generating responsible, renewable revenues for property owners. Our forests are a resource, but they are also increasingly a risk: we can manage that risk better through better policies.
Public discourse on this topic has too often been ruined by simplistic, sound-bite-ready policies on both sides of the political aisle. We can’t solve forestry with soundbites. My brother lost his house in Redding to the Carr fire: I have skin in the game, and I know that the status quo is unacceptable.
Policy Proposals:
Transition the Forest Service from USDA to the Department of Interior – where it would join the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service in managing our natural resources.
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.
Note: Steiner submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on February 5, 2022.
Campaign website
Steiner's campaign website stated the following:
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Elections Sixteen years ago I swore an oath to defend American democracy against all enemies “foreign and domestic” – I intend to keep that oath. In 2020, the Republican Party lost the Presidential election and refused to accept the results. Doug LaMalfa and 133 other Republicans voted against certifying the results. Now the GOP is trying to rewrite state laws to ensure that their next attempt to steal an election is successful. This is unacceptable. Our democracy depends upon politicians respecting the results of free and fair elections. The response of the Democratic Party and the Biden Administration to this attack on our democracy has been pitiful. Working on an infrastructure bill means nothing if democracy dies. Democrats need to fight to defend our right to vote. Too many incumbent Democrats are too comfortable, too complacent, or too old to fight for democracy. I am not a do-nothing Democrat. I have fought for democracy in Iraq and I intend to fight for democracy in Congress. Policy Proposals:
We have a forest management problem in the North State. We cannot fix our forests with rakes or regulations – we need to invest billions of dollars in active forest management on a massive scale. We need to cut down many of the small- and medium-sized trees to create space. This space will facilitate tree growth and fire safety, while generating responsible, renewable revenues for property owners. Our forests are a resource, but they are also increasingly a risk – we can manage that risk better through better policies. Public discourse on this topic has too often been ruined by simplistic, sound-bite-ready policies on both sides of the political aisle. We can’t solve forestry with soundbites. My brother lost his house in Redding to the Carr fire: I have skin in the game, and I know that the status quo is unacceptable. Policy Proposals:
Biden’s Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act allocated $3.3 billion to wildfire risk reduction over five years: about $660 million/year. It’s a well-intentioned start – and much more than the Republican Party was willing to spend – but it is insufficient. We need a dedicated national effort to reduce the destructive impacts of uncontrolled wildfires. This will require an aggressive commitment by lawmakers to fund more firefighters, with more equipment, in more places. Just as importantly, lawmakers need to force USFS/BLM/NPS to change their culture from “managing fire” to “putting fires out and managing forests”. Policy Proposals
One of the most important things the federal government can do for California’s water crisis is to fund more dams. If you think that California’s water problem can be solved with only dams: you are wrong. The changing climate means that the water is not there. If you think that you can solve California’s water problem with only water restrictions: you’re equally wrong. You will bankrupt farmers and destroy California’s agricultural industry. We know, given climate change, that we will have these droughts in the future: that means a greater reliance on groundwater. The economics of these projects are clear, and every acre-foot of surface water capacity represents a foot less of groundwater users will need to pump. Doug LaMalfa likes to claim that he knows water because he has a family tradition of using water. That is like a fox saying he should be in charge of the henhouse because he comes from a long line of foxes. The Steiners have a tradition of actually solving water problems in the West. My grand-uncle, Wesley Steiner, was Deputy Director of the California Department of Water Resources before becoming DWR Director in Arizona. There, he managed multiple competing issues in building the Central Arizona Project aqueduct, which moves 1.5 million acre-feet/year: balancing environmental and cost concerns while convincing farmers to tolerate groundwater limits. I hope you will give me a chance to carry on the Steiner family’s tradition of solving water issues in the West through intelligent, balanced policymaking. Policy Proposals:
Unlike Doug LaMalfa, I have fought for my country. Moreover, as an Army Reservist, I stand ready to fight for America again. We have too many politicians in Congress that have never worn a uniform in combat, and who have wasted countless dollars and lives on ill-fated interventions overseas. Russia has declared war on Ukraine. Despite what Trump says, this is not a “genius” move. It is an act of aggression, a humanitarian disaster, and a prelude of what will happen if the U.S. retreats from its role as a global leader. We are also facing the threat of a rising China: a totalitarian regime singularly focused on the rules-based international order that cost half a million American lives in World War Two. We live in the real world: where evil regimes stand ready to destroy everything we stand for. We need fighters in Congress that know the stakes. I’ve never been a police officer (I can’t do everything!) but these are men and women putting their lives on the line over long shifts. I disagree with the current anti-cop rhetoric by many on the left. It’s unfair and unproductive. It reminds me of anti-military hate from the political left during Vietnam. It was inappropriate then, and it’s inappropriate now. I back the blue. Guiding principles:
We need a more flexible way to manage wildland firefighters. We need pre-trained, part-time crews that the government can activate as needed. Fires are a national security problem, that are hard to predict, with a straightforward – though physically demanding – training pipeline. I’ve spent 10 years in the Army Reserves: this is literally the same set of problems that the Reserves and Guard were designed to solve. War is rare, unpredictable, and requires a country to have trained soldiers before it starts. We should use the military reserve/guard force structure as a model and apply it to the way we fight fires. Policy Proposals:
As the American officer in charge of agricultural affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, I helped American farmers export rice, potatoes, and beef products even as local producers tried to get around the protections granted by CAFTA (The Central American Free Trade Agreement). I know the challenges that American producers face in exporting overseas and I know how to fight for you. As your Congressman, I will support farmers in the district who have trouble penetrating the maze of American agricultural bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. The farmers of this district don’t need a Congressman that knows how to farm – they’re not turning to D.C. for help with farming. The farmers of this district need a Congressman who understands how to solve bureaucratic problems. I know how to support farmers through policy. Policy Proposals:
Our constitutional rights define who we are as Americans. They are not set in stone – note the 17 additional amendments made since the original 10 – but neither should we allow them to be undermined through onerous legislative restrictions. I feel that too many Americans “support the Constitution” only when it tells them what they want to hear. We see this disappointing hypocrisy most clearly in “left-wing” restrictions on Americans’ Second Amendment right to bear arms and in “right-wing” restrictions on Americans’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy and personal choice in pregnancy. Outlawing guns will not end gun violence any more than outlawing abortion will end abortion. Policy Proposals:
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| —Max Steiner's campaign website (2022)[5] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House California District 1 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia by Max Steiner on February 4, 2022
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 5, 2022
- ↑ Max Steiner for Congress, "About Max," accessed May 18, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Max Steiner for Congress, “Issues,” accessed May 12, 2022
