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Deborah Baber
Deborah Baber (Republican Party) (also known as Deb) ran for election to the California State Assembly to represent District 38. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Baber completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Deborah Baber was born in Roswell, New Mexico. She graduated from Maury High School. She attended Old Dominion University and Florida State University. She earned a bachelor's degree from Hunter College in 1993. Her career experience includes working as a publishing executive and actress.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: California State Assembly elections, 2024
General election
General election for California State Assembly District 38
Incumbent Steve Bennett defeated Deborah Baber in the general election for California State Assembly District 38 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Steve Bennett (D) | 63.4 | 117,387 |
 | Deborah Baber (R)  | 36.6 | 67,845 | |
| Total votes: 185,232 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 38
Incumbent Steve Bennett and Deborah Baber advanced from the primary for California State Assembly District 38 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Steve Bennett (D) | 61.6 | 51,657 |
| ✔ | | Deborah Baber (R) | 38.4 | 32,233 |
| Total votes: 83,890 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Baber received the following endorsements.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Deborah Baber completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Baber's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My father was career Air Force and a single dad who brought up four children. He instilled a love of family and country, a dedication to truth, honor, and hard work, and a belief in myself. I lived in New York City for 34 years before relocating to California in 2014.
I majored in Political Science and graduated with the highest distinction, summa cum laude. I was an intern for Democrat Senator Patrick Moynihan. I have followed Donald Trump since 1979.
I started my book publishing career as a temporary employee. My desk was in the hallway. I spent over 20 years in the industry, eventually becoming a vice president at Macmillan Publishers, a half-billion-dollar company in the United States. I specialized in operations.
I believe in personal responsibility in a moral society, balanced budgets, and an accountable, strategic social safety net with measurable results.
I believe in putting America First in the world, making California Best in the nation, and legislating District 38 to become Number One in the State. I will make decisions for the District's benefit, not for special interest groups or Sacramento's governing elite. The principles of republicanism, putting faith, family, and freedom at the forefront, and staying in one's legislative lane can turn dreams into destiny.- Government is TOO BIG.
California is only one of 10 states with full-time legislatures. The next two populous states, Texas and Florida, have only part-time legislators.
We Californians do not need full-time politicians and unelected bureaucrats and administrators to tell us how to live our lives, define our families, educate our children, take care of our health, and run our businesses.
Putting the genie back in the bottle will not be easy but it must be done. Bringing Donald Trump’s Agenda 47 principles and discipline to legislating for District 38 can turn dreams into destiny. There are solutions. - Government takes too much money out of our pockets. California faces a multi-billion-dollar deficit. We can’t pay our bills now. And, with the recent news about more businesses leaving California including big names in the tech industry, we won’t be able to pay our bills in the future! Something is going to break. Either government has to get smaller and more focused on its constitutional responsibilities or it will bankrupt those of us who remain in California. Over 15% of California's workforce is employed in government jobs. Payroll taxes for these employees exceed $4 billion dollars. These employees pay their taxes using taxpayer-funded paychecks. So, we pay OUR taxes, THEIR wages, AND their taxes!
- Too often government acts outside its Constitutional authority. Have you noticed during an election season that...road work springs up everywhere but potholes greet us the rest of the time? Mailboxes, email, and text messages explode with ads asking for money? 39 million unique men and women buy food, drive cars, purchase homes, hike, go to beaches, have families, seek jobs, learn trades and get educations. 66% attend religious services. Governments should have little say-so over our personal lives, family choices, and private business operations. Californians with different beliefs, backgrounds, cultures, and talents should be free from government intrusion to pursue individual paths to prosperity, happiness and fulfillment.
Our nation’s citizens are trillions in debt; state taxpayers are indebted for $10s of billions! County governments owe billions more and there’s $100s of millions in city budgets. Illegal aliens pour across our border using resources/taking jobs. Drug and human trafficking cartels murder, maim, and destroy the citizenry that pays for government intrusion and blunders. Debt enslaves. This must end. There are solutions.
Ralph Baber died in 2010. Seldom does a day pass when I am not reminded of something he said, did, or shared with me. I honor his memory when I am challenged with important decisions and choices by asking, "What decision would Dad make? Or, would Dad be proud of my choice?"
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Peter Schweizer’s Blood Money, Red-Handed, and Profiles in Corruption. G. Edward Griffin’s The Creature from Jekyll Island.
Irving Stone's historical novel Those Who Loved about John and Abigail Adams and The Agony and Ecstasy about Michelangelo.
The Man by Irving Wallace and Black Like Me by journalist John Howard Griffin.
The Year of Revolutions published in 1948, a collection of essays about the revolutions convulsing western culture 100 years earlier in 1848. The Black Books of Communism. The Surrogate Proletariat by my mentor Dr. Gregory Massell. The Source and The Bridge at Andau by James Michener. The French novel, Camp of the Saints written in the 1970s.
Asabiyyah by Ed West about Ibn Khaldun, a 14th Century Islamic social scientist. The Double Life of Fidel Castro and Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance.
The Spy by James Fennimore Cooper. Alan Drury's novels Advise and Consent and A Shade of Difference. Robert Ruark's Something of Value and Uhuru. The Asian rim series from James Clavell, especially King Rat, Gai Jin, and Whirlwind. Classics including The Count of Monte Cristo, the Man in the Iron Mask, Gone With the Wind, Adam’s Road, The Black, King of the Wind, and Dracula.
He or she must be a good listener and one who is willing to change his/her mind if new ideas, information, and compelling arguments are made. Elected officials should lead by example, be transparent in their money-interests and connections, and be ready to pass the governing baton to the next person. He or she should seek public service as an avocation and civic duty and not as a profession.
- Oversee public projects for shared services, safety, and infrastructure.
- Encourage public communities to work together, benefiting individuals.
- Remove public obstacles that stop private businesses from thriving.
- Support public programs that teach the content of our Constitution.
- Provide public incentives for the creation of family units.
- Offer public messaging for healthy lifestyles.
IT IS NOT government’s role to…
Control the world’s wealth and resources.
Dominate personal life choices.
Operate our businesses.
Regulate our families.
Educate our children.
He was "called up" on alert several times and deployed to Spain during the Cuban Missile Crisis. While on alert, Mom would take the four of us children to visit with him for picnics.
Guard dogs stalked the high perimeter of the base. Dad arranged for us kids to attend a training of the German Shepherds. It was fierce and scary to see these animals transform into killing machines when given a command to attack a very well-padded human target. My father wanted to be sure we knew never to approach the dogs or attempt to pet them despite their peaceful demeanor when not otherwise in attack mode.
We moved to Panama when I was eleven, almost twelve. The first year we lived in the Republic after which we moved into the Canal Zone. Jobs for people my age were non-existent. The summer I turned 13 I created a story-hour for young children. Mothers would drop their youngsters off for two hours in the afternoon. I organized games, reading challenges, and other age-appropriate activities. As I recall, parents paid me $5.00 per child.
Fast forward to my first job stateside at 17 when I worked for Sears and Roebuck over a Christmas season in the packaging/fulfillment department. I had graduated high school six months early and was getting ready to go to college so needed the money.
We must reign in government spending by establishing long-term programs that reduce the size of government regulations and bureaucracies while providing better services for the areas government should be involved with.
Elected officials should be men and women like you and me who have faith, love our families, respect private property, and cherish our freedom.
Our system of government is built on personal responsibility for ourselves and our families. Our self-governing philosophy means we must learn to govern alongside each other, not in spite of each other!
I also believe there is a place in governing for firebrands like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.
I am also deeply moved by the several stories of people who lost loved ones to drugs, war, and the battle over whether one can really change a male body into a female body and vice versa.
I am sad when I listen to city councils, boards of supervisors, and legislators brag about increased funding to feed the needy, help the infirmed, house the homeless, and aid the mentally ill and drug addicted populations. I yearn to learn that people, not the government, are filling these roles in our culture and society.
The young man was a bit frustrated and taken aback. "But Rabbi, once I become a priest, I could become a Bishop!"
Unimpressed the Rabbi responded, "Ahhhh-so what! What happens after you become a Bishop?"
Now the young man was truly frustrated and agitated. The Rabbi wasn't sharing in the young man's excitement. "But Rabbi... you don't understand. Once I become a Bishop, I could become a Cardinal!"
Once more, the unimpressed Rabbi asked, "A Cardinal... Ahhh-so what. What happens after you become a Cardinal?"
In anguish the young man studying to become a priest said, "Rabbi, what do you want me to do? Be Jesus Christ?"
Emergencies must be met with strong, bold, and decisive leadership in the short-term. That is what the chief executive should do. By definition, an emergency passes and life returns to normal. The chief executive’s orders are no longer needed nor is it constitutional to continue with them. When emergencies such as wildfires, earthquakes, severe storms, or initial responses to acts of terror or war, are over, government’s goal must be to return the population to normalcy as quickly as possible.
First, there’s A Poison Pill Bill. This bill would return financial control over major project expenditures to the taxpaying public who funds the work. All major projects would be required to publish an anticipated schedule for completion along with a budget for the work. If the project misses its deadlines by a factor and/or is over the budget by a factor, the project would automatically be placed on the next election ballot. The taxpaying voter-decision would answer the question with a simple yes or no, a "thumbs up or thumbs down" vote on whether to cancel or continue the project.
Education
Budget
Communications
Judiciary
Natural Resources
Public Safety
Public Employment and Retirement
Revenue and Taxation
I will advocate for a "Poison Pill Bill" that gives the taxpaying citizen on ongoing tool for government financial accountability. All major government-funded projects must publish an anticipated schedule for completion along with a budget for the work. If the project misses its deadlines by a factor and/or is over the budget by a factor, the project will automatically be placed on the next election ballot. It will be a simple yes/no, "thumbs up or thumbs down" vote by the taxpayer on whether to cancel the project.
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 finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 22, 2024
