Leading Republican recall candidate Larry Elder said he would support abolishing the state's current minimum wage, according to a Tuesday interview with The Sacramento Bee.
“The ideal minimum wage is $0.00,” he told the paper.
“I never have quite understood why a third party, like government, feels like it’s anyone’s business what my relationship is to an individual who willingly sold his labor and my relationship with that person when I willingly bought that labor,” Elder said.
California law currently has a tiered system for minimum wage: $14 minimum wage for employers with 26 or more employees and $13 for employers with less than 26 employees. According to Elder, the government should not play a role in deciding wages.
Recent polls show Elder leading all other GOP candidates seeking to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in the Sept. 14 recall election.
Elder decided not to take part in a TV debate Wednesday night with four other Republicans. GOP strategist Sean Walsh told KNX that’s a smart move.
“You’ve got nothing to gain except going down in the polls. You’ve got everything to lose by making a gaff and having the people that are running against you go up,” he said.
The findings from a poll by Emerson College released Tuesday showed support for recalling the governor grew slightly to 46 percent, with 48 percent of surveyed voters opposed. The poll also showed that Elder increased his lead over the other GOP candidates by five percent. The poll showed Elder at 23 percent support, up from a poll last week by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, which had him at 18 percent.
The UC Berkeley poll indicated there is an enthusiasm gap between Republicans motivated to get Newsom out of office and Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents who are not as motivated to vote in the recall, according to poll director Mark DiCamillo.