SACRAMENTO, California — Neel Kashkari made quite the statement on Wednesday as he pulled up to the State Capitol in a Tesla and delivered 6,500 paper bags intended for Governor Jerry Brown in order to capitalize on Brown’s failure to woo the automaker from building its $5 billion gigafactory in California and, as a result, costing the Golden State 6,500 jobs.
“I’m here to deliver 6,500 paper bags to Jerry Brown to symbolize his utter failure,” Kashkari said to the press corps that was gathered on the Horseshoe Courtyard on the capitol’s front lawn. “If Jerry Brown had been doing his job, he could have been sipping champagne with Elan Musk last Thursday instead of getting clobbered by me in the debate.”
Brown claims California lost the Tesla deal to Nevada because “Tesla wanted a massive upfront cash payment that I don’t think would be fair to the taxpayers of California.” However, his administration has refused to release public records surrounding the failed deal which likely contain details about what went wrong.
In June, Texas Governor Rick Perry was seen cruising around California’s capitol in a Tesla; at the time, California and Texas were competing for a bid to build the automaker’s battery factory in their consecutive states before being beaten out by Nevada last week.
After addressing the press, Kashkari made his way to the capitol’s mail room where he dropped off the 249 bundles of paper bags which were addressed “To Jerry Brown.” He wrote on one of the packages that it was from “California’s unemployed.”
Kashkari said Brown is more focused on banning plastic bags than putting Californians back to work. “Not rebuilding the middle class of California…That’s what Jerry Brown is focused on;” a point Kashkari reiterated during last week’s gubernatorial debate.
“Jerry Brown has never had a real job in his life. And he doesn’t understand the value of hard work,” Kashkari said. “Jerry Brown is utterly out of touch.”
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