Thursday, September 16th, 2010 10:45:21

California Common Sense: Don’t Tell Me It Can’t Be Done

There’s hope for America. I saw it this past weekend in Fairfield, Calif.

I flew out to Sacramento to speak at a fundraiser for Rick Tubbs, the Republican challenger to Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. Almost everyone has told Tubbs that he cannot win. But as I told his wife Kristy last fall, “If you don’t run, you can’t win.” He’s running, and he just might win.

Fairfield is home of the Jelly Belly Candy Co., the same company that provided President Ronald Reagan with his jelly beans in the White House, where the 250-strong fundraiser was held Friday night.

Life has not been all sweet for Rick Tubbs, who grew up on welfare. But through education and military service, he is now living the American Dream with his wife and three children, and he wants everyone to have that same opportunity.

Tubbs is a commercial airline pilot, an Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel, a member of the Air Line Pilots Association and a former small-business owner who served in combat in Afghanistan. His opponent, incumbent Miller, has never served in the military, has never held a private-sector job, has never run a business — but he has been a congressman since 1974, when he was first elected at the age of 29.