Kashkari, mulling gubernatorial bid, to deliver ‘major speech’

Neel Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury official who is expected to announce soon whether he is running for governor, will deliver what he has billed as a “major speech” Tuesday afternoon in Sacramento.

The event will be the first public address by Kashkari since he announced last fall that he was weighing a gubernatorial bid. The Republican has spent much of the last year meeting with donors, politicians and GOP activists, as well as visiting schools, homeless shelters and diverse communities across the state.

Kashkari, 40, has also assembled a team of political consultants who advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Kashkari has never held elected office, but he ran the taxpayer-funded federal bank bail-out under President George W. Bush and President Obama and has worked as a fund manager, investment banker and engineer.

In interviews, the Laguna Beach millionaire has said he did not see a Republican candidate capable of taking on Gov. Jerry Brown. Kashkari says Brown has failed to help the high number of Californians living in poverty or to improve poor-performing schools.

Kashkari is scheduled to speak shortly after noon at Sacramento State at an event marking the release of the 2014 Sacramento Business Review. The publication, a joint production by the university and the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Sacramento, is a forecast of economic conditions in the region.

If Kashkari jumps into the race, he will be competing with Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks) for a spot on the November ballot against Brown.

Donnelly is a staunch conservative, the founder of a Minuteman border patrol chapter and a favorite of the tea party. Kashkari is a fiscal conservative who supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights and who voted for Obama in 2008.

Former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado abandoned his gubernatorial bid last week.

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Twitter: @LATSeema

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