The grumpy cat stares into the distance. “Students?” The text asks. “No.”
A bit confused? The image is one of dozens of attempts Republican gubernatorial candidate Abel Maldonado has made at translating criticisms of Gov. Jerry Brown’s policies into Internet-friendly memes. (The idea here being that Brown isn’t prioritizing education, and is spending Prop. 30 revenue elsewhere.)
In another Maldonado meme, Brown is presented as a bureaucratic Most Interesting Man In The World. “I don’t always govern California,” it says. “But when I do, I stay for over 10 years.” Maldonado posted it last month, asking followers to “RT if (they) agree it’s time for new leadership in California.”
Rick Rolling it’s not. McKayla would not be impressed at these meme attempts. But the strategy highlights the out-of-the-box tactics that Maldonado and other Republican candidates will need to embrace to compete in a race where they’ll be outgunned and outspent.
“Abel Maldonado will not be governor if he runs a nice, little sweet campaign,” adviser Fred Davis told the L.A. Times after the Republican came under fire for a no-holds-barred assault on Brown’s realignment plan that featured a mug shot of a frightening-looking murder suspect.