SACRAMENTO — California's Republican candidate for governor says he spent a week living as a homeless person in search of a job to test Gov. Jerry Brown's claim that the state is making a comeback after the economic downturn.
In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal, Neel Kashkari says he took a bus from Los Angeles to Fresno earlier this month with $40 in his pocket. He says he turned to park benches and parking lots to sleep at night and got food at a homeless shelter.
The 41-year-old Kashkari says he was unable to find a job. He accuses the state's politicians of ignoring the poor.
A recent poll shows Kashkari, a former banker and U.S. Treasury official, trailing Brown by 19 points. The race has so far generated only sporadic public interest.
