Neel Kashkari, the man who won that state's GOP nomination for governor, and a presumed Republican frontrunner for the 2016 vacancy, has decided to stay on the sidelines.
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Aaron McLear, an adviser to Kashkari, told CNN Friday evening the 2014 Republican gubernatorial nominee will not make a bid for the open Senate seat.
While he lost handily to Gov. Jerry Brown in November, Kashkari, 41, a son of Indian immigrants, helped work towards redefining a stagnant California Republican Party that had been roundly dismissed as overly rich and overly white by the state's voters.
Where the previous GOP nomination fight devolved into a vicious and toxic fight over immigration policy, Kashkari concentrated mostly on economic issues and, on the trail, struck an almost populist chord.
A self-professed "social libertarian," Kashkari, routinely spent time talking about issue and populations he felt were ignored by the system: working families, children, the homeless.
At a glance, Kashkari even seems a better fit in the Senate than in Sacramento.
Kashkari ran the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- better know as the Wall Street Bailout -- and supporters insist he would do well navigating the Maginot lines etched across Constitution Ave.
But while Kashkari called his ascendance to the upper echelon of California Republican politics a "transformational moment," his heavy investment in his previous campaign -- more than $3 million of his own money -- likely factored in his decision.
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Kashkari rules out California Senate run