Republican Brian Maryott is a certified financial planner and former mayor of San Juan Capistrano hoping to win a seat in California's 49th Congressional District, which is currently occupied by incumbent and Democrat Rep. Mike Levin.

What You Need To Know

  • Republican Brian Maryott, former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, is running for California's 49th Congressional District

  • Maryott is against offshore drilling and would like to see the climate crisis addressed, but does not believe government mandates will solve the issue

  • On the issue of the pandemic, Maryott said that, if elected, he would work to restabilize small to medium-sized businesses while the country awaits a vaccine

In a recent campaign ad, Maryott compared working in politics to disposing of dog waste — a job he had when he was a teenager — referring to how it's tough work, but that you have to “shovel out the waste.”

“It wasn’t intended to be particularly personal,” Maryott told Inside the Issues. “It’s an indictment of the system, which allows for career politicians, which I am not. My feeling about public service is, after building some wisdom and experience and life, you go serve for a modest number of years, and then you go back to the farm. I think that’s really the way our founders intended it to be.”

His opponent, Rep. Levin, spent many years in the clean industry energy sector and as an environmental lawyer, who says government mandates are necessary to make headway in the climate crisis.

Though Maryott said he feels deeply that “we’re custodians of this Earth and we have to look out for future generations,” he disagrees that the federal government should get involved.

"Of course the Green New Deal can’t be accomplished — nothing like it could be accomplished in any reasonable period of time, and even if they were to try, it would require that the entire energy sector be placed in the Federal Government's hands," he said. "And my feeling is, not only is that wildly undoable, it would be destructive to American families, Californians, our way of life, and even health. So I simply believe, very strongly, that we have to lean on incentives and highly motivating things for people to make some transition over time to greener energies and renewable energy, and I think we're going to have to incentivize companies and research and development because, ultimately, when you look at the equation, and you look at the way developing nations are beginning to emit greenhouse gases and what the projection is for their future, it's going to be technology that’s really going to help this problem in the long run.”

Maryott would like to see offshore drilling across the country come to an end.

“I don't believe that we should do any more offshore drilling, be it California or anywhere else in the country because, I think, ultimately we don't need that oil capacity as a nation looking down the long road,” he said.

Maryott said the Trump administration has made great strides for taxpayers, business owners, and done well with foreign policy.

“I think some of the administration's best work has been done to alleviate the tax burden and that was led, of course, by the Republican party in 2017," he said. "It did remarkable things for our employers, small, medium, large in terms of their ability to provide new job opportunities by product growth, new divisions, new benefits to families and workers in those companies. So that was very, very important work by the administration and while it’s not always pretty, and it sometimes looks a little bit choppy, but I really think that the administration has done well in resetting a firmer course and a firmer stance with both allies and foes with regard to our foreign policy. So those are some areas where I think the administration’s done a very good job.”

He does not completely support the president, though, especially when it comes to the commander-in-chief’s rhetoric.

“He’s not everybody's cup of tea, and we would all like him, on occasion, to be a little more thoughtful in his communications,” said Maryott. “But I think there have been a lot of wins by the administration, and they’ve made quite a difference pre-COVID. We had some remarkable job numbers both in this congressional district and across the land, and I think a lot of that was the incredible reduction in regulatory burden.”

On the issue of the pandemic, Maryott said, if elected, he would work to restabilize small to medium-sized businesses while the country awaits a vaccine.

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“People have invested their life savings in their business, and they truly have, and they’re being put out of business here in California," he said. "We have got to bring some relief to these folks. We've got to give them the ability to open and stay open with their businesses at meaningful levels, so at the very least they can support their fixed costs and stay viable. And when you play that across California, it’s hundreds of thousands of employers, so it's critically, critically important.

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