--- title: Neel Kashkari Will Pay For Your Gas To Smash A Toy Train description: Republican candidate for governor Neel Kashkari will hand out $25 gas vouchers to people who will destroy a toy train. canonical: https://time.com/3425598/california-kashkari-crazy-train-gas-card/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-24T15:46:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:23:06.080Z article:section: Politics og:title: Neel Kashkari Will Pay For Your Gas To Smash A Toy Train og:description: Republican candidate for governor Neel Kashkari will hand out $25 gas vouchers to people who will destroy a toy train. og:url: https://time.com/3425598/california-kashkari-crazy-train-gas-card/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6223b95cf6939328/6986a224d0b6f2304f305f59/governor-california-d_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3725 og:image:height: 2095 og:image:alt: Jerry Brown, Neel Kashkari og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Neel Kashkari Will Pay For Your Gas To Smash A Toy Train twitter:description: Republican candidate for governor Neel Kashkari will hand out $25 gas vouchers to people who will destroy a toy train. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6223b95cf6939328/6986a224d0b6f2304f305f59/governor-california-d_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Candidate Will Pay For Your Gas to Smash a Toy Train > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=12e8bf18-ef2b-401d-97ae-8f7c23bada9d&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Sep 24, 2014 3:46 PM UTC  California Governor Jerry Brown, left, listens as Republican challenger Neel Kashkari speaks during a gubernatorial debate in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2014 California Governor Jerry Brown, left, listens as Republican challenger Neel Kashkari speaks during a gubernatorial debate in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2014 Rich Pedroncelli—AP by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Sep 24, 2014 3:46 PM UTC **Updated at 2:56 p.m.** On Wednesday afternoon at a Mobil gas station in Burbank, California, Republican candidate for governor Neel Kashkari will hand out $25 gas vouchers to people who will destroy a toy train. The event—headlined “Do you want a free gas card?” in a fundraising email—will protest gas taxes associated with the state’s high-speed rail, which Kashkari has labeled the “Crazy Train.” Kashkari’s competitor, three-term Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, believes that the $68 billion project connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco will be a major economic boost. Kashkari campaign spokesperson Mary-Sarah Kinner told the San Francisco [_Chronicle_](http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/09/23/kashkaris-polls-stagnant-paying-supporters-at-rally/) that the event is “not a rally.” “Neel is offering drivers who smash a toy train $25 towards a tank of gas as part of his larger effort to underscore the point that Jerry Brown is increasing the cost of gas to pay for the bullet train,” she said. The event is legal under California state law, according to Dr. Richard L. Hasen, a leading election law expert at UC Irvine Law School. “So long as there is not payment for voting, or voting for Kashkari in particular, I do not see a legal problem,” says Hasen. But the event is another signal that Kashkari’s campaign is sputtering six weeks before election day. Brown holds a nineteen-point lead over Kashkari, according to aggregate polling data compiled by [Real Clear Politics](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2014/governor/ca/california%5Fgovernor%5Fkashkari%5Fvs%5Fbrown-5080.html). It struck Dr. Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, as “crazy” that the Kashkari campaign thinks it has to pay supporters to show up. “If they can’t get a few activists to smash a toy train for free, I’m not sure the campaign can hope to mobilize the many millions of voters that they will need to win in November,” says Kousser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3425598/california-kashkari-crazy-train-gas-card/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3425598/california-kashkari-crazy-train-gas-card/"},"headline":"This Candidate Will Pay For Your Gas to Smash a Toy Train","datePublished":"2014-09-24T15:46:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:23:06.080Z","description":"The underdog Republican gubernatorial candidate is going to extreme measures to bring out supporters","url":"https://time.com/3425598/california-kashkari-crazy-train-gas-card/","keywords":["2014 elections","California","Jerry Brown"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6223b95cf6939328/6986a224d0b6f2304f305f59/governor-california-d_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6223b95cf6939328/6986a224d0b6f2304f305f59/governor-california-d_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jerry Brown, Neel Kashkari","caption":"Jerry Brown, Neel Kashkari","creditText":"Rich Pedroncelli—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-elections/","name":"2014 elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3425598/california-kashkari-crazy-train-gas-card/","name":"This Candidate Will Pay For Your Gas to Smash a Toy Train"}}]}] ```