LOS ANGELES — Democrats across the nation are eager to make increasing the minimum wage a defining campaign issue in 2014, but in California a proposal to boost the pay rate to $12 an hour is coming from a different point on the political compass.

Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley multimillionaire and registered Republican who once ran for governor and, briefly, U.S. Senate, wants state voters to endorse the wage jump that he predicts would nourish the economy and lift low-paid workers from dependency on food stamps and other assistance bankrolled by taxpayers.

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Ron Unz, shown in 1997, wants to raise California’s minimum wage to $12 an hour in two steps. The Associated Press

A push for bigger paychecks for workers at the lower rungs of the economic ladder is typically associated with Democrats – President Obama is supporting a bill in Congress that would elevate the $7.25 federal minimum to more than $10 an hour.

But entrepreneur Unz, 52, is a former publisher of The American Conservative magazine with a history of against-the-grain political activism that includes pushing a 1998 ballot proposal that dismantled California’s bilingual education system, an idea he later championed in Colorado and other states.

Two decades ago, as a 32-year-old, the theoretical-physicist-turned-software-developer tried to unseat then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a fellow Republican. After a long break on the political sidelines, Unz’s reappearance has startled members of both major parties, and his proposal – if it goes to voters in November – could unsettle races from governor to Congress.

“He is a wild card in the deck of California politics,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and former Wilson speech writer.

Republican National Committee member Shawn Steel praised Unz for his 1998 initiative, which abolished most bilingual education programs for students who speak little, if any, English and replaced them with English-only instruction. But Steel predicted a jump in the minimum wage would eliminate jobs, penalizing young people who often hold them.

Unz “is an innovator, he’s extremely bright and he’s a lone wolf,” Steel said.

To Unz, who’s spoken out over the years on issues as varied as campaign finance to IQ and race, the proposal simply makes sense. As drafted, it would increase the minimum wage in two steps – to $10 an hour in 2015, and $12 in 2016, the highest among states.

His push comes as Seattle’s new mayor, Democrat Ed Murray, has said he wants workers there to earn a minimum of $15 an hour, and after fast-food workers staged nationwide rallies calling for higher income.

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