California's 48th Congressional District election (June 5, 2018 top-two primary)
- General election: Nov. 6
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 22
- Early voting: Oct. 8 - Nov. 5
- Absentee voting deadline: Postmark Nov. 6
- Online registration: Yes
- Same-day registration: Yes
- Voter ID: No
- Poll times: 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Incumbent Dana Rohrabacher (R) and businessman Harley Rouda (D) were the top two finishers in the June 5, 2018 primary in California's 48th Congressional District. They advanced to the November general election.
California's top-two primary system was the defining feature in the race to represent California's 48th Congressional District. Incumbent Dana Rohrabacher was considered to be the likely first-place finisher, setting up a contest for the second spot on the November ballot.
Rohrabacher was one of seven California Republicans who represented districts won by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.[1]
Rohrabacher's only Republican challenger to have raised more than $100,000 was former Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh (R). Baugh cast his campaign as an effort to replace an incumbent who had been in office for too long.[2]
The possibility that a Republican candidate could win the second spot on the ballot, shutting out Democratic candidates, including Harley Rouda and Hans Keirstead, led national Democratic groups to fund negative advertisements targeting both Baugh and Rohrabacher.[3] National Republican groups, meanwhile, backed Baugh in hopes of preventing any of the Democratic candidates from making the top two.[4]
In an effort to decrease the chances of Baugh taking the second place on the ballot, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Rouda to its Red-to-Blue list on May 11, 2018, granting him access to organizational and financial support.[5]
Rouda and Keirstead criticized Rohrabacher for rumored ties to Russia.[6] "We've got a Russian-tainted congressman," Keirstead said. "Why should the constituents of the 48th District vote for an individual whose interests are elsewhere?"[7] A Rouda campaign ad described Rohrabacher as "siding with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin over America's interests."[8]
Rohrabacher responded to such allegations in a November 2017 interview. "My constituents couldn't care less about this," he said. "They are not concerned about Russia. They are concerned about the taxes on their home. They are concerned about illegal immigrants coming into their neighborhood and raping people."[7] He also said, "I don't take orders from anybody, especially not Russians."[9]
Keirstead won the California Democratic Party's endorsement at its February 2018 convention.[10]
What is California's top-two primary?
A top-two primary is a type of primary election in which all candidates are listed on the same primary ballot. The top two vote-getters, regardless of their partisan affiliations, advance to the general election.
California adopted the top-two primary when California Proposition 14, Top-Two Primaries Amendment, passed on June 8, 2010. The system took effect on January 1, 2011.
Washington was the first state to adopt the top-two primary for congressional and state-level elections in 2004. Nebraska also uses a top-two primary for state legislative elections, which are nonpartisan.| California voter? Here's what you need to know. | |
|---|---|
| Primary election | June 5, 2018 |
| Candidate filing deadline | March 9, 2018 |
| Registration deadline | May 21, 2018[11] |
| Absentee application deadline | May 29, 2018[11] |
| General election | November 6, 2018 |
| Voting information | |
| Primary type | Top-two |
| Early voting deadline | Available from May 7, 2018, to June 5, 2018[12] |
| Polling locations: Go to this page to find early voting locations and your assigned precinct for election day. | |
For more on related elections, please see:
- California's 48th Congressional District election, 2018
- United States House Democratic Party primaries, 2018
- United States House Republican Party primaries, 2018
- Primary elections in California, 2018
Candidates and election results
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 48 on June 5, 2018.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 48
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Dana Rohrabacher (R) | 30.3 | 52,737 |
| ✔ |  | Harley Rouda (D) | 17.3 | 30,099 |
 | Hans Keirstead (D) | 17.2 | 29,974 | |
 | Scott Baugh (R) | 15.8 | 27,514 | |
 | Omar Siddiqui (D) | 5.0 | 8,658 | |
 | John Gabbard (R)  | 3.3 | 5,664 | |
 | Rachel Payne (D) | 2.1 | 3,598 | |
 | Paul Martin (R) | 1.7 | 2,893 | |
 | Shastina Sandman (R) | 1.6 | 2,762 | |
 | Michael Kotick (D) | 1.5 | 2,606 | |
 | Laura Oatman (D) | 1.4 | 2,412 | |
| Deanie Schaarsmith (D) | 0.8 | 1,433 | ||
 | Tony Zarkades (D) | 0.7 | 1,281 | |
 | Brandon Reiser (L) | 0.6 | 964 | |
 | Stelian Onufrei (R) | 0.4 | 739 | |
 | Kevin Kensinger (Independent) | 0.4 | 690 | |
| Total votes: 174,024 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Boyd Roberts (D)
Top candidates
Dana Rohrabacher
Incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R) was first elected to represent California in the U.S. House in 1988. He has represented the 42nd, 45th, 46th, and 48th congressional districts. Prior to his election to the U.S. House, Rohrabacher served for seven years as a speechwriter and assistant to President Ronald Reagan (R).
In his January 2018 announcement that he would seek election to a sixteenth term, Rohrabacher emphasized his connection to the district: "I am unequivocally running for reelection and confident that my views reflect the values and the needs of my constituents here in Orange County."[13] Rohrabacher's campaign website also emphasized his ties to the district, featuring his appearances at events in the district on the home page.[14] The website listed Rohrabacher's top accomplishments while in office as his votes on space commercialization, federal medical marijuana policy, patents, healthcare, and financial regulations.[15]
Scott Baugh
Baugh served in the state Assembly from 1995 to 2000 and was the chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County between 2004 and 2015.[16][17]
In his March 2018 announcement that he would challenge Rohrabacher, Baugh said that he was running because of the amount of time that Rohrabacher had spent in office: "Three decades in Congress can change a person and unfortunately Dana has changed...He has lost focus on what’s important and does not seem to understand that the middle-class families in our district care more about their jobs, the economy and taxes than about Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange and marijuana."[18] Baugh's campaign website emphasized his stances on immigration, taxes, and government management.[19]
Hans Keirstead
A biologist with a background in stem-cell research, Keirstead had not previously sought elected office. At the time of the campaign, Keirstead was chief executive officer of Aivita Biomedical, which he joined after selling California Stem Cell, Inc. in 2014.[20]
In his June 2017 announcement that he would challenge Rohrabacher, Keirstead said that concerns over healthcare policy were a motivating factor in his decision: "There’s an ignorance in Washington about health care."[20] Keirstead's campaign website emphasized his stances on healthcare, the economy, and immigration.[21]
Keirstead was endorsed by the Democratic Party of California, 314 Action, and the California branch of the Service Employees International Union.
Harley Rouda
Rouda, a businessman with a background in real estate, had not previously sought elected office. He was the founder of Real Living Real Estate and Trident Holding. Prior to entering the real estate business, Rouda worked as an attorney with a speciality in intellectual property law.[22]
In his March 2017 announcement that he would challenge Rohrabacher, Rouda emphasized his policy positions: "We need new leadership that believes in science, climate change, and supports STEM and clean energy. We need new leadership that believes in women’s rights, human rights and liberties for all, and for all a better life."[23] Rouda's campaign website emphasized his statements on firearms regulations, the economy, and education.[24]
Rouda was endorsed by National Nurses United. Rouda was also on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Red to Blue list.[25]
List of all candidates
General election candidates
- Dana Rohrabacher (Incumbent) (Republican Party)
- Harley Rouda (Democratic Party) ✔
Primary candidates
- Dana Rohrabacher (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Scott Baugh (Republican Party)
- John Gabbard (Republican Party)
- Hans Keirstead (Democratic Party)
- Kevin Kensinger (Independent)
- Michael Kotick (Democratic Party)
- Paul Martin (Republican Party)
- Laura Oatman (Democratic Party)
- Stelian Onufrei (Republican Party)
- Rachel Payne (Democratic Party)
- Brandon Reiser (Libertarian Party)
- Harley Rouda (Democratic Party) ✔
- Shastina Sandman (Republican Party)
- Deanie Schaarsmith (Democratic Party)
- Omar Siddiqui (Democratic Party)
- Tony Zarkades (Democratic Party)
Did not make the ballot:
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Democratic Party factional conflict
Disputes between candidates endorsed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and candidates outside the official organs of the Democratic Party occurred in U.S. House primaries in 2018.
The DCCC, a campaign arm of the Democratic National Committee, endorsed candidates who party leaders believed had the best chance of defeating Republican incumbents.[26]
Some criticized the DCCC's choices. Ryan Grim and Lee Fang wrote in The Intercept, for example, "In district after district, the national party is throwing its weight behind candidates who are out of step with the national mood."[27]
In this primary, the DCCC endorsed Harley Rouda.[26]
The chart below shows a scorecard for how the DCCC performed in competitive Democratic primaries that featured at least one DCCC-endorsed candidate and one other Democratic candidate.
| U.S. House Democratic factions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faction | Primary victories in 2018 | |||||||||||
| Endorsed by DCCC | 31 | |||||||||||
| Not endorsed by DCCC | 2 | |||||||||||
Timeline
- May 11, 2018: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee adds Harley Rouda (D) to its Red to Blue program, offering organizational and financial support.[28]
- March 18, 2018: Blackwater founder Erik Prince hosts a fundraiser for Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher.[29]
- March 6, 2018: Hans Keirstead, Michael Kotick, Laura Oatman, Harley Rouda, and Omar Siddiqui participate in an immigration and foreign policy debate hosted by Indivisible OC 48.[30]
- February 25, 2018: Hans Keirstead is endorsed by the Democratic Party of California.[31]
- February 7, 2018: Keirstead, Kotick, Oatman, Rouda, Siddiqui, and Rachel Payne participate in a women's issues debate hosted by Indivisible OC 48.[32]
Race ratings
- See also: Race rating definitions and methods
| Race ratings: California's 48th Congressional District election, 2018 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race tracker | Race ratings | ||||||||
| October 30, 2018 | October 23, 2018 | October 16, 2018 | October 9, 2018 | ||||||
| The Cook Political Report | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | |||||
| Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales | Tilt Democratic | Tilt Democratic | Tilt Democratic | Tilt Democratic | |||||
| Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | Toss-up | |||||
| Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every two weeks throughout the election season. | |||||||||
Endorsements
| Primary election endorsements | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endorsement | Rohrabacher
|
Keirstead[33]
|
Payne[34]
|
Rouda[35]
|
Baugh[36]
|
 Reiser
|
| Federal officials | ||||||
| Pete Aguilar, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Judy Chu, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Lou Correa, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Bill Foster, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Jared Huffman, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Zoe Lofgren, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Alan Lowenthal, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Jerry McNerney, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Raul Ruiz, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Linda Sanchez, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Brad Sherman, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Mark Takano, U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Pete McCloskey, former U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Loretta Sanchez, former U.S. representative | ✔ | |||||
| Lynne Riddle, former U.S. judge | ✔ | |||||
| State figures | ||||||
| Fiona Ma, California State Board of Equalization member | ✔ | |||||
| Bill Lockyer, former California attorney general | ✔ | |||||
| Pat Bates, California state senator | ✔ | |||||
| Bill Dodd, California state senator | ✔ | |||||
| John Moorlach, California state senator | ✔ | |||||
| Henry Stern, California state senator | ✔ | |||||
| Dick Ackerman, former California state senator | ✔ | |||||
| Sharon Quirk-Silva, California state assemblywoman | ✔ | |||||
| Jim Silva, former California state assemblyman | ✔ | |||||
| Local figures | ||||||
| Steve Nagel, Fountain Valley mayor pro tem | ✔ | |||||
| Toni Iseman, Laguna Beach mayor | ✔ | |||||
| Will O'Neill, Newport Beach mayor pro tem | ✔ | |||||
| Rhonda Shader, Placentia mayor pro tem | ✔ | |||||
| Ross Chun, Aliso Viejo city councilman | ✔ | |||||
| Katrina Foley, Costa Mesa city councilwoman | ✔ | |||||
| Jim Righeimer, Costa Mesa city councilman | ✔ | |||||
| Cheryl Brothers, Fountain Valley city councilwoman | ✔ | |||||
| Melissa Fox, Irvine city councilwoman | ✔ | |||||
| Kevin Muldoon, Newport Beach city councilman | ✔ | |||||
| Shirley Dettloff, former Huntington Beach mayor | ✔ | |||||
| Sukhee Kang, former Irvine mayor | ✔ | |||||
| Brett Franklin, former Santa Ana mayor pro tem | ✔ | |||||
| Steve Knoblach, former San Clemente city councilman | ✔ | |||||
| Jim Moreno, Coast Community College District trustee | ✔ | |||||
| Lorraine Prinsky, Coast Community College District trustee | ✔ | |||||
| Steve Harris, Centralia School District board trustee | ✔ | |||||
| Gina Clayton-Tarvin, Ocean View School District board trustee | ✔ | |||||
| Jamison Power, Westminster School District board trustee | ✔ | |||||
| Laura Oatman, former CA-48 candidate | ✔ | |||||
| Michael Kotick, former CA-48 candidate | ✔ | |||||
| Stelian Onufrei, former CA-48 candidate | ✔ | |||||
| Organizations | ||||||
| Indivisible[37] | ✔ | |||||
| Service Employees International Union California[38] | ✔ | |||||
| 314 Action | ✔ | |||||
| California College Republicans[39] | ✔ | |||||
| California Democratic Party | ✔ | |||||
| California Labor Federation | ✔ | |||||
| California Nurses Association | ✔ | |||||
| California Republican Taxpayers Association | ✔ | |||||
| EMILY's List | ✔ | |||||
| Equality California | ✔ | |||||
| Feminist Majority | ✔ | |||||
| Indivisible Orange County 48 | ✔ | |||||
| International Association of Machinists | ✔ | |||||
| International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 441 | ✔ | |||||
| International Longshore and Workers Union Local 13 | ✔ | |||||
| International Longshore Workers Union | ✔ | |||||
| International Union of Operating Engineers Local 12 | ✔ | |||||
| International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36 | ✔ | |||||
| Laborers' International Union of North America Local 652 | ✔ | |||||
| Leadership Now Project | ✔ | |||||
| Libertarian Party of California[40] | ✔ | |||||
| National Nurses United | ✔ | |||||
| Pride Fund to End Gun Violence | ✔ | |||||
| Progressive Democrats of America—Orange County Chapter | ✔ | |||||
| Sierra Club | ✔ | |||||
| Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters | ✔ | |||||
| National Union of Healthcare Workers | ✔ | |||||
| Teamsters Joint Council #42 | ✔ | |||||
| United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry Local 582 | ✔ | |||||
| United Steelworkers Los Angeles/Orange County Legislative Education Committee | ✔ | |||||
| United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 220 | ✔ | |||||
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
| Top-two primary in California's 48th Congressional District | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Poll sponsor | Rohrabacher |
Payne | Rouda | Keirstead | Baugh | Undecided/Other | Margin of error | Sample size | ||||||||||
| Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies (April 2-8, 2018) | The Payne campaign | 34% | 9% | 6% | 5% | 4% | 21% | +/-4.0 | 600 | ||||||||||
| Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Top-two primary in California's 48th Congressional District | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Poll sponsor | Rouda (D) | Rohrabacher (R) | Undecided | Margin of Error | Sample Size | |||||||||||||
| Tulchin Research, Revote after positives September 30-October 5, 2017 | The Rouda campaign | 50% | 46% | 4% | +/-4.89% | 401 likely voters | |||||||||||||
| Tulchin Research, Initial candidate vote September 30-October 5, 2017 | The Rouda campaign | 44% | 48% | 8% | +/-4.89% | 401 likely voters | |||||||||||||
| Note: A "0%" finding means the question was not a part of the poll. The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org | |||||||||||||||||||
Campaign finance
The table below contains data from FEC Quarterly April 2018 reports. It includes only candidates who have reported at least $10,000 in campaign contributions as of March 31, 2018.[41]
Satellite spending
- On June 1, 2018, the Daily Kos reported that Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spending in the race targeting Scott Baugh (R) had reached $1.69 million, in addition to $849,000 that had been spent by the House Majority PAC in opposition to Baugh.[42]
- On May 18, 2018, the American Future Fund reported $537,130.50 in spending on a digital, television, and direct mail ad campaign in support of the candidacy of Scott Baugh (R).[43]
- On May 18, 2018, Medium Buying reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was planning a television ad campaign in support of the candidacy of Harley Rouda (D).[44] Rouda was added to the committee's Red to Blue program on May 11.[45]
- On May 15, 2018, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a television ad campaign opposed to the candidacy of Scott Baugh (R).[46]
- On May 9, 2018, 314 Action announced a $280,000 mail campaign that would target over 57,000 likely voters with eight rounds of mailers. The campaign was intended to support the candidacy of Hans Keirstead (D) and oppose the candidacy of Harley Rouda (D).[47]
- 314 Action, a nonprofit organization that aims to recruit and elect candidates with a scientific background, made a $1 million ad buy in the Los Angeles media market. The ads will not promote any individual candidate, but 314 Action has endorsed Keirstead in this race.[48]
- On December 5, 2017, PAC for a Change, a political action committee led by former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), reported spending $40,000 on media production and $25,000 on a media buy for an ad opposing Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher.[49]
- On May 17, 2017, House Majority PAC reported spending $14,381.98 to oppose Rohrabacher.[49]
Campaign themes and policy stances
Hans Keirstead
| “ |
Healthcare The most logical system that supports that philosophy is Medicare For All – but in order to achieve this, we need to improve upon our current healthcare system. I propose three major reforms that we can do in the short-term to help accomplish this goal: Pricing Transparency. Healthcare providers have no responsibility to inform patients of the pricing options of their healthcare – this needs to change. Providing patients with pricing options will drive down the cost of premiums and cut medical bill costs. Medical Records Reforms. The average American will change their healthcare coverage 8-10 times during their lifetime. Requiring all companies to use the same medical records data systems will streamline the transfer of information between insurance companies and remove the need for doctors to require costly reexaminations of patients, leading to lower costs and lower premiums. Cutting Prescription Drug Costs. We must allow prescription drugs to be sold in the U.S. from countries like Canada and crack down on any price-gouging tactics that drug companies use. Additionally, we need to remove any delays for generic versions of drugs. I am not afraid of taking on drug companies and I will fight to allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. If we focus on these short-term goals that will streamline the system we already have, drive down costs, and increase access it will create a stronger argument for the American public to support Medicare For All. Economy A strong middle class is necessary for our country to be successful. I became an American because I saw the promise of the American dream and knew that with a fair shot and hard work, I too could have my own piece of that dream. In Congress, my goal will be to achieve policies that support strengthening and expanding the middle class of this country so that anyone can have the same opportunity that I did. 1. Job Creation Job creation needs to remain one of Congress’ top priorities. Here in California we have the unique ability to be on the forefront of the clean energy revolution. In Congress, I will fight for investments in clean energy and make it easier for companies that are generating renewable resources to compete in the marketplace. That will not only create jobs but move us away from dirtier, non-renewable energies that damage our climate. Our country has not had a significant national investment in infrastructure since the interstate highway system was created. For safety and effectiveness, we need to strengthen our failing highways, bridges, and other transportation systems. This will improve our economy as a whole, and create jobs in the process. Here in Orange County we have the unique infrastructure to support small to medium sized research and technology businesses. In Congress, I would use my own experience as a CEO in the sector to help put Orange County on the map as a research and technology hub for the country. 2. Affordability Over the past few decades, costs have risen while wages have stayed stagnant. This has led to an affordability crisis where individuals must pay larger percentages of their income for basic needs like housing, healthcare, and education. These are parts of the American dream that should not be out of reach for everyone but the ultra-wealthy. In Congress, I will prioritize making housing, healthcare, and education more affordable. 3. Living Wage and Equal Pay for Equal Work The federal minimum wage has stayed at $7.25 an hour or $15,080 a year since 2009, while cost of living has skyrocketed. $7.25 may be the minimum wage, but it is not a livable wage. I will fight to raise the federal minimum wage to make sure it is a livable wage. Women who work full time all year round are paid 80 cents on the dollar to a man working the same job for the same hours. We must have equal pay for equal work, as it supports equal rights for all as well as strengthens our economy. 4. Support Small Businesses A large part of the success that residents of Orange County have is due to the thriving economy of small/medium sized businesses in the 48th district. They are an integral part to our local economy and culture and need to be treated as such. I support simplifying our tax code and cutting taxes for small businesses, so the engine of our economy can thrive. 5. Hold Big Businesses Accountable Both Wall Street and Main Street are vital sectors of our economy and as such, they should be held to a standard of ethics and accountability. We saw the worst of Wall Street as it took advantage of the American’s trust and caused the worst financial crisis to hit America since the Great Depression. As the most influential piece of legislation addressing the financial crisis, we need to make sure that we protect and improve upon Dodd-Frank (The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act). We must prevent companies from becoming too big to fail and prosecute individuals and companies when they break the law. As a Congressman, I will hold Wall Street accountable and work to prevent it from ever again causing the economic destabilization it did in 2008. 6. 21st Century Education Our economy has changed since our parents’ generation and we need to make sure we have a workforce that changes with it. That’s why we need to support education pathways that prepare our youth for the jobs of the future. We must support early childhood education, boost STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) studies in schools and universities and address the rising costs of college education. Immigration It is important to remember what is truly at stake: the quality of life of the eleven million undocumented immigrants currently living in this country. In a nation built by immigrants, we must celebrate our diversity, and recognize that this is a family values issue. To me, this means that everyone in this country should have a chance at the American Dream. We should not tear families apart. I support DACA/DAPA. For too long, politicians in Washington have been caught up in partisan bickering and unable to find compromise on an issue that, if fixed correctly, can support families, the economy, and secure our borders — while maintaining the ideals that make America a symbol of freedom to the world. Foreign Policy In Congress, I will: Protect our trading interests. Fight for fair detention standards. Advocate for a two-state solution in the Middle East, with Israel and Palestine. As a scientist, I believe cybersecurity is among our top national security concerns. When it comes to countries that pose a significant threat to the U.S., the threats have not changed. Russia, Iran, and North Korea are testing more aggressive cyber-attacks. Giving the ongoing investigation in Washington, we also have to monitor and address our cyber threats. Women and Families Working mothers are the primary breadwinners in over 40 percent of America’s families. I was raised by a single mother, and know we can do more to address the struggles that still exist for women and hard-working American families. We need to support reproductive rights. At my company, I have developed medical treatments that have helped thousands of women. One of those, a treatment for ovarian cancer, is currently undergoing clinical trials. Reproductive rights: I pledge to fight to ensure women are able to make decisions about their own bodies. We must support organizations like Planned Parenthood, which provide so many valuable health services (for women and men). Pay: It is unacceptable that women make only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. We need to strengthen protections from sexual harassment, and retaliation. I will fight for a fair workplace that includes equal pay for equal work, providing proper tools wage discrimination. Work/Life Balance: As a serial entrepreneur and employer, I’ve worked to promote a good work/life balance for all of my employees. The U.S. is one of the few industrialized countries that does not guarantee paid leave, nearly one-third of private sector workers in this country do not have a single paid sick day. I support expanding Paid Family Leave and Paid Sick Leave. Child Care: Today, child care is a necessity for most families with young children because households need two incomes to pay all the bills. The current child care tax credit is not enough in helping make child care more affordable. In Congress, I will work towards affordable and accessible child care, better funding of child care programs, and expanding the child care tax credit. Education Support Early Childhood Education. We must invest more in successful programs like Head Start. The keys to a successful life begin with early childhood education. This program expands access to quality early childhood education for low income families. Boost STEM Education. As a scientist, I’m very passionate about investing in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. It is essential to preparing our students and teachers for global competitiveness. The jobs of the future that we talked about 15-20 years ago are here now. We need to make sure we are preparing our preschoolers, community college and college graduates for the jobs that are available in our 21st Century Economy. STEM education provides the skill sets necessary for these students to succeed. College Affordability. Besides working with educational institutions to cut the outrageously high costs of college, we can support students with debt right now. We need to allow students with debt to refinance their loans as soon as possible and reduce interest rates to manageable levels so students don’t enter the workforce with crushing debt. Environment It’s also no secret that Southern CA is experiencing extreme drought conditions. We must alleviate the struggle for our community. We must balance our water needs with environmental protection. I am in favor of conservation and reuse. 99% of scientists (including myself) agree that climate change is real, it’s happening now, and humans have an impact on it. Here in Southern California, we treasure our coastline and environment because it’s our home. Science tells us that the best way to combat climate change is to cut greenhouses gases, especially carbon pollution. I support fulfilling our duty to the Paris Accords and following through on our commitment to decrease our impact on global warming. I will work to end the subsidies and close the loopholes that currently favor the fossil fuel industry. I believe investing in clean energy is the key to our energy independence and will create well-paying domestic jobs which benefits both the US economy and our environment. Throughout my career, I have used a fact-based approach to address complex medical issues. I will use the same science and fact-based approach to preserve our environment for future generations. Campaign Finance In Congress, I will fight to reverse Citizens United. I will have an open door and be accessible to all of my constituents. I will come back to Orange County, and stay connected with the district. In addition, I have not and will not take money from the NRA/gun lobby, Big Pharma, Insurance or Big Oil companies. My constituents will be my only special interest. LGBTQ Equality But achieving legal same sex marriage does not mean we have reached equality in America for LGTBQ individuals. We must still protect the opportunity for LGBTQ Americans to serve our country in the military and pass strong protections against employment discrimination and other forms of discrimination. Our diversity is what makes us who we are, I will be a strong advocate for everyone in our community. Gun Violence Prevention In Congress, I will fight for: Universal background checks. Taking this step would require background checks for all gun purchases, which would close loopholes that allow felons, the dangerously mentally ill, and domestic abusers to obtain weapons without facing a background check. To make universal background checks effective we must also crack down on straw purchasers and hold negligent or corrupt gun dealers accountable. Ban on assault rifles. This is long overdue, there’s no reason for military grade weapons to be on our streets. Ban on bump stocks. We must also close the “boyfriend” and “stalker” loopholes that allow abusers and stalkers to purchase weapons even if they have been convicted of domestic abuse or misdemeanor stalking. I also support lifting the Congressional ban on gun violence research by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) so basic research needed to help prevent gun deaths can be done. The 2nd Amendment is an important tenant of the Constitution and our democracy, but we must take steps to ensure the safety of all Americans by preventing guns from getting into the hands of criminals or those with dangerous mental health issues. Retirement Security This includes opposing any attempts to turn Medicare into a voucher system or to privatize Social Security. I will also fight back against any attempts to raise the retirement age. The Medicare Part D Coverage Gap (doughnut hole) that millions of Americans encounter needs to be addressed. I support the immediate increase of drug discounts until the doughnut hole can be closed. Americans have been contributing to Medicare and Social Security their entire adult lives and need to be able to rely on them when they need them most. Social Justice While we all need to work hard to succeed, it’s often assumed that no one gets the short end of the stick. In reality, there are many people who work hard and still do not get ahead due to institutional or flat-out racism and sexism. This is especially prevalent in large institutions like the education system or criminal justice system where minorities are disproportionately affected by inherent biases in the system. African-Americans graduate high school at a rate of 69%, and Latinos graduate at a rate of 73%, well-below the national average of 80%. This is unacceptable. I would like to see Proposition 209 amended here in California, and believe we need more progressive affirmative action policy. For too long the mass incarceration policies of the United States have targeted minorities, and put them in an endless cycle of incarceration without rehabilitation. We must also reform our criminal justice system to focus on education and job placement rather than expecting inmates to reintegrate into society with no support. I also support removing cannabis from the list of schedule 1 class substances and appropriately regulating it. This will lead to less minor drug offenses which disproportionately affect minorities. All Americans have the right to start their lives on an even playing field — but there is a long way to go to get there and in Washington I won’t let up until we do.[50] |
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| —Keirstead for Congress[51] | ||
Harley Rouda
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Gun Violence Economy Education Environment Foreign Affairs Women's Issues Healthcare I support Medicare for All. LGBTQ Immigration Holding Donald Trump Accountable We must hold Donald Trump and his administration accountable for all their actions. Voters in our district tell me that the standard has been met for impeachment. He's lied about his team's connections with Russia, he's admitted to firing James Comey to try and stop the investigation, and his reckless tweets threaten our national security. I’m often reminded that our country has impeached presidents for far less. End Citizens United |
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| —Harley Rouda for Congress[52] | ||
Omar Siddiqui
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National Security/Foreign Policy Healthcare Climate Change Environment Education Women's Rights Immigration LGBTQ+ Rights Economic Growth Taxation Energy Gun Safety Police Marijuana Legalization |
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| —Omar In The House[53] | ||
Tony Zarkades
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Save the Middle Class
Most working people would agree the middle class is being squeezed from all sides. Never before in our country’s history have parents been so concerned about their children being worse off than the previous generation. There are many reasons for this. The loss of manufacturing jobs, the decline of unions, the organizing of management against the interest of the worker, the rising cost of healthcare, college and homes, pensions disappearing from most corporations for all but the top executives and a regressive tax code whereby the rich pay a lower tax rate than the working men and women of this country. These, and a poverty wage minimum wage, all play a part in hindering social mobility.
The 4 pillars of the middle class have been the same for several decades. If you can afford these 4 things you are probably firmly in the middle class:
Owning your home Healthcare College for children Secure retirement
And, because most families now have both parents working we need to add another pillar: 5. Childcare.
A good middle class lifestyle starts with a good paying and stable job. After NAFTA was negotiated and signed by President George H.W. Bush we were warned by candidate and businessman Ross Perot about a giant sucking sound that would be the loss of American manufacturing jobs to Mexico. Since its implementation in 1994, and the granting of Most Favored Nation trade status to China, the U.S. has closed over 70,000 factories and lost more than 5 million jobs. Today we have 7.5 million unemployed Americans, with another 7.4 million working part time or they have given up looking for work.
I believe our tax code should favor companies that keep jobs in the USA. I believe our trade agreements should favor companies that keep jobs here and promote fair trade that creates good manufacturing jobs for our workers.
Government contracts should only be awarded to companies that keep jobs here.
The Federal government needs to create a business environment using sticks and carrots that encourage American companies to keep, create, and return jobs at home, whether it's Oreo cookies, earth movers or air conditioners. I propose all mid and large size companies be graded A thru F for their loyalty to the American worker. When Cornelius Vanderbilt was criticized for reaping profits at the expense of the people he callously replied “the public be damned”. Today, modern day robber barons have the same lousy attitude towards their employees, customers and investors. They only care about short term profits that result in maximum payouts in salary and bonuses for top management - everyone else be damned. This “Vanderbilt” rating will let investors, customers and employees know what kind of company they are dealing with and make it easy for them to identify bad actors so that they may take their business elsewhere.
The top one-tenth of one percent now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined. I see this wealth concentration as a serious problem. It is bad for our economy and bad for our democracy. Upward mobility is stagnant, as people born in the bottom 5th of income tend to stay at the bottom. For some time now, most income growth has been going to the top 1 percent of earners while nearly half the country is either living in poverty or with low-income, defined as double the poverty level. That means about 140 million or 43% of Americans are poor, living paycheck to paycheck or worse.
We need to raise incomes for working families by creating more manufacturing and infrastructure jobs, strengthening unions and getting more workers covered by collective bargaining. Nobody who works full time should have to raise a family in poverty.
I believe a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour is vital to having more Americans working for a living wage rather than a poverty wage.
With the loss of so many manufacturing jobs in America, minimum wage jobs are now the new blue-collar jobs of this country whether they be in retail or the service industry, a cashier at McDonald's or a hotel maid. Consider these numbers:
$15/hour X 40 hours X 50 weeks equals 30K/year - 10% for taxes equals just 27K/year in take home pay. This is not overly generous for any adult worker working full time.
If both parents work, every working family in America will be guaranteed to take home at least 54K/year. This is enough to live on without government assistance, food stamps or the Earned Income Tax Credit, even if they have a child or two. I support President Obama's effort to require overtime pay for low salary employees when they work over 40 hours a week. The Trump administration has delayed implementation of this new law until June. The law would double the the cutoff for overtime pay from $23,600 to $47,500. For years, only workers making less than 23,600 were entitled to overtime pay if they were being paid a salary instead of hourly wages. I believe sick leave and maternity leave benefits should also be mandatory for all full time workers.
I believe consumers are the center of the American economy. Republicans believe job creators are the center of our economy. But do people eat because food is grown, or is food grown because people eat? Would business owners rather have cheap labor or more customers? With a $15/hour minimum wage there will be a lot more consumer spending on everything from restaurants to automobiles and everything in between. Consumer spending is 70% of our economy today. I believe the government should be on the side of working people and the middle class. We should try to create an environment for success - not an environment for the successful! I believe we should end the carried interest tax loophole that greatly benefits hedge fund managers by reducing the tax rate they pay. I believe we should continue to crack down on overseas tax evasion by corporations and individuals. I believe we should maintain the estate tax with the current 5 million dollar exemption on heirs so we can recycle opportunity rather than support an American aristocracy of wealth that has replaced the aristocracy of birth we rejected in the American Revolution. I believe we should penalize companies that shift jobs overseas by restricting their access to our markets. We should end corporate welfare for oil companies and others and we should crackdown on corporate inversions that deny tax revenue to the American people when American corporations merge with foreign companies. I believe we should provide tax cuts to businesses that create living wage jobs with benefits here in America.
A Progressive Tax System
The national debt is approaching 20 trillion dollars. It was 5.5 trillion when George W. Bush took office in 2000. Steep tax cuts for the rich, followed by two expensive and protracted wars and a deep financial crisis and recession have left this country with massive debt. The only way to balance the budget and pay off the debt is to raise taxes where possible and cut spending when able. Economic growth at 2% or more will also help. The wealthy need to pay their fair share of federal income tax and I am skeptical that we should tax work more than we tax wealth in this country. The burden of taxes should be equal. A flat tax is out of the question because the burden and pain of taxation should be felt equally across all income levels and not be measured for fairness by dollars or even percentages. Once a person’s basic needs are met, the ability to pay taxes at a graduated rate becomes less of a burden. The purpose of taxation is not to penalize the successful but to pay for the necessary and proper expenses of government and government services whether it be war, defense, infrastructure or scientific research. If the rich and the poor paid the same, especially at a time when income and wealth are becoming more and more concentrated at the top, we would never be able to balance our budget or pay off the debt. We currently have 7 tax brackets. I favor 4 tax brackets, one for each level of income:
Low income taxed at 10% 0 - $25,000
Middle income taxed at 15% 25,001 - 150,000
Upper income taxed at 25% 150,001 - 400,000
The Rich taxed at 52% 400,001 and up. This represents the top 2% of all households in America.
Don’t forget even a multi-millionaire pays 10% on their first 25,000 of income and the same applies for the 15 and 25% tax brackets.
I support a child tax credit of $1500 per child with no phaseouts for taxable incomes below $400,000. The credit should be extended to age 21 for children in college.
I support tax deductible child care expenses with no phaseouts for taxable incomes below $150,000.
The most important hallmark of the middle class is owning your own home. Since the Great Depression the federal government has made great strides in helping American families purchase their own home with the creation of the FHA, FannieMae and FreddieMac.
The FHA needed less than a 2 billion dollar bailout during the housing crisis of 2008 because they did not participate in the fraud, greed and gamesmanship that the private lenders perpetrated on the economy and home buyers. By comparison, the banking industry needed a 350 billion dollar bailout and AIG needed 150 billion. Today, qualified buyers can still purchase a first home with 3.5% down and pay a reasonable annual mortgage insurance premium of less than 1%.
I want to help home buyers on both ends of life, the first time home buyers as well as the empty nesters looking to downsize.
I will work to create a tax exempt Home Buyer savings account to help young people save for that 3.5% down payment and associated closing costs and to restore the Obama administration’s rate cut on mortgage insurance from .85% to .60% that was cancelled on day one of the Trump administration. I would also like to see the upfront premium of 1.75% reduced or eliminated altogether if feasible.
I will work to raise the tax exclusion when selling your primary residence, from 500K to 800K for a married couple. Health Care
I believe a single payer - medicare for all system would be even better than Obamacare and we could start out by adding a public option. We already have 142 million Americans getting their healthcare from the government. 56% of the country’s 242 million adults are currently getting health care through Medicare, Medicaid or the Veteran’s Administration. This will surely increase as the population gets older. Additionally, 5.6 million children receive their healthcare from Medicaid’s Children's Health Insurance Program. The other 180 million Americans either buy it on their own, get it through their employer, or go without. *data from CMS.gov and the Congressional Research Service
Having people go for years without health care, especially preventative health care, and then allowing them to join the ranks of Medicaid or Medicare is the worst and most expensive way to run a program. It’s like warranting a car where the owner is not required to change the oil or do basic maintenance. Then when things start to go wrong the government has to pay the bill.
There are few things more irresponsible than not having health insurance for one’s self and one’s family. People spend thousands of dollars every year for mandatory auto insurance but somehow conclude it's okay to go through life without health insurance, even if it's affordable. This is hard to accept knowing every American is going to need health care, often at great expense, at some time or another.
To address the healthcare challenge we have to answer four basic questions before starting on a course to cover every American.
Is healthcare a right or a privilege? Democrats say it is a right. The preamble of the Constitution says the Federal Government should “promote the general welfare.” What is more important to the people's general welfare than their health? Why does Medicare make sense for people in their 60’s and 70’s but not their 40’s and 50’s? What do private health insurance companies bring to the table and do we really need them?
For 7 years now the Republicans have rooted for failure and worked to undermine Obamacare in this country. They refused to expand Medicaid in their states. They refused to set up state health exchanges. They even refused to advertise or prepare for how the ACA would work. Worst of all they defunded the risk corridors that were designed to backstop insurance companies if they suffered greater than expected losses as older and sick people enrolled quickly while younger, healthier people dragged their feet to join.
If some people truly want to be irresponsible and not purchase health insurance then theoretically they should also waive their rights to Medicare in their old age and emergency medical care should be denied on the steps of the emergency room entrance. Freedom to opt out should come with consequences for those who make the choice not to have insurance even when it’s offered to them at an affordable price. But the reality is people will get Medicare and they will be able to go to the emergency room, and these folks are really choosing to be free-riders. This describes the old system, pre-Obamacare, that was bankrupting families, businesses and government with ever increasing costs. Do we really want to go back to that?
In March the Republican House failed to even bring their plan to repeal and replace to a vote. They tried to trample the state’s right to regulate their insurance market. They planned to block grant and freeze Medicaid funding for the poor leaving it for the states to make the tough decisions on who to cut and who to help. To top it all off, as the vote was doomed to failure, President Trump, who promised “we’re gonna replace it with something terrific,” said “who knew healthcare was so complicated?” Democrats knew that’s who. In May the Republicans passed a bill on a party line vote, without reading the 130 pages and without scoring from the Congressional Budget Office. They passed it quickly before the caucus had time to think about it and before they went home and got an earful from the old and sick people in their districts. Now they openly hope the Senate will fix the bill and save them from themselves. College Tuition
Student loan debt is the largest type of consumer debt in the United States totalling more than a trillion dollars. The millennial generation is stagnating under this massive debt, financially unable to get married, buy a home and start living on their own. We should make it easy for them to refinance their student loan debt to lower rates and limit the number of years they have to pay before writing off the balance. It’s unjust that they are the only generation to pay exorbitant amounts for education because the country foolishly cut taxes for the wealthy and left students to fend for themselves. Also, years ago a minimum wage summer job could go a long way towards paying for school. That simply is not the case today. I dare baby boomers to protest helping today’s students without disclosing how much they paid for their college.
High school is “free” in this country and so should college as it pertains to tuition. Especially when a college degree today is practically a prerequisite for a good job the way high school was in the 1950s. It was just in the 1980’s that college was tuition free in California for public colleges and universities, but tax cuts for the wealthy by Ronald Reagan and Proposition 13 in California put an end to that.
I support a financial transaction tax or speculation tax on Wall street that should be used to fund free tuition at public colleges.
This kind of tax existed prior to 1966 and could help today’s students experience college the way baby boomers did, tuition free or nearly free college. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has proposed this speculation tax which is a small levy on every stock, bond and derivative sold in the U.S. and would be used to offset the cost of college tuition for every American kid. The tax would have the added benefit of reducing speculation and stabilizing trading. A half percent tax on a $1000 stock trade would result in 5 dollars in revenue. This tax has been estimated to be able to raise as much as $340 billion a year.
Immigration
Today’s fear and apprehension about immigrants is more of the same. Only the country of origin has changed.
So while I do not support illegal immigration to our country I strongly support more legal immigration for everyone, whether they come by land, air or sea. The authorities just have to know who is coming in and that they are not criminals. I want to welcome all immigrants, not just the ones with PhDs and a suitcase full of money.
I believe people who came here without papers are not illegal, they are simply undocumented. Not a serious offense considering the process for allowing people into this country is so messed up. I believe the DACA policy was the right policy for children brought here by their parents. I believe in a path to citizenship for all crime free undocumented aliens. I believe we should deport violent and serious lawbreakers and give no second chances. I believe if you are born in this country you are an American citizen. That’s the way it has always been. Period.
To fix the problems we have with new immigrants we need an Ellis Island type facility on our southern border. All are welcome. All may come. And the good people of America will help you with advice and education - just like we did before when my grandparents came here. We will not give you money but we will give you a chance.
We need a better way to enforce student and tourist visas. You can’t just say you're coming here for a visit and then stay. Visitor IDs should be issued on entry and have an expiration date. Foreign IDs will not be accepted here. Not for enrolling in school, not for a banking transaction, not for registering at a hotel. Passports will only be used for entry and departure. Work permits should be issued on entry for non-citizens. These permits, as well as social security cards for citizens, should be impossible to counterfeit, include a picture, and be required to work in this country. No more excuses from business owners about hiring the undocumented. Enforcement will be done at the jobsite. That’s why good people come to this country in the first place, to make money and a better life for themselves and their families. With positive ID and a legal right to work, there will be no more undercutting documented labor with undocumented labor. After 3 years of living and working here as a documented alien, a person can apply for citizenship.
Seniors' Issues
We have 75 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. Every day 10,000 Americans reach age 65. By 2050 we will have our senior population go from 40 million today to 89 million.
The great programs created by democrats, Social Security and Medicare, are a lifeline to millions of seniors in this country. Even during the Great Recession of 2008, seniors did okay thanks to these programs signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, two of the finest democrats this country has ever seen. Republicans opposed these ideas as they were being crafted and they fundamentally oppose them today as they try to reduce benefits and privatize both programs. Remember George W. Bush’s “Ownership Society” would replace Social Security with private accounts, kind of like replacing a pension with a 401K that doesn’t even offer matching funds. Medicare Advantage was the republican solution for privatizing original Medicare. Currently 17.5 million seniors use Medicare Advantage plans. Results for this program are mixed and tend to work better for healthier and wealthier seniors and in well populated counties.
I support increasing Social Security benefits by 10% and continuing to index benefits to inflation. This would be paid for by removing the cap on wages subject to the SS tax.
I want to save Medicare and Medicaid as they are today. Raising the Medicare tax from 1.45% to 2% is a much better deal than paying for your parents’ medical bills or long term care yourself.
Corporate America is turning their backs on workers, ending pensions and replacing them with 401Ks and ending health benefits for all retirees except top management. We cannot afford a government with republican ideas to do the same and cut seniors loose to fend for themselves. Social Security must remain the rock that it has always been and not be cast to the markets that can crash just before someone retires. A worker would need to save a million dollars during their working life to be able to match the benefits of Social Security with an annuity. How many workers making 50K a year can save a million dollars? The answer is none. Also, the only way to win big in the stock market is to bet big and few people have the extra money, skills or time to be a full-time investor. The results would likely be devastating with people forced to work until their health gives out. Similarly, Paul Ryan's block grants to the states for Medicaid and "premium support" for Medicare simply shift the costs and risks of health care for seniors and the disabled from the government to the states and individual seniors.
I want to help adult caregivers with their difficult challenges to take care of a sick or elderly family member by making day care payments tax deductible like they are for child care, even if the caregiver is no longer employed outside the home.
Right now we have 5.5 million Americans with Alzheimer's disease and that number is projected to increase to 16 million by 2050. In Orange County alone, 84,000 seniors are stricken with the disease. That's 12% of all seniors in the county requiring the effort of some 34,000 family caregivers, a huge burden for folks in middle age.
I want to increase funding for medical research, not cut it like President Trump. We must find a cure for Alzheimer's before this dreaded disease bankrupts more families, neighbors and Medicaid itself. Women's Rights
Abortion rights are women’s civil rights and the right to choose has been the law in this country since the landmark Supreme Court decision that upheld a woman's right to access reproductive health care as a case of equal protection under the law and privacy. Since then, and most significantly in recent years, individual states have tried to limit women's access to abortion by passing laws making it more difficult to find a doctor and act on a very personal decision.
I believe men should not be setting policy for women on this issue and I also believe if men were the ones getting pregnant, the right to choose wouldn’t even be an issue. This is blatant discrimination and sexism where men are claiming the authority to make decisions that predominantly affect women.
The most common reason women choose to terminate a pregnancy is financial insecurity. Not only is raising a child known to cost on average $250,000 per child but the lack of affordable child care makes it impossible to have a child and continue to work and earn a living without help from a relative or government support. If we want less abortions in this country we need a strong middle class, good jobs, affordable child care, family planning and sex education for young people.
I believe abortions should remain legal and safe in this country. This decision is a moral, not a legal question that should be left to women. Medical science should decide when a fetus changes from the potential for life to actual life. I will push back against any state’s efforts to chip away at Roe v. Wade.
Planned Parenthood is an important health care provider, educator, and advocate for women. For over 100 years PP has provided both reproductive and preventative health services to women, especially women of modest means. They provide information and act as an advocate for women's rights in the courts as well as the Congress. 1 in 5 American women will use PP at least once in their lives. They make 1.5 million contacts each year, fighting teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted Infections, and providing contraceptive education and devices. They also act globally, standing up for women around the world and influencing American foreign policy on countries that are slow to adopt fair and equal treatment for women. Now Donald Trump has signed a bill into law that will allow states to withhold federal money from any organization that provides abortions, including PP. This is not the direction we should be going.
I support the continued taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood for the vital role they play in women’s health.
Women earn 80 cents on every dollar earned by men according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The situation is considerably worse for women of color. This is a disgrace that affects the financial security of millions of American families.
Quality affordable child care is still too hard to find in this country. This harms families that have both parents working as well as the 8.6 million households of single moms and the 2.2 million households of single dads.
We are the only advanced country that does not guarantee paid family leave when a child is born or adopted. This benefit should be provided to both parents for the good of the child as well as preventing women from being discriminated against in hiring. As a country we should all support good parenting.
Women still suffer from violence and abuse at alarming rates. The number of women experiencing rape and sexual assault on our college campuses is nothing short of a national crisis. Harassment and violence against women happens at work, at home, at school, and even in the military. As a country we must work to identify and stop these horrendous deeds and demand the courts treat them with severity when sentencing those found guilty of a crime. We will no longer tolerate a “boys will be boys” attitude or justify offensive language as “locker room talk”.
If elected, I will land on institutions and organizations with both feet if they fail to protect women against violence or harassment. Enough is enough, we need to attack this problem in the same way we did with institutionalized racism. Veteran's Issues
My own transition to civilian life was not as smooth as I would have hoped, facing challenges with employment, financial issues, depression and simply the lack of camaraderie and structure I enjoyed as a Marine. Adjusting to the civilian world is not typically easy for veterans and for combat veterans and wounded veterans the adjustment can be particularly difficult.
Jobs, housing and healthcare are top issues that we as citizens need to be concerned about for our veterans and their families who have served and sacrificed so much for our country. Veteran’s benefits need to be easily identified and made accessible to vets returning from war overseas as well as veterans that left the service decades ago.
I believe benefits should vary with service and sacrifice. A wounded or disabled combat vet should expect to be at the front of the line as should people with service related health issues. I want every veteran to get the help they deserve, but until resources match the need we currently have 8 priority groups that consider disability and income to determine who gets seen at VA medical centers around the country. Amazingly, veterans awarded the purple heart and even the Medal of Honor are in group 3. Families that had their father or mother not return from service are entitled to the most. We sent them. We all must pay to take care of them and their families left behind with a life insurance payment up to 400K, access to VA healthcare and free college for their children.
The Veterans Administration has done some good work but it must do better and they shouldn’t be blamed for shortfalls resulting from inadequate funding or the system being overwhelmed with patients.
I will make it a priority that the VA is the best they can possibly be when it comes to providing health care. If elected I will request leadership appoints me to the Veterans Affairs committee.
Service related mental health issues can be more harmful than physical injuries. This is an imperative and care must be improved and expanded at all costs. Not only to help the vets, but their families as well and to protect the public at large. We must provide mental health treatment the moment, within 2 days, treatment is requested, no excuses. If elected I promise to reach out to veterans and their families, to advertise and give them priority to be seen and helped by my office especially if they feel they are not getting the care or answers they deserve from the Veterans' Administration. The Environment
The U.S. Senate voted 98–1 to approve a resolution stating that “it is the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax.” Then, about 15 minutes later, the Senate rejected a second resolution that said climate change is real and caused by humans.
Really? Is this the best that we can do in the United States Senate? If the greatest deliberative body in the world can’t even admit and agree with 98% of climate scientists, no wonder this country is failing to live up to it’s promise. Of course, the current congressman from the 48th District is one of the leading climate change deniers. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the preeminent authority on climate change and has earned a Nobel prize for its work in this field. It has produced 5 reports since 1990 and has declared with 100% certainty that global warming is happening, it is manmade, and it will have catastrophic consequences. Here are some things I believe based on science:
The earth is 4.4 billion years old. CO2 stays in the earth’s atmosphere for 100 years before being absorbed back into the ocean. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps infrared energy (heat) as it reflects off the earth’s surface. The average global temperature is rising at an alarming and unnatural rate and this is due to the influence of man and related greenhouse gases. An average global temperature change of just a few degrees will have catastrophic and irreversible negative effects on our planet that include causing land ice to melt, seas to rise, storms to become more frequent and intense, and an increase in both drought and floods around the world.
If someone asks how could a few degrees in average temperature cause such dramatic changes, ask them what’s the difference between 33 degrees and 32 degrees. For most of the earth’s existence our planet was uninhabitable to humans. It has evolved over millions of years, slowly and only after significant events like the altering of the earth’s orbit, the tilt of it’s axis changing, the evolution and extinction of gigantic mammals, and massive eruptions of volcanoes and earthquakes that altered the currents of the oceans. We should not be experiencing these kind of changes in CO2 levels and temperature over a few hundred or even a few thousand years. Do we really want to find out if we can make the planet uninhabitable for humans again?
At the same time the use of fossil fuels are causing the earth’s climate to warm it is also polluting the environment with toxic gases and byproducts. The Keystone XL pipeline has now been approved by president Trump. This pipeline will transport some of the world’s dirtiest oil to the gulf coast for refining and export. This is a blatant violation of the commitments and promises we made in the Paris Agreement of 2016. If we are going to actively take part in burning some of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels why would any other country, especially countries with undeveloped economies, agree to limit their use of fossil fuels? The answer is they won’t and we will all go down together.
The Environmental Protection Agency plays a vital role in protecting our air, water and land. This organization should be fully funded and led by people who care about the environment, and not just “a little” like President Trump said. Without the EPA Americans would be wearing paper masks on their faces on the way to work like they do in China. This pollution is a health hazard to us all, especially children with asthma and other respiratory issues. We need to discourage the use of fossil fuels with cap and trade programs, using the time we have left with oil and coal to continue developing clean energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal.
Coal is yesterday's fuel source and will soon be no more relevant than whale oil or kerosene. Green energy jobs should be set up in coal country to support the economies of those regions. All tractor trailer trucks should be converted to cleaner burning natural gas.
The beaches of California and the 48th District need to be protected at all costs. Nature preserves and parks in the 48th District should never be developed. I believe the nuclear power plant at San Onofre should remain closed and the waste removed. I do not support the construction of a desalinization plant in Huntington Beach, they are bad for the environment, burn too much electricity, are expensive and likely to be a wasted effort when droughts inevitably end. Gun Safety Reform I support a nationwide ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Mass shootings are a scourge in this country.
My definition of an assault weapon is a firearm that has High power, a High rate of fire, and a High capacity magazine (usually external). Think of the three H’s on assault weapons. These guns are designed for war, not hunting or self-defense, and have no place in civil, modern society.
I got my first gun, a Remington Model 870 Wingmaster shotgun when I was in the eighth grade. I still have that gun today. Over the years I have bought other firearms but the only one that could be considered an assault weapon (AW) is my handgun, a Taurus 9mm semi-automatic that I bought when I was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marines. I would gladly trade my 15 round magazines for 10 round versions when we get a ban on high capacity magazines. As a qualified expert shooter in the Marines, it is very unlikely I would ever need more than a few cartridges to defend myself or my family.
Ever since I was a kid hunting rabbits and pheasants and reading Field & Stream and Outdoor Life magazines, I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors and loved to take a gun into the woods of New England as a hunter and sportsman. I strongly believe that owning a firearm is a right for all law abiding citizens, not just for hunting but for protection of ourselves and our families.
But we need common sense gun safety reform that keeps guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable, that restricts assault weapons to law enforcement and our military, and that makes it easy to find someone who breaks the law with a gun. We also should allow doctors to discuss the hazards of owning guns with their patients. Homes with children need to be concerned about proper storage and access as well as being wary of depression and the potential to act on impulse to commit suicide when there is easy access to a gun.
I believe the National Rifle Association (NRA) of today is not the NRA of when I was a kid. Instead of promoting responsible gun ownership, hunter safety, and excellence in marksmanship they are now nothing more than a lobbyist for gun manufacturers who want to sell the most expensive assault weapons, public safety be damned. They make foolish arguments like the hole from a bolt-action rifle is the same size as a hole from an AW. I dare them to try to sell that crazy “logic” to a former Marine officer.[50] |
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| —Tony Z for Congress[54] | ||
Dana Rohrabacher
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Representative Dana Rohrabacher has been a leading force behind a variety of reforms, policy initiative and legislative efforts. The following is a summary of his agenda which is both wide and substantial. Immigration: Opposes all efforts to legalize the status of those currently in the United States illegally. The major actions required by the Federal Government are securing our borders, restructuring our Visa system so we are aware when, who and where there has been a Visa overstay. Finally, the Federal Government needs to require an E-verify system to check on anyone getting a job or asking for a government benefit. No jobs/no benefits equals those here illegally will go home on their own. Energy and the environment: As vice chair of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, Dana has been deeply involved in technology development that has been of economic benefit to his constituents and vital to the security and prosperity of our country, - He has played a major role in defending Americans' patent system from the attack of multi-national corporations, especially in the electronics' industry. For 20 years these corporate giants have been trying to diminish or utterly destroy the rights of America’s independent inventors, the little guys. Dana is one of the most active members standing up for the constitutional rights of innovative Americans against powerful thieves, foreign and domestic. - Dana has strongly supported efforts to make America energy self-sufficient. He stood up for expanding domestic oil and gas production, be it by fracking or other approaches. He also championed the development of new safe nuclear alternatives, as well as fought to open federal lands to solar power projects. - Dana has provided valuable leadership in keeping America the number 1 aerospace power in the world. He authored the Commercial Space Act of 2004 which laid the foundation of an emerging new industry. NASA now has more resources for the exploration only it can do, while private companies are investing in space transportation and other space based business opportunities. Dana is responsible for original funding needed to build a Space Maneuvering Vehicle. That project resulted in the X-37 to which has been designated as America's number one space based national security technology. - Dana opposes a foreign policy based on deploying large numbers of American troops to foreign countries. We can not afford to be the policeman of the world. He voted to get all our troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.Instead: he aggressively supports drones, rail guns and superior technology , but not more U.S. invasion like Iraq. - Dana cosponsored bills requiring full disclosure of 9-11 and Kennedy assassination reports. He believes all government should be transparent and accountable. - He opposes higher taxes or centralizing more power and authority in Washington. Thus Dana supports efforts to get the government out of Education, and opposes efforts like Common Core to shove a politically correct curriculum down the throats of local parents and teachers. --Dana is committed to bringing down the level of deficit spending, which is adding $500 billion to the National debt annually. this can be accomplished by getting government out of those activities and responsibilities never intended for the Federal government...and ensure the federal government is operating efficiently in those arenas meant for federal involvement. - Dana’s belief in individual freedom and limited government has led him to oppose the over surveillance of our people and the expansion of federal police powers. He has been especially concerned with the Obama Administration’s misuse of the IRS and other government agencies to target and bully those Americans who have expressed opposition to various Administration policies. - Dana, over the years, has worked with local water districts to ensure that Orange County has a secure supply, even in this time of drought. He has introduced local water planners to the most cutting edge of water technology. He also is a cosponsor of legislation that makes water, not guns, a priority for America’s global strategy. - Dana has courageously led the successful fight this year to amend legislation as to prohibit federal agents from attacking medical Marijuana facilities if the people of that particular state have voted to legalize the medical use of marijuana. Using limited law enforcement dollars when local people have voted to make it legal is abusive of our rights and contrary to what the founding fathers believed was a legitimate use of federal authority.[50] |
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| —Rohrabacher for Congress[55] | ||
Scott Baugh
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Immigration Taxes Spending Fiscal Discipline and Responsibility Economy National Defense and Veterans Foreign Policy Environment Crime Homeless |
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| —Scott Baugh for Congress[56] | ||
John Gabbard
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Just Say "NO" to Offshore Drilling in CA 30 Years Is Too Long, We Need Term Limits Russia and Protecting Our Democracy Support for Tax Reform Donation and Transparency Pledge |
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| —John Gabbard for Congress[57] | ||
Paul Martin
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National Defense and Protection The United States has crucial obligations in other parts of the world, especially places where terrorist organizations have been harbored to plan attacks against us, both domestically and abroad. Paul believes we must not allow the necessary focus on such non-traditional threats to distract us from maintaining our nuclear deterrent and readiness in the face of more traditional foes. Paul understands that our allies are crucial in the fight against al Qaeda, ISIS, and other fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups and supports all efforts to strengthen relationships with these crucial overseas partners. Paul also has been outspoken in “the new warfare” — hacking, doxing, spreading disinformation, bots, dark ads, and hacking voter rolls. He advocates for a robust and comprehensive look at the way we protect critical infrastructure and other networks from cyber attacks and will fight to ensure that the United States stop at nothing to sanction every foreign agent that aims to repress our Democracy in this manner. Specifically, Paul will work relentlessly to expose and respond to the relentless attacks and human rights abuses of Vladimir Putin — he will cooperate with other noble initiatives to end his anti-democratic agenda both in the U.S. and globally. Paul supports our allies in parts of the world that share our nation’s vision for freedom and human rights. He supports maintaining strong US-Israel relations. He aims to ensure Israel has the resources to defend itself and uphold its right to do so. He is an advocate for the rights of religious minorities throughout the world. In addition to supporting our nation’s servicemen and women, Paul is a strong advocate for our nation’s first responders and law enforcement officials. Grow Jobs and Opportunity As the son of a small business owner, and as a former entrepreneur, Paul understands that no government program can replace what a good job means for the future of a family. Unfortunately, bigger government, more spending, higher taxes, and more debt has created an inequality crisis of opportunity in our country, and district. Those policies have disproportionately hurt low and middle-class Americans for far too long. Paul supports two core efforts to increase economic opportunity for American families and workers. These include, Streamline Unnecessary Regulations. No one wants to create a job or hire more people when they have uncertainties about what the future holds. Paul will support common-sense bills aimed at reviewing, streamlining, consolidating, and repealing costly and needless government regulations. The revival of American Infrastructure. Paul understands that maintaining and improving our roads, bridges, and other transportation networks are crucial to the long-term viability of the nation’s economy. As a way of stimulating the economy and simultaneously improving the structure of our systems, he supports bipartisan legislation to revive American infrastructure and encourage job creation through the expansion of shovel-ready projects. Paul is committed to ensuring both District and national infrastructure remains a top priority. Federal Spending The lack of fiscal discipline is a major threat to the development of our economy. Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s stripped the United States of its triple-A credit rating in 2011. However, Congress has failed to courageously address crucial budget decisions, passing on potentially devastating repercussions to our children and grandchildren. Paul believes that tightened budget expenditures are imperative to bring the federal government back to a fiscally sound standing. As a result of maintaining a fiscally responsible budget, the federal government would be able to better identify their priorities and address the coming insolvencies of Social Security and Medicare. The ultimate goal, for the future of national security and the betterment of future generations, is to reform entitlement programs resulting in a budget that demonstrates the ability to live within our means. As a lifetime Republican committed to conservative fiscal values, Paul will continue to fight out-of-control spending and government expansion. Gun Safety As a lifelong gun owner, Paul will fight to uphold the Second Amendment, but he also believes lawmakers must act to help protect the innocent from senseless gun violence. Specifically, Paul advocates for common sense measures to protect our children. These include comprehensive background checks (national database) for any and all purchasers of firearms and ammunition. He believes that the acquiring of a gun should be no easier than that of attaining a driver's license. Paul often tells voters, "When it comes to keeping our nation safe from terrorists, saying 'there's nothing we can do about it, it's giong to happen anyway' is not an option." He goes on, "In the same way we work to keep innocent people safe from terrorists, we must have the resolve to protect them from senseless gun violence." Health Care Reform Prohibitions on the discrimination for pre-existing conditions No annual or lifetime limits Coverage up to age 26 Continuation of coverage afforded under Medicaid Expansion As health care remains one of our biggest domestic issues, Paul will be committed to keeping the provisions above, and will work with leadership, and members of the Finance and HELP committees, to come up with prudent and workable solutions for all Americans. Energy and Environment Paul strongly rejects the idea that one party should be known for championing the protection of our planet. Instead of polarizing the issue of the environment, Paul believes that all people, regardless of their views on global warming, want clean air, clean water, and reduced pollution. Paul will advocate for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. He will further work for the creation of green energy jobs and advocate for the reduction of our dangerous dependence on foreign oil – while retaining important American manufacturing jobs. Homelessness Homelessness in Orange County has seen a dramatic increase over the years. According to a recent study, taxpayers are spending a minimum of $299 million per year on providing for their needs. Who comprises this increasing homeless population? Over 90% US-born individuals, with 68% having lived here for over 10 years. The vast majority (40%) report securing or retaining jobs as the reason they lost their housing. Thirty-six percent report finding or retaining affordable housing as the reason they are homeless. Paul believes that addressing issues of homelessness is a not partisan issue. Proven national best practices can help those struggling and, simultaneously, save taxpayers millions. A significant number of our homeless population are classified as chronic homeless. This means they have a diagnosed disability. These are people for whom it is impossible to get off the streets without assistance. President George W. Bush successfully created a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness using evidence-based practices. In short, it's a fact that when the chronically homeless are taken off the streets and given employment, all benefit. The result of implementation of the Bush plan, Orange County taxpayers would save 50% per homeless person ($51,587 per person versus $100,789, per year). In addition, there would be a reduction of 78% in ambulance rides and 100% fewer arrests. Paul is committed to saving our county $42 million per year and, at the same, restoring hope to thousands in our communities. Education As a father, Paul's children have attended both private and public (including charter) schools, and have had a period where they were homeschooled. He understands the choices parents face in wanting to provide the best opportunity for their children, and has experienced, firsthand, the benefits and challenges each option provides. Paul believes that education is an intrinsic value — to learn and be educated is to strengthen not just the person, but the community, and society. In District 48, the inflated cost of living makes the issue of education specifically germane. Too many cannot afford to live here; hence, to find and keep successful, well-paying jobs, people need to have superior knowledge and skills. In short, education is uniquely important to the current and future success of Orange County. Paul is a supporter of Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA. ESSA returns control over education to the state. It eliminates the No Child Left Behind mandates for “Adequate Yearly Progress” that gave our schools 31 ways to be labeled a “failure” but failed to provide ways to get credit for improvement. It removes “Highly Qualified Teacher” mandates that have yet to succeed in identifying the truly exceptional teacher. Finally, Paul understands the merits of School Choice. He believes all educational modalities must remain a part of the complex conversation in the national effort to do what's best for our children. Veterans - Honoring Our Nation's Heroes Paul would work to help to help countless veterans receive assistance and recognition from the federal government. Further, he holds that Congress should never use veterans' funding to pass bills that would not pass on their own merit and that would exacerbate our country's fiscal crisis and increase our nation’s debt. To those who have been “in the trenches,” Paul would rely on the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars and that veterans are getting the services they need. Paul would fiercely work to protect proper health care for veterans. He would champion bills that safeguard services and would support bills that would promote better healthcare for veterans. Because veterans cannot receive the proper care they need without the proper facilities, Paul would advocate for construction and improvement of veterans' healthcare facilities. Technology and Telecommunications Paul also believes that a free and accessible internet works and its regulation is not the responsibility of the government. He is in staunch opposition to the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) implementation of so-called “net neutrality” guidelines, which gives the FCC new regulatory jurisdiction over the internet. Furthermore, Paul is in support of keeping the internet access-free from all federal taxes. The absence of such taxes will help keep consumers’ internet rates low and inspire private sector expenditure. Immigration Paul holds that a legal immigration system also must immediately deport any and all illegal immigrants who have committed a violent crime, without equivocation. From there, he aims to promote policy that creates economic growth, a temporary worker program to provide for future labor needs, and enhanced employment verification standards to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants. Past efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform have failed due to public mistrust of the government’s ability to manage such a program. The changing nature of immigration across the southern border has also hurt these efforts. Our legal immigration system must also be reformed to encourage economic growth and to give future immigrants an incentive to go through the legal process. If we want economic growth, we must make it easier for the best and brightest immigrants to contribute to our nation by being tomorrow’s innovators.[50] |
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| —Paul Martin for Congress[58] | ||
Shastina Sandman
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Environment You can believe in climate change or you can think it’s a hoax. I’m not here to prove either of the statements false. I do know one thing that humans are destroying our planet. That is a fact. Look at our ocean, we produce 200 billion pounds of plastic each year and about 10% of that ends up in the ocean. 70% of that eventually sinks, damaging live on the ocean floor. Remember when they “banned” plastic bags in California? I actually thought it was a really good idea until I realized they were not banning bags they were just charging us for them. This was just another money grabbing scheme by politicians. Now I have more plastic bags than before!! My laundry room is full of them. I don’t know how I have managed to accumulate so many? A true ban would have had more of an impact on the environment. We will survive without plastic bags, we have already shown that we are capable of using cloth bags, recycling, or carrying are 5 items to the car. Another way to help future generations is to look at how we are wasting our precious resources. We need to increase our use of clean energy, particularly solar power. Solar power will improving the environment and cut energy costs. This is a great efficiency upgrade that we need to see residential and commercially. If we want to reduce our carbon footprint this is a great way to go. Drastically reduce or even eliminate electric bills. A solar panel system in 7-8 years can give you an ROI of 20% Increase property value Boost U.S. energy independence ( The Sun is infinite) Creating Jobs at a rate of 12X Protect the environment (buildings are responsible for 38 % of all carbon emissions in the U.S) By 2040 I think solar will be the cheapest form of electricity. But first, we need to make Solar more affordable. Securing Our Schools I’m not talking about blind optimism here – the almost willful ignorance that thinks evil will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That experience guides my conviction to take action in Congress. At the end of the day, we cannot walk away – not for the sake of passing a bill, but so that we can finally address the real concerns of Americans and the persistent hopes of all those brothers and sisters who want nothing more than their own chance at our common dream. I would not be running for Congress, if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men and women but all of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century. If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there is a child in Florida who is afraid to go to school, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. Homeless In 2017 $23.5 million committed to provide shelter including recently opened Bridges at Kraemer shelter and multiservice center in Anaheim and the Courtyard shelter in Downtown Santa Ana; and the start of what will be a $33 million effort, called the whole person care initiative, targeting homeless people frequently treated at emergency centers. So why do we still have homeless people? Locally and nationally we all must implement the same system. Other wise we will have homeless migration to cities, and counties that aren’t prepared to take on more then there homeless citizens. A new study by UC estimates that we will save $42 million per year if every chronically homeless person is provided permanent supportive housing. Get our citizens off the streets Get their mental health under control Get them clean and sober We mist acknowledge that housing is key to addressing the homelessness. We must acknowledge that permeant housing is the key to homelessness. We must acknowledge that some of those on the streets have mental health, drug, and alcohol problems. Currently 425 people sleep there each night and on average 700 people come through to use their services. There have been complaints of staff verbally abusing homeless people and that residents suffer from the shelter’s unsanitary conditions. A Scabies outbreak was reported last year. The meals have been said to be nutritionally deficient. We need to look into these allegations and see what is going on inside The Courtyard. We also have to understand that this is a band aid and not a permanent solution. However, we might see more of these band aids popping up everywhere to fix the crisis mode of our rapidly growing homelessness. A more permanent solution would be what Midway city is doing. They are creating ready made homes from shipping containers. They are turning shipping containers into studio homes. We can do this too, and we will. We will also need to provide mental health services, trauma counseling, and therapy to help these citizens because acclimated with society. President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) proposed a $2-billion bond to finance new and rehabilitated housing for mentally ill people living on the streets. Money to repay the loan would come from revenue generated by Proposition 63, a 1% income tax surcharge on millionaires passed in 2004 that funds mental health services. “It was a treatment-first law, not a housing-first law,” said Rose King, who co-authored the 2004 initiative. Mary Ann Bernard, an attorney from Sacramento, said the proposal is illegal. The California Most of the revenue generated by the income tax surcharge now goes to local mental health agencies to spend on crisis intervention, prevention, employee training and similar programs. They are battling in court over this money while our citizens continue on the streets. But how is permanent housing not part of the problem with mental illness? California is paying the most care to Illegal Aliens at $23,038,125,353.00 ($23 billion). These costs include education, welfare, law enforcement, and medical care. When Federal costs are included the price tag goes even higher. Just imagine if we took that money and put it into America First? Housing our homeless, treating our mentally ill, fixing our roads, education, criminal, and prison reform. And pay off some debt while we are at it! We must secure our borders. We have to pay down our $21 trillion debt! "Taxes' Unlike my opponent, I care about my constituents. But you are more than constituents, you are my neighbors, my family, and my friends. A majority of those living in the district, rent. The rise of our housing market makes the American Dream of owning a home almost impossible. When Dana voted against the Tax Jobs Act he voted against his constituents. America had one of the worst tax codes in the industrialized world for businesses. By reducing tax rates for businesses large and small, Trump’s bill leveled the playing field and made America, the jobs magnet of the world. This Act makes American jobs, headquarters, and research from moving overseas by eliminating incentives that now reward companies for shifting jobs, profits, and manufacturing plants abroad. The tax code is too complicated. By throwing out special-interest loopholes and consolidating deductions, Trumps bill makes filing taxes so easy that you can use a form as simple as a postcard. We shouldn’t have to pay an accountant thousands to file our taxes. Americans’ taxes are too high, so we have lowered individual tax rates for low-and middle-income Americans and eliminating excessive, costly taxes. That means you get to keep more of your hard-earned paycheck. Pro Life/Birth Control Still, don’t believe me? Just research Margaret Sanger, she founded Planned Parenthood. She promoted “good” breeding and aimed to prevent “poor” breeding. Her ideas behind abortion where to encourage people with traits like intelligence, hard work, and cleanliness, to reproduce. Sounds somewhat similar to what Hitler was trying to do, doesn’t it? Sanger once wrote that “consequences of breeding from stock lacking human vitality always will give us social problems and perpetuate institutions of charity and crime.” Now ask yourself why does PP put 79% of their abortion clinics within walking distance of minority neighborhoods? I’m pro-life. Children are a gift from the Lord. A true blessing. I want to save every child from harm’s way. I don’t believe that aborting our children is a fundamental right. I understand that it may not be the best time for that family to have a child, but adoption is the most selfless thing you can do for you and your child. There are so many families today that are looking to adopt. I’m pro-life because this is about morals and the value of life. We are so quick to kill a child and be ok with it because society tells us its ok. I’m here to tell you that it is not ok. Killing a child is never OK. That child in your womb can hear you, can hear his/her surroundings, is moving, is smiling, breathing, that baby is alive! I believe abortion is the greatest human rights violation of my generation. I will introduce legislation to Congress to offer FREE Birth control to all Women. Birth Control (BC) is not a luxury. This is a necessity to save lives and help women. We can defund Planned Parenthood and use those funds to fund my Birth Control Initiative. I listen to the “Men” in office right now trying to tell me how birth control is not a necessity and how they don’t want insurance to cover it because of religious reasons and I’m here to tell you that’s not true! For the men who don’t know, Birth Control pills prevent pregnancy through several mechanisms, mainly stopping ovulation. If NO egg is released then there is nothing to be fertilized by sperm, and a woman cannot get pregnant. This is the true meaning of “Planned Parenthood.” Birth Control is 99% effective and there is no egg, meaning there is no conception. Genesis 21:2 “And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham…” The religious argument is that life starts at conception. With birth control, there is no conception because there is no egg. Now that I’ll be saving lives with my Birth Control initiative lets also talk about the medical benefits that women receive from Birth Control. Birth Control is prescribed for many things such as: Regulate heavy or irregular menstrual periods Menstrual cramps Acne PMS Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) Endometriosis Hormone Replacement Therapy Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) Menstrual migraines Social Issues I will not settle for a place in America where some kids don’t have that chance. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins. I’m hopeful because I think there’s an awakening taking place in America. We’re not going to agree on everything, but we can disagree without being disagreeable. Thank you, and God bless America. Term Limits
Thank you. Foreign Policy Now don’t get me wrong. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less – because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy. It’s that folks are hungry for change – they’re hungry for something new. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer. It’s a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy. Finally, I want to discuss economic development and opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across California from violence and despair. We have to do what we can, knowing it’s hard and not swinging from a naive idealism to a bitter defeatism – but rather, accepting the fact that we’re not going to solve every problem overnight, but we can still make a difference. "Veterans' Go into the collar counties around California and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon. Now is the time to finally keep that promise. HUD-VASH This program contains Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) for rental assistance for homeless Veterans with case management and clinical services provided by the Depart of Veteran Affairs (VA). Yet we still have our Veterans on the street, homeless and sick. However, under the thousands that are distributed, a total of 580 has been given to Orange County to date per ochouse.org OCHA does not and will not have authority to maintain a waiting list or apply local preferences for HUD-VASH Housing. This is a fault with the system. If a Veteran “must need case management services” in order to obtain and sustain housing then why won’t the OCHA have a list of Veterans on a waiting list. We need to implement a list of landlords and rentals that accept HUD-VASH vouchers. One of the problems is the lack of affordable housing in many cities. There was anecdotal evidence that landlords in tight markets were turning veterans away with HUD-VASH vouchers. In California, it is still legal for a landlord to turn down a tenant if they are offering a VA voucher as part of their rent. I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability of the VA department. PTSD SOLUTIONS COMING SOON. Freedom for All It comes from us because if we want true change, then we must change. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education will help all of America prosper. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress. That is why we welcome efforts like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah’s Interfaith dialogue and Turkey’s leadership in the Alliance of Civilizations. Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life. First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. Martin Niemöller I am Pro-Constitution and will support your freedom of speech. I will support the freedoms given to you by the United States Constitution. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Military Spending President Donald Trump’s $686 billion defense request for the coming fiscal year would propel the Navy toward a new goal of 355 ships, restore major funding for a Boeing Co. fighter jet favored by the president and boost missile defense spending to counter threats from North Korea and Iran. On its voyage to a 355-ship Navy, the budget plan envisions building the fleet to 299 vessels by the end of fiscal 2019, which begins Oct. 1, and 326 by 2023. The Navy has 280 ships today, but some are nearing the end of their useful life. Missile defense spending, spurred by Trump and supported by lawmakers over fears of North Korea’s accelerated ballistic missile and nuclear programs, would increase about 25 percent over the Obama administration’s last projected numbers for fiscal 2019 — to $9.92 billion, or $1.91 billion more than previously planned. It would bankroll 20 new interceptor missiles and silos, a new “homeland defense radar” in Hawaii and, for the first time, a “salvo” test to fire two interceptors at once at an incoming target. I am in support of increasing the security of our nation but we can’t continue to let our spending get out of control. We need to take a look at what we are spending and get away from these contracts and be able to purchase supplies and products at reasonable prices. K-12 Education Vouchers are coupons, backed by state dollars, that parents can use to send their kids to the school of their choice, even private, religiously affiliated schools. The money is all or some of what the state would have otherwise spent to educate the child in a public school. Vouchers can also be called “scholarships” and are most often reserved for low-income students, children with disabilities or for families zoned to a failing public school. Fourteen states offer Traditional student vouchers: Arkansas Florida Georgia Indiana Louisiana Maine Maryland Mississippi North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Utah Vermont Wisconsin Washington D.C. The main reason more states don’t offer traditional vouchers is that they can be used for religious schools of the parents’ choice. The U.S. Supreme court upheld the constitutionality of vouchers in 2002 but many state constitutions still have what are called Blaine Amendments, which prohibit spending public dollars on religious schools. There is not a lot of evidence that vouchers give children any substantial academic gains. My question is why are we giving children vouchers to go to a different school instead of focusing on fixing the school that is in their neighborhood? Trump wants to repurpose $20 billion in federal education dollars, distributing them to states as block grants. States can then pass the money on, as vouchers, to the nation’s 11 million students who live in poverty. Trump wants parents to be able to use these vouchers at the school of their choice, even if the school is private and/or religiously affiliated. One of the obstacles we will have is the Blaine Amendments, as I mentioned earlier. Also, the States would need to kick in far more of their own money and that’s going to be extremely difficult considering the states are still spending less overall per student today than they were 10 years ago. I don’t see vouchers as the solution to our education system. I can appreciate and understand what the President wants to accomplish but this is not the way. We need to take back our education system, stop viewing the kids as numbers but as future citizens of the United States of America. Many school systems have funding implemented on per-pupil spending, this forces our schools to run inadequately because they only receive funds based on enrollment numbers. It is important to remember that we are educating future voters. We need to do away with Common Core. This was one of the worst decisions I have seen in our education system and I’m sure you agree. Real teaching does not require long written out standards which are nothing more than long frivolous lists of jargon the school system probably paid some multi-billion-dollar company to create, wasting more of our tax dollars. Why are we moving away from homework? How can a child practice what they have learned if they don’t have homework? Homework helps a student grasp what they are learning, and this is a great way for parent involvement in what the student is learning at school. I am a firm believer in Homework and can’t wait to see what my children bring home for homework and it won’t be common core because we will go back to the days of REAL EDUCATION. I want to do away with meaningless tests. There used to be one standardized test per year and that is how we measured how students are doing. (Of course, along with quizzes, section tests, midterms, and finals.) Now the school boards have several tests issued to students each year, they only serve to make testing companies richer. We need to bring back classes of “Trade”. Do you remember the days of classes in auto mechanic or bodywork during high school? This was a time where students would take courses in high school that would lead to a career once they were done if they chose not to go to college. We need to bring back classes in; Auto Mechanics Body Work Nursing Medical areas Cosmetology Horticulture Various Cooking classes Sewing Architecture Engineering Electrician Computer Science Plumping HVAC We need to restore these classes that give people who don’t attend college a fair chance at life. We need to get the hands of politicians out of our education system and back to the people who are truly passionate about educating the future of America. We need to focus on recruiting the top college graduates to educate our children. Let’s make education great again! As always, my issues are constantly growing. We can’t solve our problems on one webpage! Healthcare With America in the midst of an opioid epidemic fueled in part by prescription painkillers, it’s worth asking how can we fight the war on drugs when we are constantly advertising drugs? Watch my show The California Fix as we discuss the devastating numbers of those dying from the opioid crisis. As your future Congresswoman, I will write and introduce legislation to ban pharmaceutical ads on TV. Pharmaceutical advertising has spiraled out of control and it’s costing us a fortune, we are paying with our lives. They spend, on average $5 billion dollars a year in advertising. Let’s help them cut their costs and pass those savings on to the customer. I am going up against “Big Pharma”. They will do and say whatever they can to stop me. I hope you will join my campaign and contribute what you can. With your action today you are standing up to big pharma. The Wall As your congresswoman, I will fight to secure our border and not just with a physical wall but a tracking system. We need to know who is coming in and who is leaving. 40% of those that come to America legally become illegal immigrants by overstaying their visa. We need mandatory systems in place. Then I will modernize our immigration system. So those that want to come to America will come on the basis of contributing to America not just because they have a relative here. Liberal Indoctrination of our Schools Do you remember when the drag queen wearing five demon-like horns, stark white face paint, and wild auburn hair was reading to children on a Saturday in Long Beach? I understand that the LGBTQIA community wants to be accepted. I understand that want to feel normal in their devil outfit. I personally don’t want anyone bullied or discriminated against for their sexual, religious, or political beliefs. But I’m tired of our schools today trying to indoctrinate our children to believe what they believe rather than teaching them critical thinking and actual course work. As your future Congresswoman, I will focus on removing this agenda of telling our children what to think into how to think. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Together we can make our schools less like correctional facilities, fewer union rules, less racist and liberal propaganda and more about learning, critical thinking, coursework, homework, career choices, job training, exercise, music, and art. Money isn’t the problem, we keep throwing money at the problem and it is not working. The problem is our schools are inefficiently run. States can spend $20,000 per student in a major public school, yet only 30% of 8th graders can pass the annual proficiency test in math. It’s time to focus on our teachers and not the pensions of the administration. I will see to it that every parent has a choice on the sexual education our children are learning. It is no longer teaching them about STDs but these classes are now actually teaching them to have sex. I won’t go into details but in 2009 Obama nominated homosexual propagandist Kevin Jennings as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education and he began a program indoctrinating our children with homosexual glorification. The primary tactic is to force their foot in the door at many schools under the facade of “Tolerance and diversity”. I support the LGBTQIA community, I just won’t allow their agenda to be shoved down our children’s throat. California, recently made it mandatory for all public schools to exaggerate and incorporate into their curriculum the contributions of homosexuals to history. This law forbids educators to portray homosexuals in anything other than a positive light. If I did something amazing in our history, I would want to be known for my merit, not because of my sexuality. Wouldn’t you agree? Oh and common core, yes we will remove that program from our schools![50] |
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| —Shastina Sandman for Congress[59] | ||
Brandon Reiser
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Limiting Military Aggression & Reducing Defense Spending To start, we must end the war in Afghanistan that has been raging for well over a decade now. We must question why the United States is still engaged in war with no clear purpose of objective. The cost of American lives and billions of dollars is out of control. Additionally, our constant provocation in North Korea, Syria and other nations must end. We again must hold the government accountable to clearly outline our purpose and objective when we begin to provoke world wars. Military spending has spiraled out of control as big government contracts have been doled out to big business. The circle of crony capitalism to drive military spending, and in turn concoct war, must end. Reducing Taxes & Entitlements The history of our nation is rooted in the resistance of taxation. Simply put, the coercive taxation system that exists today is unjust. Individual tax rates at all levels - along with corporate tax rates - should be reduced significantly. To balance this decrease in tax revenue, we must start to responsibly wind down the expansion entitlement programs that are in place today. This is a critical path as our nation begins to cut into our nearly $20T national debt. Reforming Our Education System at All Levels Providing parents with school vouchers would enable choice. Choice, for parents to decide how they feel their children should best be educated. This will be particularly beneficial as digital learning programs advance and evolve how our children learn. High school students need vocational training. They need to learn the skills needed to succeed in the job market of tomorrow. Switzerland follows this model and consistently has very low unemployment and high standard quality of living. Get government out of the student loan business. Knowing everyone will receive assistance, colleges and universities have been enabled to raise tuition prices at a rate that outpaces inflation. Our government financing higher education is the driving force behind unreasonable tuitions increases. Reducing the Cost of Healthcare Promote major accident health insurance to drastically lower the cost of individual insurance and drive the direct primary care market. Allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from overseas. The same prescription drugs are often sold overseas for a fraction of the price that they sell for in the United States. Promote global competition and trade and watch prices fall. Reform patent law and exclusivity rights. Pharmaceutical companies today and abuse patent laws and exclusivity rights to limit competition. Fair reforms would protect innovation, but also promote competition that equates to lower prices. Driving Small Business Growth & Better Jobs We must start to ease small business regulation. Federal oversight has been missing in recent decades and has equated to the average yearly cost of regulation per employee being over $11,000. This isn’t right and limits the growth of the small businesses that create two thirds of the jobs in this country. Many open jobs are going unfilled today. Vocational training is needed to ensure that future generations have the skills of the future needed to qualify for the job market of tomorrow. Ending the War on Drugs Drug abuse should be decriminalized and drug addicts, particularly opioid addicts, should be treated as a patient with a health issue. The criminalization of drug abuse not only does not reduce drug use but it also equates to dangerous, even deadly conditions, when abusers are imprisoned without the proper health care to combat their addiction. We must stop the failed, vicious cycle of criminalizing drug use. Improving Our Immigration System Our country needs a two-part approach to immigration reform. First, we must address our law-abiding neighbors and friends who are working here without documentation. The best solution is to create a simple work visa program to address their status. It’s simply not practical or cost effective to deport millions of people. Secondly, simplifying the immigration process will be a critical step toward creating a diverse, thriving society. Extensive backgrounds checks will be needed to ensure that those who we allow in are law-abiding individuals.[50] |
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| —Reiser 2018[60] | ||
Kevin Kensinger
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The One Where We Fix Household Debt Think of all your big, monthly bills: mortgage, student debt, credit card, healthcare bills, auto loans. It can be overwhelming; often times it actually is. America's kitchen table conversations are not getting any easier when mom and dad gather round to pay the bills. However, the balance owed that you see on your bill may only be relevant to... you. The company you're paying likely 'carries' your debt at a smaller amount. They may well have purchased your debt for pennies on the dollar, unbeknownst to you. THE SOLUTION: We will introduce legislation that will inform you anytime your debt/loan changes hands, exactly HOW MUCH it's changing hands for, and give you 90 days to match the offer. Imagine if you could buy your own debt for a third of your outstanding balance without hurting your credit report. We can. - Lower monthly payments - Reduced balances - Lower interest rates Let's fight for the Middle Class and run Government like a business. We Have Things To Do. THE TL;DR VERSION: As a nation, we hear a lot from Congress and the media about the national debt. The big scary number the Federal Government owes - our almost $20 trillion national public debt. Yet, the real monthly bills we're burdened by don't come from them. They come from our private debt - housing mortgages, credit cards, student loans, healthcare bills, car payments... The average U.S. household today makes $59k, and that's only up from $50k (adjusted for inflation) in 1980. This stagnated income has further exacerbated a growing debt crisis for the American Middle Class. Hedge funds are even looking for new ways to securitize tranches of student debt to bet against it (aka betting you'll default). This was the same process that culminated in the subprime housing collapse of 2008 (the one that created a near global economic collapse). In the investment finance world there is a second and even third or fourth market for your private debt. What this means is your debt can be bought and sold - from one company to another - while you're still on the hook for the balance plus accruing interest. You already know this: when your mortgage (or any debt) changes hands, you, the borrower, typically receive a notice in the mail that you need to start sending those payments to the new guy. Update: The NY Times goes as step further; the new guys that own your debt often don't even have the documents to prove it; as a result, judges are tossing billions in student debt out of court. What they don't tell you in that notice in the mail is the biggest dirty secret in this entirely rigged game. Often times, the new company did not purchase your debt for the full value you still think you owe. In fact, they often purchase second and third market paper at severe discounts. John Oliver recently pointed this out when he and HBO created a collections agency and purchased 15 million dollars worth of Texas healthcare debt for only... $60,000. Let that sink in a second. $15M for $60k (or 0.004%). What if you could do the same? What if you could buy your own debt back for a fraction of the cost? The private sector is already comfortable with this because they often do not carry your debt at 'par value' (the full amount of your loan) on their balance sheet. Rather, they sell it off their books to a collections agency and write down the loss (similar to the infamous $916M carried interest loss). The second company will then collect from you with varying levels of aggression, but at any point in time, for reasons that have nothing to do with you, they can and will sell your loan to another company. Same formula - rinse and repeat. Now, imagine you have $120k in medical or law school debt rolling at a Federally 'capped' rate of 7.87%. Your monthly payments are crippling, and annually you're only paying off interest, nothing more; the balance isn't moving. You are stuck on that hamster wheel. If that loan were sold to another company for $30k, and you then had 90 days to match the offer, you could feasibly get a private loan the size of a small car from your local bank/credit union and potentially be paying of $30k at 3% in today's interest rate environment. In this hypothetical you saved yourself from paying future interest as well as 75% of the balance; as a result, that crippling monthly payment would likely drastically reduce into something far more affordable. Meanwhile, no private sectors were hurt in the making of this solution. The market had spoken; your debt was not worth the full value, and the deal was going down with, or without you. Similarly, no tax dollars or government subsidies were used. Let's run the Government like a business and alleviate the $12 trillion albatross of debt around the U.S. Middle Class and give them buying power back. Lower monthly payments means more disposable income; this would stimulate the economy. It's time to lead, California - We Have Things To Do. The One With Healthcare - For Everyone Ask any recent retiree in America, and they'll tell you healthcare costs outside of the 'employer market' are a top concern. While Healthcare costs have been rising steadily since the 1960's, we must do more to provide cost effective Healthcare for every American, now. As the richest Nation in the world, healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. Our current 'system' is a clustered mess that puts an undue burden on American small businesses. Why does half the nation rely on their employer for their most sensitive insurance in... life? The greatest nation on Earth can provide quality, preventative medicine for everyone. This is - without doubt - the most productive mechanism with which to run a civil society both morally and economically. Healthy, happy citizens are productive members of society. The current structure is not viable, will not last, and hits Baby Boomers first. THE SOLUTION: Here in CA - Pass SB562, now. An economically diverse and stable state economy (CA: $6.1B state budget surplus next year) with almost 40 million people - aka the perfect recipe for a successful insurance pool. The whole point to the founders state's rights was to incubate ideas regionally and see if they work (*cough Romneycare*) for federal, larger scales. Drop the current age for Medicare enrollment to 55, immediately. Expand the ACA and use the pool to create a Single Payer system as a bridge to Medicare-For-All. This is the most humane and economically productive business play we have. Those 74 million Baby Boomers can be offset with younger, healthier folk if they're pooled together to pull prices down. Lucky for us as a nation, the Millennial population is slightly larger than the Baby Boomers and obviously younger and statistically, healthier. Check, check, check. This is how mortality pooling at big insurance companies works - throw everyone in one 'pool', and they balance each other out. Premiums from healthy, younger people, cover the disproportionate expenses of the older pool members. Very simple. More healthy people means more productive people; which also means a more productive economy. Less unemployment and more GDP. Run the Government like a business. This structure would only directly affect the Healthcare insurance industry, not the healthcare services themselves. Working Americans could receive their coverage from Uncle Sam by simply enrolling like the ACA or checking a box on their W-4. Costs would be deducted from paychecks - like they already are with your employer. That's the Single Payer bit. For the Healthcare industry, all services are still rendered by the private sector with pharmaceutical companies, doctors groups, etc., all continuing to operate just as they do today but with less red tape. The size of the Single Payer pool would allow us to negotiate low, low costs across the board for all of our pool members. Aggregating Medicare/caid, the V.A. - and assuming comparable ACA enrollee numbers - we could easily hit 200 million Americans in the pool. That's about a two-thirds market share (in a country of over 323M people). Let us negotiate prices in the private sector with 62% market share; we promise they'll come down. About half of our national budget is spent on Medicare/caid and Social Security. These are programs the Baby Boomers must have. These are not 'entitlements' - you paid for them. If we could negotiate costs down across the board, we would save the nation massive amounts of money. Eventually the pool would monopolize the market and we would have Medicare-For-All. Give us a team of actuaries and a 3% administrative cost, and we'll give you Healthcare for everyone. THE PERSONAL BIT: Through the recession we had gaps in our health coverage - like many Americans - but by 2015 when our son was born, we had great coverage through my work. We had that covered - now came all the terrifying parts of first time parenthood. There's an amazing video about how ridiculous this process is even when you do your best to family plan for expenses and everything goes smoothly. Things didn't go smoothly for us. Our son was born breech via c-section and still had fluid in his lungs, not uncommon with cesarian sections. That night his left lung collapsed, and he couldn't breathe without a tube and the hospital's ventilator. Ben stayed in the NICU for nine days. The first four days we could visit with him upstairs. Insurance kicks Mom and Dad out of the hospital after four days, so for the next five, we drove back and forth to our newborn child. We hope no one - in any circumstance - has to 'visit' their newborn child. The only thing that helped two sleep deprived and terrified parents hold it together was a remarkable and incredible staff of individuals at Saddleback Hospital and their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. They answered every frantic question with regular updates and assured us constantly that Ben would make a full recovery. This man... we love this man. Ben had roommates in the NICU with longer stays. The premature babies being saved around the clock in that room left us in awe. We are so fortunate to live down the street from all of these amazing doctors, nurses and resources with the insurance to give us access. The max out-of-pocket for Mom and son was about $8,300 and while our son's life is priceless, $8k is not an easy fee for any new parents. On paper - without insurance - the costs would have been bonkers. My wife's entire procedure and stay would have been about $37,000. Without coverage Ben's stay would have cost us over $100,000. This was and is comparable to the best PPO insurance I have ever had in my professional career. This was the 'lucky ones' scenario for the vast majority of Americans today. What if I had lost my job in my wife's second trimester? If this was nine days in the NICU, how much do those other families owe, the ones with babies that have to stay for months? Is this the roll-of-the-dice we want to rely on as a society? No family should go bankrupt for trying to save a loved one. We Have Things To Do. THE TL;DR VERSION: It is a National embarrassment that we - the global super power - hit a 2013 peak of 48 million Americans without health insurance. Similarly, our current 'system' is the illusion of choice and competition; it is not capitalism. We have some compelling info/data/thoughts below, but one component of this issue hits home for us, here at the campaign, in a big way: We have put a wildly unnecessary strain on business owners and entrepreneurs. 50 employees - that's the number businesswomen and men all aim to avoid before they have to provide Healthcare for all full-time staff. That's a huge cost/burden to bare. If the employers had even a fraction of their employees opt into our Medicare-For-All, it would free up headcount for them to hire even more American workers and save them money to grow their businesses. By the numbers: U.S. population 327M Medicare around 44 million enrollees Medicaid has around 63 million Americans covered. “Medicaid (which is called Medi-Cal in California) and the closely related Children’s Health Insurance Program together are the nation’s largest insurer, providing coverage to nearly 40% of American children and almost two-thirds of nursing home residents.” The VA services has about 9M Veterans. However, the Veterans Health Administration is not health insurance. It's an amazingly complicated system of fees and reimbursements from private insurance that we should never, ever bog down our servicemen and women with. 156M Americans get health insurance from their job/employer. If we aggregated the VA enrollees with the Medicare/caid recipients, we would have a pool of roughly 116M people. This is a third of the population before we've even asked anyone to enroll. If you currently have coverage with private insurance that you love, you'd continue it exactly as is. Same goes for the group plan your employer provides. Medicare-For-All would compete side by side with the private sector as nothing more than another option for consumers. May the best coverage win, competition is good for consumers. Our claim is not a wholly original one; we can run Medicare-For-All on 3% administrative cost. In the CBO's own analysis on this issue they site that bigger plans can spread costs across a larger number of people. This is not new information. That's how mortality pooling works in the private sector. We simply need to run the Government like a business. It needs to be run without billions in profit margins, less marketing cost, no Corporate Executive pay (and golden parachutes), costly real estate, stadium naming rights, and stock growth/dividends. From a business perspective, you cannot convince us the illusion of competition for the cartel of health insurance companies is better for the American middle class than Medicare-For-All. In fact, compared to the rest of the world, we're way behind. If you're a Baby Boomer relying on Medicare for retirement, we're not sure there's any other viable option for a long term solution. We're currently state sponsoring the oldest and sickest members of society while letting private insurance cover the youngest and healthiest among us. Corporations make billions covering the healthy; meanwhile, tax payers cover the sick and elderly. That will not work. Medicare-For-All: Coverage with no preexisting conditions restrictions, with real maternity care, with affordable prescriptions and adequate mental health/addiction coverage. No in- or out-of- network, just quality insurance coverage so that you can choose the best Healthcare services, doctors and facilities for you. It's time to lead, California - We Have Things To Do. P.S. - Full disclosure: we would not support full blown socialized medicine. We still need the private sector producing actual goods and services. Insurance is a passive business line - it needs only survey the current landscape and can evolve with private sector business conditions maintaining a 3% admin cost. Medical technology/devices, nurses, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies all continue to operate as is. The One With a Green New Deal There remains a false narrative that Green Energy industry and regulations kill jobs and economy. This is a farce. Similarly, as more severe weather grips the planet with each passing season we see the cost of storms to our economy and national GDP. We no longer need foreign fossil fuels, yet they continue to be both a politically volatile international commodity and the primary green house gas culprits. As the weather severity changes, we must do all we can to adapt our national economy accordingly. The Pentagon has only been asking us to do update since 2012. Diversified Energy Independence is good business and good national security. Current increased stress on our electric grid in unseasonably hot summers means not enough power at some junctures, and too much at others. With San Onofre off line since 2012 and no new fossil fuel plants likely to go in locally, we must plan long term to modernize our infrastructure. THE SOLUTION: We must pass a $4T Green New Deal. This would be a massive domestic undertaking to update our country. It would involve #UnionStrong jobs that cannot be exported. We need to invest in U.S., again. Here in CA we must continue to lead. We mentioned the farce above; California can prove it. Continuing on this path would mean updates, jobs, and increased productivity economically. The solar industry now employs more American workers than all coal, oil and natural gas power plants. The more we can get our local, State and Federal governments to rely on free and abundant sources of energy here at home, the stronger our nation will be. Even the oil centric city of Houston gets it. As those municipalities save money on power expenditures over the long term, taxpayers save as well. Some areas now produce too much power. For these areas we need to continue to install batteries to store/capture excess power, the way Los Angeles has begun to. Electric grids are not alone. Crumbling roads and bridges can be modernized for energy efficiency and create potentially millions of jobs in the process. THE TL;DR VERSION: Growing up in Riverside, CA in the 90's we routinely had 'Smog Days' where we were not allowed to go outside. No recess, no sports practice, no outdoor activity. As a public health warning the city and state would let us know that the air quality was so bad, we shouldn't overexpose ourselves to 'it.' While conditions in Southern CA have greatly improved, our cumulative air quality still needs work; real work. Since the 1970's the Golden State has famously championed Green Energy industry expansion and regulation, in tandem. This partnership has spurred innovation out of the state en masse. Fuel efficiency standards that were once scoffed at nationally are now the norm. They told us we'd never be able to sell cars in the nation's largest car market, and that we'd be dooming ourselves economically over and over if we had the audacity to clean our air and water. They said we couldn't really clean it anyway, so what was the point? We did clean up the air and water substantially. However, we still have work to do. The war against polluted air that kills millions annually is far from over. The greatest parts of America, our Capitalism and our State Government structure, rely on natural competition. The Nation can survey new State strategies and consider them for wider implementation. The good ideas stay, and the bad ones go. This is a healthy economic ecosystem. California has overwhelmingly shown the nation the idea that Green Energy jobs are bad for the economy flies in the face of our state GDP being double that of the country. While at the same time, unemployment went down to 5%. There was a time when the government needed to subsidize solar (the way we still subsidize corn and oil) for it to be cost competitive with other electric generation fuels/sources. That time is over. The cost of production for a watt of electricity (the only business math that matters) is now at parity with solar and natural gas and both are cheaper than coal or oil. The most cutting edge solar panel/photo voltaic cells, bid to go into a plant in Dubai, can produce at a rate of 2.42 cents per kilowatt hour. Coal and gas in the U.S. currently average around 5-6 cents. Inaction has real economic consequences... too much science! It's time to lead, California - We Have Things To Do. The One With Nuclear Waste That's happening, right now, 108 feet from the ocean. Our beach is now a literal nuclear waste site. If we ever have a Fukushima event here at home, we would all have to find new homes. Every single resident of CA48 lives within the mandatory 50 mile evacuation zone. That's over 8.5 million people displaced. Meanwhile, earthquakes in California are a 'when' not an 'if' and the site sits sandwiched between multiple active fault lines. The nuclear material is being buried in concrete and 5/8 inch steel boxes - just above the water table. Salt water is extremely corrosive to both of those. As ocean levels rise, storm systems increase in severity and the threat of a conventional explosion creating a dirty bomb from terrorists, North Korea or Russia intensify, we simply cannot allow this to continue any longer. THE SOLUTION: The solution is simple, but not easy. Once cooled, place the spent fuel on the adjacent train tracks and get it out of here. The Department of Energy can take it to either Yucca Mountain or one of three sites near Phoenix, Carlsbad New Mexico or west Texas for temporary storage; whoever is ready and willing first. This has been the Federal Government's responsibility for over 30 years. The 1982 plans for the Department of Energy to take possession/own all nuclear waste and create a Federal home for it never came to fruition. We would seek to immediately work with current pending legislation as well as Department of Energy Secretary, Rick Perry to finalize Federal adoption of the waste on a nation wide, permanent basis. Congress still has a Nuclear Waste Fund with over $30 billion set aside to deal with this problem. San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station should arguably be the nation's first site resolved as the Port of Long Beach and Camp Pendleton create massive economic and National Security implications. THE TL;DR VERSION: Make no mistake, while this would immeasurably affect over 8.5 million of us Californians locally, a nuclear leak at San Onofre would be absolutely devastating for our National Security and national economy. Camp Pendleton sits next door to the nuclear waste and is one of our largest West Coast military bases; operating year-round training for our brave Marines, Navy Seals and countless other military divisions, along with being one of only a few sites nationally operating STARS (air traffic control). In an age of threats to the West Coast (North Korea and Russia) how can the Pentagon and Homeland Security be willing to risk vital bases and ports for our national defense by leaving this dirty bomb on the beach? 50% of all commerce for the United States comes through California; much of it through Long Beach port. 25% of all fruits and vegetables for the nation are grown right here, in California. Allowing a nuclear waste leak to happen would be detrimental for the whole country. In addition to the base, we would stand to lose shipping routes, Latin American seafood/produce sources and animal migratory patterns. It gets worse at every turn: the sarcophagus they are using only utilizes 5/8 inch steel and a thin concrete wall. As opposed to other regions which use thicker steel and often concrete walls multiple feet thick. This is about the equivalent of 51 Chernoblys being buried in the sand at a local surf spot in flimsy coffins. The steel and concrete tombs would not be eligible for inspection, nor repairs, even if leaks were discovered. When an earthquake hits, or in the event of terrorists, North Korea (70+ submarines) or Russia (63 subs) simply detonating a conventional explosive device at the site - we, the residents of the 48th - would be living in a nuclear fallout zone. While there are many self-interested parties involved, the largest public safety issue moving forward is our preeminent concern. In that effort, the blame game on what's been done is less productive than creating a solution. Waiting 5 years for this and 10 years for that is no longer an option. Let's run the Government like a business and work with the waste haulers and temporary storage businesses to get this nuclear waste out of our beach and out of Southern California, now. We Have Things To Do. The One With An Opioid Crisis Per the CDC, two-thirds of drug overdoses (66%) involve an opioid. In 2016 opioid deaths were 5x higher than in 1999. From 2000-2016 more than 600,000 Americans died from overdose - that's an average 115 deaths from opioid overdoses, a day. There is no one cause. A perfect storm created this epidemic.
THE SOLUTION: Things we can do now: Collectively destigmatize our approach to mental health and chemical dependence. Get Naloxone in the hands of every ER attendee, first responder and regular opioid user. Allow the DEA to do their job in enforcing gross distribution violations by Big-Pharma. Legalize marijuana as an available alternative. It has incredible painkilling properties with no lethal side effects. Pass Single Payer Healthcare (fist SB-562 in CA, then Nationally) as a bridge to Medicare-For-All. This would allow unlimited rehab coverage and comprehensive drug rehabilitation services that patience and doctors can design without fear of losing employment/insurance, having an ongoing 'preexisting condition' or having legal medications too expensive to help. Things we can do long term: Most fentanyl is coming in from China. We need to work diplomatically with China to strengthen the screening of exports bound for the US. As their primary trade partner, this is a reasonable request. Strengthen mail routes, ports and borders to screen more extensively for fentanyl. Go after Big-Pharma the way we went after big tobacco. The industry appears to have knowingly lied and falsified information to doctors, Congress, the public and patients. Claiming that there was no correlation to chemical dependency was a bold faced lie to fast track drugs for wide scale sale and corporate profits. Any financial damages, penalties, fines, judgments or settlements would go into an opioid relief fund to provide funding for rehabilitation centers, Naloxone, healthcare services and Veterans in need of related services. THE TL;DR VERSION: According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse: "In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led to widespread diversion and misuse of these medications before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive." The above, coupled with a failed drug war focused on deterrence/incarceration and not recovery and rehabilitation... and now, here we are. The stigma around mental health in general, and especially around drug addiction is entirely up to each one of us to change. If you know someone, or have a loved one battling with any brain chemistry related hardship - listen to their concerns like you would a cancer patient. When it comes to addiction, it doesn't matter how someone got there. Society is better off to get them out. To oversimplify, we can all do more to remain patient and help people with their coping mechanisms. Meanwhile, fentanyl is now being disgustingly used to increase street sales due to its 100:1 potency. Dealers on the street spike their product with the lethal fentanyl to increase sales. When customers find out about it's potency, they seek it out. The drug builds a steady tolerance in every user, so they are always pursuing stronger product. From mental health services and criminal justice reform - we have a lot of ways to attack this as a society - and none of them are partisan. THE PERSONAL BIT: I lost my childhood best-friend to this epidemic, about three years ago. He is survived by his two amazing sons... this one hits home for us, real hard. The deck was stacked against my friend. His mother and father both struggled with addiction. We knew he had an overwhelming biologically predisposition. We grew up knowing he couldn't dabble recreationaly the way the rest of us might be able to. But, addiction found him anyway. It was hardest on his immediate family, as it always is. Multiple rehabs, on and off the wagon, court appearances, NA meetings/chips, mentors... then a broken foot on the job as an Iron Worker meant pain pills and a limp... Ultimately, there was no one thing that lost him for us. Brain chemistry, with opioids in particular, becomes overwhelming; it sinks it's teeth in and becomes the brain's only real day to day motivation. He died in a crappy hotel surrounded by other users that left the minute they regained consciousness and saw a cold body. As a society, we are better than this. We don't have to be losing more kids to this than car accidents and guns, combined. We will no longer stand idly by as big pharma lies to us while overselling hard narcotics. We will no longer stand idly by as an ineffective drug war fails to do anything more than lock up the disenfranchised. We have things to do. The One With the Cash Crop THE SOLUTION: We’re calling on CA Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and other CA State Leaders to do what they’ve been doing: Lead. California must create a Public Bank. An intrastate Farmers Merchant Bank/Credit Union to house the industry's cash and get it off the streets. This would allow us to assimilate and tax this gigantic revenue stream. We cannot ask existing private sector banks to take on this burden. If elected, we would introduce legislation in the House to allow states that have legalized marijuana to create an intrastate infrastructure complete with Federal wiring capability. We must lead by a California example. Colorado has had this issue twice in similar cases already in the 10th circuit. We are over 7 times the size of CO. This problem is already here and gets much bigger in 2018. This is a State Rights Fight, and We Have Things To Do.
THE TL;DR VERSION: As we’re all well aware, last year the voters of California resoundingly approved the State legalization of marijuana. The issue at odds now is not with the drug itself, but more immediately the welcomed money that it generates. Make no mistake; this is a cash crop - an unsubsidized, sin taxed, cash crop with big revenue dollars. The previous Administration abided the Cole memo as the lay of the land, and we all basically agreed to disagree; CA commerce evolved, relatively unimpeded. We cannot rest assured things will go so smoothly next year. Our solution is simple but time sensitive. We need to create a State Bank/Credit Union to house and transact the cash for the industry. It would keep the money above board, easier to assimilate and more accurate to tax. Amazingly, less cream is skimmed off the top when your options are military escorts, man-sized safes in your walk-in-closet and constant fear for your family's safety - or just putting it all in a bank and paying your taxes/bills/employees - like a normal businessperson. California is about 38 million people. Statewide, we think this becomes a potential $10 billion problem in 2018, and that's our conservative estimate. Others think it will 'only' be a $7 billion dollar industry, but still lament that so much needs to be done between now and then. The money must be brought off the streets before anything else matters. All of this new revenue is a MASSIVE WIN for California which badly needs it to plug holes in our state budget. But we must lead, and lead now. I am challenging Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Governor Brown and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom to join me in calling for the State to create this bank #CAcashcrop. When the injunction and lawsuit from Attorney General Jeff Sessions follow, California will welcome this State Rights Fight. We have already democratically voted to legalize a state industry, and we must now manage it for our safety. If the DOJ would like to dispute that, we are sure our California State Attorney General would welcome the fight; we know he’s OG like that! This is yet another reason we love capitalism: legalization has already lead to increased availability for CA citizens. This has taken customers out of the back alleys and into taxed businesses stream. We are thereby taking marketshare from the cartel who are losing money. Real money… like a third to half of their money JUST from the legalized sales cutting into their U.S. marketshare of pot already. The Voters of California have already spoken and been heard. The cash crop is coming - we have a Constitutional Right to manage a state sanctioned industry when the Federal Government is stuck in archaic policy. Its time to lead, California - We Have Things To Do. The One With Common Sense Gun Safety Mass shootings are now so frequent we list them by city on the back of t-shirts like band tour dates. 187,000 students have been directly exposed to gun violence since Columbine. They have physical scars, of course; but they also have PTS, survivor’s guilt, nightmares and the anxiety we typically see in active combat veterans returning home from foreign wars (who are committing suicide at an unprecedented rate, near 22 a day). School shootings, movies, concerts, night clubs and churches… any mass shooting is terrifying and unacceptable. If a foreign terrorist were carrying out these shootings, our nation would move Heaven and earth to protect our children. Instead, thanks to money in politics, partisanship and media whitewashing, we are stagnant on the problem and have been for decades. What’s worse - while the big shootings get the clickbait and churn the media machine – handguns are overwhelmingly the culprit to those 33,000 deaths. That most gun deaths are domestic matters or that over two-thirds of the 33,000 are suicides should not make the deaths more palpable – nor should it make them less deserving of our attention. THE SOLUTION: Things we can do now: - Pass Single Payer-->Medicare-For-All healthcare so that mass shooters and suicide victims in the making get the help they need – BEFORE they ever shoot anyone. - Close the gun show and internet loopholes. 90% of us support Universal Background Checks. There shouldn’t be terrorists on no-fly lists that still buy weapons of war – inside our boarders. We need to cross reference IDs with criminal data bases to ensure serial offenders like domestic abusers, gang members and criminals can’t buy guns. - Limit concealed carry to state’s rights and do not allow conceal carry reciprocity over state lines. Local law enforcement cannot be expected to know what every neighboring state allows when it comes to guns and what suspects may have on their person. - Collectively destigmatize mental health. Your brain chemistry effects, everything. Your brain is like any other part of your body – no two are identical. Everyone should feel free to discuss mental health as they would cancer or any other health ailment. - Limit clip sizes to 10 rounds or less. Reloading/switching guns… don’t tell us the time taken to switch doesn’t matter, tactically. It does, lives are saved every half-second longer they have to run. - Limit weapons and customization that make them battlefield ready. Certain combinations of caliber, rate of fire and velocity serve no civilian purpose. Small caliber, high velocity weapons were created to shred flesh and internal organs… in humans. Battlefield mods like silencers and bump stocks are not conducive to hunting or home protection. Things we can do long term: - Create a federal license/registration for any new purchase of battlefield caliber weapons. This way – responsible gun owners and gun clubs can still own and operate currently available guns – but the supply and acquisition process will drastically limit the gun’s availability to the general public. - Fight the gun lobby’s cancerous effects on our legislation. Vote out elected officials that have more interest in gun sales, than they do gun safety. Polls continue to show that we, the public, are in agreement – gun owners alongside non-gun owners. THE TL;DR: Guns. These days, that’s all you have to say and everyone goes lock-jawed. Once again, we find ourselves at an impasse thanks to partisanship. Everyone, to your corners! You’re either: Team Blue or Team Red. Pro-NRA or Anti-NRA. Love the constitution or hate it, ya Marxist. You’re either for all guns, with zero oversight on citizens - or - you want to take away all guns everywhere, forever. No middle. No compromise. Thus, nothing gets done. Thing is, that’s not the way the bulk of Americans feel, at all. Gun owners agree on so many common sense safety measures that everyone else is asking for... yet the narratives always remain so bifurcated, so combative and so absolute. Clickbait/profit media aside (since that’s an obvious reason to make the conversation one-on-one and ‘high stakes’) there are two primary reasons real solutions don’t happen: 1) The two establishment teams need terms clearly defined for fundraising and both are terrified of the real problem... 2) Lobbyists & Money. The root to this cancer is money. Neither party has the courage to test the NRA and the gun lobby, at large. The NRA lobbies to write the laws at the federal level, but are even more influential at the state level. Before we discuss the NRA any further, let’s admit to our participation in a binary premise that we just bemoaned: for or against the NRA. Unlike all of the solutions we can all discuss freely, the NRA has shut down their side of the conversation. Their most recent stance taken in the media and on NRA TV is to attack and vilify child survivors of a mass shooting that occurred less than 2 months ago. The conversation is framed as a totalitarian takeover of all firearms. The modern NRA is not the safety first, rifle marksman club that it once was… Why? Why would a group that represents only 5 million Americans (most of which support gun safety reform) fight so hard against child victims? Money. The NRA stopped functioning as a gun owner group long ago and morphed into a gun lobby marketing arm and nothing more. They are one of the most influential lobby groups in DC, in any industry. The NRA’s only goals now are to sell more product - guns, bullets, all the bells and whistles, attachments and accessories… like silencers and bump stocks. They use fear as a motivator. Fear of home invasion and violent crime (despite being at 40 year lows), fear of immigrants, fear of the government... For that reason, we’re anti NRA and will do everything we can to limit their lobby money’s cancerous effects on American’s lives – like we are doing in all industries. The One With Criminal Justice Reform My mother, now retired, was a 27 year veteran of Riverside County Probation. I've seen first hand, our Police are asked to be everything to everyone at all times in a high stress environment and our plea bargain system permanently damages the records of millions. We also need to have honest conversations about militarized police, the failure of the war on drugs and civil asset forfeiture... We Have A Lot To Do. The One With DACA & Immigration Reform We Have Things To Do. The One With Cyber Security There is a lot we need to do on the cyber security front (as the recent Equifax hack demonstrated). One parting thought, when Russia is parking submarines next to vital transoceanic internet pipelines that make the modern global economy go... well, We Have Things To Do. The One With Real Tax Reform California residents - enjoy being double taxed - no longer allowed to deduct all SALTs! $1.5T handed out on permanent tax cuts to corporations. Meanwhile, some meaningless, temporary cuts for the Middle-Class... If 'trickle-down economics' worked - it'd be raining. Instead, 3 out of 4 Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and median household income is less than $60,000. We Have Things To Do, for the Middle Class. The One With Workers Unions The good news is Americans are working. We're at 'full employment' anyway, have been for awhile. The other good news is the stock market is at all time highs and so are corporate profits... and earnings... and executive pay. You feelin' it Middle-Class?!?! Of course you're not. The most common (median) household income in the U.S. is $60,000 and hasn't changed much since the 1980's. Most of us are living paycheck to paycheck with mounting bills and stressful kitchen table conversations. The $20T National debt aside, we're all paying our share of $12 Trillion we owe in private debt like mortgage/rent, school and auto loans, healthcare costs and credit cards. We also have drastically underfunded retirements that ironically, all count on the success of a stock market. The same all time high stock market that's already not helping us in the Middle-Class. 48% of Americans do not have a dollar in the market. The economy is an ecosystem. Each level of it must be healthy. Our current oligopoly of companies does nothing to help workers and consumers. Unions are the single best way to heal our economic ecosystem. Unions keep things local, relevant and stable. Rather than sweeping regulations and massive rules, Unions are a market solution; an organic solution that doesn't rely on the government. Collective bargaining from workers that benefit when the company benefits: Win-win. Workers that know their industry constraints - what's safe and what's not. Workers that just want to know they're valued like they should be. Instead, the U.S. private sector employment is only 6% Union. Lowest in history. That means no pensions for retirement; and on top of that, only 14% of employers even offer a 401k as an alternative. Retirement has never been harder for American workers. A new infrastructure package would be huge toward this Union Strong revival and increase national GDP. Increased worker wages increase the national economy through worker spending and that economic growth is compounded by those dollars going on to move more freely and efficiently in a massive, updated American infrastructure/commerce system. Imagine, an investment in U.S. Not a single business owner has ever started or grown their business without investing in it first. It's time to grow. It's time to invest. We last built our Nation's vital network of roads, rails, waterways and bridges in the 1950's. It's high time for an update. One with Union Strong, good paying jobs, right here at home. Let's see them outsource that. We Have Things To Do.[50] |
” |
| —Kevin Kensinger for Congress[61] | ||
Debates and candidate forums
April 6 debate
On April 6, 2018, Democratic candidates Hans Keirstead, Michael Kotick, Harley Rouda, and Omar Siddiqui participated in a debate hosted by the California League of Conservation Voters.[62]
March 6 debate
On March 6, 2018, Democratic candidates Hans Keirstead, Michael Kotick, Laura Oatman, Harley Rouda, and Omar Siddiqui participated in a debate about immigration and foreign policy hosted by Indivisible OC 48. Click here for a video of the debate and here for debate coverage.
February 7 debate
On February 7, 2018, Democratic candidates Hans Keirstead, Michael Kotick, Laura Oatman, Rachel Payne, Harley Rouda, and Omar Siddiqui participated in a debate about women's issues sponsored by Indivisible OC 48. Click here for coverage of the debate.
Top-two shutouts in the 2018 California primary elections
California was one of two states, alongside Washington, to use a top-two system for primary elections in 2018. Under a top-two system, all candidates appear on the same primary ballot regardless of partisan affiliation. The top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation. This can lead to a top-two shutout, also known as a top-two lockout, in which two candidates from a single party advance to the general election, meaning that the party will hold the seat regardless of the election's outcome. Such shutouts are particularly likely in districts where the electorate contains a similar number of Democrats and Republicans and in which one party was running a greater number of candidates than the other. Primary elections under a top-two system have "the feeling of one of those civil wars in the Middle Ages, where the king is fighting against barons and there’s multiple alliances that form and collapse...It’s a lot less straightforward than just you got your Democrat, you got your Republican. It’s sort of organized chaos," according to Public Policy Institute of California research fellow Eric McGhee.[63]
Democrats faced the possibility of a shutout in five battleground U.S. House races where multiple Democrats and multiple Republicans are on the ballot. The five were among the seven U.S. House districts in California represented by a Republican that Hillary Clinton (D) carried in the 2016 election.[64] Meanwhile, Republicans faced the possibility of a shutout in statewide races, including the race for governor. Republican strategists were concerned that without a Republican candidate on the gubernatorial ballot in November, turnout would decease among Republican voters, damaging the party's prospects in other elections.[65]
The three districts most identified as potential Democratic shutouts are:[63][64][66][67]
- 48th District: In the 48th district, incumbent Dana Rohrabacher (R) faced 11 challengers, including five Democrats and Scott Baugh (R), a former Orange County Republican Party chairman. Democratic strategists were concerned that Baugh would earn enough votes that would otherwise have gone to Rohrabacher to take the second place position on the ballot, shutting the Democratic challengers out of the race.
- 39th District: In the 39th district, 17 candidates filed to succeed retiring incumbent Ed Royce (R). Former Assemblywoman Young Kim (R) was expected by strategists to take first place, setting up a battle for second among the remaining candidates.[64]
- 49th District: In the 49th district, four Democrats and eight Republicans filed for the seat held by retiring incumbent Darrell Issa (R). Assemblyman Rocky Chavez (R) was seen as the most likely candidate to finish in first place.[64]
Campaign strategies in top-two primaries
Candidates and campaign groups affiliated with both political parties adopted a variety of strategies for navigating the top-two primary structure and preventing or provoking a shutout. Among the strategies used in the 2018 elections were:
- Consolidation of candidate field: Parties risking a lockout sought to support the campaign of a particular candidate of that party in the hopes of increasing the proportion of the party's electorate backing that candidate and boosting the candidate's chances of making it onto the general election ballot. In the 48th district, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added businessman Harley Rouda (D) to its Red to Blue list, granting Rouda access to financial and organizational support, as well as running ads promoting Rouda's campaign.[68][69]
- Consolidation of other party's candidate field: In races where one candidate was expected to finish the primary in first place, the party opposing the candidate sometimes sought to consolidate support around that candidate, decreasing the chances that another candidate from that party will take the second spot on the ballot. In the 39th district, where Young Kim (R) was expected to finish in first place, the DCCC released opposition research and attack ads targeting Kim's two top Republican opponents, Shawn Nelson (R) and Bob Huff (R).[70]
- Candidate withdrawals: Candidates seeking to boost their party's chances of making it onto the November ballot withdrew in the hopes of consolidating their party's vote. In the 48th district, three Democrats withdrew after the filing deadline. All three cited boosting their party's odds of making it past the primary as a motivating factor in their decision.[71][72][73] In the gubernatorial election, John Cox (R) called on his leading Republican opponent Travis Allen (R) to withdraw for the same reason.[74]
- Support for second-place candidate: Campaign groups seeking to increase the chances of a shutout also intervened in primaries. These groups often supported the second-place candidate of their party, hoping to boost them into the second spot on the November ballot. In the 48th district, the American Future Fund spent $100,000 to promote the campaign of Scott Baugh (R), increasing the chances that he and Rohrabacher will advance.[75]
Campaign advertisements
Dana Rohrabacher
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Republican district won by Hillary Clinton
This district was one of 25 Republican-held U.S. House districts that Hillary Clinton (D) won in the 2016 presidential election.[76] Nearly all were expected to be among the House's most competitive elections in 2018.
Click on the table below to see the full list of districts.
Click here to see the 13 Democratic-held U.S. House districts that Donald Trump (R) won.
District analysis
- See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index
- See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores
The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+4, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 4 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made California's 48th Congressional District the 202nd most Republican nationally.[81]
FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 0.99. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 0.99 points toward that party.[82]
State overview
Partisan control
This section details the partisan control of federal and state positions in California heading into the 2018 elections.
Congressional delegation
- Following the 2016 elections, Democrats held both U.S. Senate seats in California.
- Democrats held 39 of 53 U.S. House seats in California.
State executives
- As of May 2018, Democrats held seven of 10 state executive positions and the remaining three positions were officially nonpartisan.
- The governor of California was Democrat Jerry Brown.
State legislature
- Democrats controlled both chambers of the California State Legislature. They had a 55-25 majority in the state Assembly and a 27-13 majority in the state Senate.
Trifecta status
- California was a state government trifecta, meaning that Democrats held the governorship and majorities in the state house and state senate.
2018 elections
- See also: California elections, 2018
California held elections for the following positions in 2018:
- 1 Senate seat
- 53 U.S. House seats
- Governor
- Seven other state executive positions
- 20 of 40 state Senate seats
- 80 state Assembly seats
- Two state Supreme Court justices
- 35 state Court of Appeals judges
- Local trial court judges
- School board members
Demographics
| Demographic data for California | ||
|---|---|---|
| California | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 38,993,940 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 155,779 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 61.8% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 5.9% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 13.7% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.7% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 4.5% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 38.4% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 81.8% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 31.4% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $61,818 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 18.2% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in California. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
As of July 2016, California had a population of approximately 39,000,000 people, with its three largest cities being Los Angeles (pop. est. 4.0 million), San Diego (pop. est. 1.4 million), and San Jose (pop. est. 1 million).[83][84]
State election history
This section provides an overview of federal and state elections in California from 2000 to 2016. All data comes from the California Secretary of State.
Historical elections
Presidential elections, 2000-2016
This chart shows the results of the presidential election in California every year from 2000 to 2016.
| Election results (President of the United States), California 2000-2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | First-place candidate | First-place candidate votes (%) | Second-place candidate | Second-place candidate votes (%) | Margin of victory (%) |
| 2016 | Hillary Clinton |
61.7% | Donald Trump |
31.6% | 30.1% |
| 2012 | Barack Obama |
60.2% | Mitt Romney |
37.1% | 23.1% |
| 2008 | Barack Obama |
61.1% | John McCain |
37% | 24.1% |
| 2004 | John Kerry |
54.4% | George W. Bush |
44.4% | 10% |
| 2000 | Al Gore |
53.5% | George W. Bush |
41.7% | 11.8% |
U.S. Senate elections, 2000-2016
This chart shows the results of U.S. Senate races in California from 2000 to 2016. Every state has two Senate seats, and each seat goes up for election every six years. The terms of the seats are staggered so that roughly one-third of the seats are up every two years.
| Election results (U.S. Senator), California 2000-2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | First-place candidate | First-place candidate votes (%) | Second-place candidate | Second-place candidate votes (%) | Margin of victory (%) |
| 2016 | Kamala Harris |
61.6% | Loretta Sanchez |
38.4% | 23.2% |
| 2012 | Dianne Feinstein |
62.5% | Elizabeth Emken |
37.5% | 25% |
| 2010 | Barbara Boxer |
52.2% | Carly Fiorina |
42.2% | 10% |
| 2006 | Dianne Feinstein |
59.5% | Richard Mountjoy |
35.1% | 24.4% |
| 2004 | Barbara Boxer |
57.8% | Bill Jones |
37.8% | 20% |
| 2000 | Dianne Feinstein |
55.9% | Tom Campbell |
36.6% | 19.3% |
Gubernatorial elections, 2000-2016
This chart shows the results of the four gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2016. Gubernatorial elections are held every four years in California.
| Election results (Governor), California 2000-2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | First-place candidate | First-place candidate votes (%) | Second-place candidate | Second-place candidate votes (%) | Margin of victory (%) |
| 2014 | Jerry Brown |
60% | Neel Kashkari |
40% | 20% |
| 2010 | Jerry Brown |
53.8% | Meg Whitman |
40.9% | 12.9% |
| 2006 | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
55.9% | Phil Angelides |
39.0% | 16.9% |
| 2002 | Gray Davis |
47.3% | Bill Simon |
42.4% | 4.9% |
Congressional delegation, 2000-2016
This chart shows the number of Democrats and Republicans who were elected to represent California in the U.S. House from 2000 to 2016. Elections for U.S. House seats are held every two years.
| Congressional delegation, California 2000-2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Democrats | Democrats (%) | Republicans | Republicans (%) | Balance of power |
| 2016 | 39 |
73.5% | 14 |
26.4% | D+25 |
| 2014 | 39 |
73.5% | 14 |
26.4% | D+25 |
| 2012 | 38 |
71.7% | 15 |
28.3% | D+23 |
| 2010 | 34 |
64.1% | 19 |
35.8% | D+15 |
| 2008 | 34 |
64.1% | 19 |
35.8% | D+15 |
| 2006 | 34 |
64.1% | 19 |
35.8% | D+15 |
| 2004 | 33 |
62.3% | 20 |
37.7% | D+13 |
| 2002 | 33 |
62.3% | 20 |
37.7% | D+13 |
| 2000 | 32 |
61.5% | 20 |
38.5% | D+12 |
Trifectas, 1992-2017
A state government trifecta occurs when one party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's office.
California Party Control: 1992-2025
Twenty years with Democratic trifectas • No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Senate | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Assembly | D | D | D | S | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in California, 2018
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2018
- United States Senate elections, 2018
Footnotes
- ↑ Daily Kos, "Check out our maps and analysis comparing 2016's presidential and congressional results by district," January 31, 2017
- ↑ Scott Baugh for Congress, "Why I'm Running," accessed May 23, 2018
- ↑ OpenSecrets, "National Democrats pour more than $1.5 million into crowded California House races ahead of June primaries," May 23, 2018
- ↑ Talking Points Memo, "GOP Group Launches Bid To Shut Dems Out Of Key California House Races," May 23, 2018
- ↑ Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, "DCCC CHAIR LUJÁN RECOGNIZES HARLEY ROUDA AS PART OF ‘RED TO BLUE’ PROGRAM," May 11, 2018
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Candidates for House of Representatives," accessed February 2, 2018
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The New York Times, "He's a member of Congress. The Kremlin likes him so much it gave him a code name," November 21, 2017
- ↑ YouTube, "Harley Rouda for Congress: Represent Us, Not Russia," January 12, 2018
- ↑ The Orange County Register, "Rep. Rohrabacher scrutinized for Russian connections; aide ousted," July 20, 2017
- ↑ Liberal OC, "Dr. Hans Keirstead wins California Democratic Party endorsement," February 26, 2018
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 California Secretary of State, "Election dates and resources," accessed January 31, 2018
- ↑ Ballotpedia staff, "Phone conversation with the California Secretary of State's Office," January 31, 2018
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Political Landscape: No retirement for Rohrabacher, who says he’s running for reelection," January 10, 2018
- ↑ Dana Rohrabacher for United States Representative," accessed May 13, 2018
- ↑ Rohrabacher for Congress, "Dana's Legislative Accomplishments," accessed May 13, 2018
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "O.C.'s Republican Chairman Steps Down," March 16, 2004
- ↑ The OC Register, "Previously behind the scenes, Fred Whitaker tapped as new Orange County GOP leader," January 20, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Well-known Orange County Republican files to challenge Rohrabacher: ‘Dana has changed’," March 9, 2018
- ↑ Scott Baugh for U.S. Congress, "Issues," accessed May 13, 2018
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 The OC Register, "Stem-cell pioneer Hans Keirstead to challenge Rep. Dana Rohrabacher," June 15, 2017
- ↑ Dr. Hans Keirstead for Congress, "Home," accessed May 13, 2018
- ↑ The Laguna Beach Indy, "Rouda Steps Up to Challenge Rohrabacher," March 2, 2017
- ↑ The OC Register, "Republican Dana Rohrabacher gets another Democratic challenger," March 3, 2017
- ↑ Harley for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 13, 2018
- ↑ Slate, "House Democrats Are Starting to Pick Sides in Key California Primaries," May 11, 2018
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 DCCC, "Red to Blue Candidates," accessed May 15, 2018
- ↑ The Intercept, "THE DEAD ENDERS: Candidates Who Signed Up to Battle Donald Trump Must Get Past the Democratic Party First," January 23, 2018
- ↑ Slate, "House Democrats Are Starting to Pick Sides in Key California Primaries," May 11, 2018
- ↑ CNN, "Amid renewed scrutiny, Erik Prince to host fundraiser for Russia-friendly congressman," March 8, 2018
- ↑ Eventbrite, "48th District congressional debate series: Immigration and foreign policy," accessed March 22, 2018
- ↑ Los Angeles Daily News, "Dave Min, Hans Keirstead win state Democratic Party nods in House races against Walters, Rohrabacher," February 25, 2018
- ↑ OC Weekly, "6 of 9 Democrats gunning for Rohrabacher debate Wednesday," February 6, 2018
- ↑ Dr. Hans Keirstead, "Endorsements," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Rachel Payne, "Endorsements," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Harley Rouda, "Endorsements," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Scott Baugh for Congress, "Endorsements," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ CNN, "Indivisible backs Rohrabacher challenger as progressives vie to unseat old Democratic kingmakers," May 2, 2018
- ↑ Facebook, "Dr. Hans Keirstead for Congress," April 18, 2018
- ↑ Orange County Breeze, "California College Republicans endorse Dana Rohrabacher for Congress in California's 48th District," March 27, 2018
- ↑ Twitter, "Brandon Reiser on January 16, 2018," accessed January 27, 2018
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "California - House District 48, compare candidate financial totals," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Daily Kos, "Morning Digest: Daily Kos Elections debuts our initial 2018 gubernatorial race ratings," June 1, 2018
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "FEC Form 5, Report of Independent Expenditures Made and Contributions Received, American Future Fund," May 18, 2018
- ↑ Twitter, "Medium Buying," May 18, 2018
- ↑ Roll Call, "DCCC Takes Sides to Avoid Shutout in Crowded California Primary," May 11, 2018
- ↑ Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, "WATCH: New DCCC Ad Highlights Scott Baugh’s Record of Campaign Corruption & Fraud," May 15, 2018
- ↑ Roll Call, "314 Action Launches Mail Campaign for Keirstead in California," May 9, 2018
- ↑ The Hill, "Science group reserves nearly $2M in airtime to boost Dems in three states," February 21, 2018
- ↑ 49.0 49.1 Federal Election Commission, "Independent expenditures," accessed March 22, 2018
- ↑ 50.00 50.01 50.02 50.03 50.04 50.05 50.06 50.07 50.08 50.09 50.10 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Dr. Hans Keirstead for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Harley Rouda for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Omar In The House, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Tony Z for Congress, "On the Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Rohrabacher for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Scott Baugh for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ John Gabbard for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Paul Martin for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Shastina Sandman for Congress, "Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Brandon Reiser for Congress, "On the Issues," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ We Have Things To Do, "Home," accessed May 30, 2018
- ↑ Laguna Beach Indy, "Candidates Debate Eco Issues," April 6, 2018
- ↑ 63.0 63.1 Vox, "California’s 'top two' primary chaos, explained," May 29, 2018
- ↑ 64.0 64.1 64.2 64.3 Cook Political Report, "House: Democrats Risk Disaster in California's Top Two Primaries," May 2, 2018
- ↑ National Public Radio, "GOP Fears It Will Be Shut Out Of California Governor's Race," May 10, 2018
- ↑ Roll Call, "‘That Danger Is Real’ — Democrats’ Final Push to Avoid Shutout in Key California Races," May 24, 2018
- ↑ The Hill, "Democrats may suffer from California’s top-two system," May 22, 2018
- ↑ Slate, "House Democrats Are Starting to Pick Sides in Key California Primaries," May 11, 2018
- ↑ Roll Call, "DCCC Launches Joint TV Ad With California’s Harley Rouda," May 22, 2018
- ↑ Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, "Bob Huff and Shawn Nelson," May 23, 2018
- ↑ OC Register, "Another Orange County Democrat withdraws, narrowing crowd for 48th congressional seat," April 11, 2018
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Democrat drops out of race against Rohrabacher in the name of unity, calls on other candidates to do the same," March 21, 2018
- ↑ Twitter, "Christine Mai-Duc," May 1, 2018
- ↑ Sacramento Bee, "Republican drops out of race for California governor," February 26, 2018
- ↑ Talking Points Memo, "GOP Group Launches Bid To Shut Dems Out Of Key California House Races," May 23, 2018
- ↑ This figure includes Pennsylvania districts that were redrawn by the state Supreme Court in early 2018 and districts that flipped in special elections.
- ↑ The new 1st district was created in early 2018 due to court-ordered redistricting and most closely resembles the old 8th District held by Fitzpatrick. Click here to read more.
- ↑ The new 5th district was created in early 2018 due to court-ordered redistricting and most closely resembles the old 7th District held by Meehan. Click here to read more.
- ↑ The new 6th district was created in early 2018 due to court-ordered redistricting and most closely resembles the old 6th District held by Costello. Click here to read more.
- ↑ The new 7th district was created in early 2018 due to court-ordered redistricting and most closely resembles the old 15th District held by Dent. Click here to read more.
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index," April 7, 2017
- ↑ FiveThirtyEight, "Election Update: The Most (And Least) Elastic States And Districts," September 6, 2018
- ↑ California Demographics, "California Cities by Population," accessed April 2, 2018
- ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, "Quickfacts California," accessed April 2, 2018
