Report from the Assembly District 21 Candidate's Forum

Submitted by jschwarz on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 11:23pm

On February 24, I attended a forum in Redwood City for the Democratic candidates for the 21st Assembly District.  This position is currently held by Ira Ruskin, who is leaving due to term limits.  The forum was sponsored by several local Democratic clubs: the Redwood City Woodside Democratic Club, the Menlo-Atherton Democrats, the Peninsula Democratic Coalition, San Mateo County Democracy for America, Peninsula Young Democrats, and the Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley.

All three candidates participated:

  • Yoriko Kishimoto, currently a member of the Palo Alto city council
  • Rich Gordon, currently a member of the San Mateo board of supervisors
  • Josh Becker, currently a partner in a venture capital firm


Here's a brief summary of their opening statements:

  • Kishimoto discussed her community organizing experience and experience in Palo Alto government.
  • Gordon emphasized the importance of California government reform.  As this is a subject close to my heart, he immediately made a successful impression on me.
  • Josh Becker emphasized his business experience and his family.


The moderator's questions didn't elicit much difference of opinion.  Several questions were about development and transportation.  All the participants said they favored "transit oriented development". Gordon was more sympathetic to high density building than the other candidates.  In the audience Q&A, I asked them to elaborate on that, specifically whether they would favor high density apartments (specifically a twenty story building) near train stations.  The backed away from that idea faster than Olympic skaters going backwards. 

Another question concerned the "top two" primary. Kisimoto and Gordon are for it. Becker is against it.  I personally am sympathetic to the goal of reforming primary voting, but I think a better reform would be eliminating primaries entirely in favor of instant runoff voting.

I came to the forum not knowing much about any of the candidates and left leaning toward Gordon partially for his policy positions and partially because he seemed to answer questions more directly and was more polished than the other two candidates.

For more details, you can read the Daily News summary of the event here.  The primary is June 8.

-- Jerry Schwarz


 

Groups:

Paulie, the LV RJ has

Submitted by Matt John on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 12:18am.

Paulie, the LV RJ has endorsed LP candidates in the past, although I cannot name them off the top of my head. The paper leans hard into the economics side of libertarianism, yet also has been a strong advocate for the social side of liberty’s coin too. I don’t recall them actually coming out for complete repeal of all drug laws, but they have often pointed out the down-sides of the War of Drugs. They do not rave with xenophobia about Mexican immigrants, understanding that they are a valuable segment of the Las Vegas Community, and believing that people have a Natural Right to be free. They don’t support the asinine anti-gay initiatives. all in all, it’s a decent newspaper.

They don’t play stupid partisan games when reporting ethics problems of our elected officials. The recently went after Porter, Properly. He’s a Republican slug, who needs to get salted. The one Democratic house member from Nevada, Berkley, is another one who should get ousted, but I doubt that either will. She’s my rep, and the only race where I’ll be voting for an LP candidate, Raymond James Duensing Jr., this election (my only other LP candidate offered is Barr, and I’m voting none of the above for President this year). Our third and final House member is Heller, a Republican, just finishing out his third term, who previously was our Secretary of State, and proved himself to be more than just a party boi in that office. I disagree with some of his positions, but respect him as an individual.

regards,

Matt John
mcse certified!