On Tuesday January 28th, over 100 residents and attendees packed into the University of Redlands’ Casa Loma room to listen to candidates who are currently running for the California State Senate seat for District 23. The American Association of University Women (A.A.U.W.) moderators challenged each of the candidates with questions ranging from childcare to immigration policies.
Candidates competing for the seat at the forum included Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (Republican from Yucaipa), Kris Goodfellow (Democrat from Redlands), Abigail Medina (Democrat from San Bernardino) and Lloyd White (Republican from Beaumont). Cristina Puraci (Republican from Highland) was not in attendance of the panelists.
Candidates opened up the evening with background on their campaigns, their personal lives and gave attendees insight into how they would run District 23. After opening statements, A.A.U.W. moderators explained the rules of the debate and then began the night talking about how to make housing more affordable.
Ochoa Bogh’s face lit up to this question as the realtor explained she would take on laws (i.e. the California Environmental Quality Act) that make it difficult to build homes in certain areas in order to provide more inventory for housing.
Kris Goodfellow followed after Ochoa Bogh, citing lack of housing in general and linked the problem ultimately to education and not having enough “high quality jobs in the area, that are allowing people to afford an estate, or live in the state.”
Lloyd White shared similar concerns and ideas with Goodfellow, believing that government needs to do more to help the inland region (i.e. funding from state gas tax and better financial education) as well as bringing the jobs to the people so they can avoid the one-hour to two-hour commute to Los Angeles and other job-dense cities.
San Bernardino County School Board member Abigail Medina expressed that she believes the path to affordable housing starts with better educating new and future families early the responsibilities and financial upkeep it takes to own a home. Medina explained, “There’s many families living paycheck to paycheck. How can we help them afford a house that they can’t afford?”
The moderators then switched the topic toward the environment asking if candidates felt the federal government or state government should set air quality regulations and standards.
Goodfellow, White, and Medina were all in favor of California having total control of its air quality regulations, while Ochoa Bogh believes that a middle-ground plan can be reached with the help from both governments.
Goodfellow and White also shared similar views on renewable energy and that California needs to do what’s necessary to take steps in cleaning up its act. Investing in zero emissions and renewable energy in California will possibly set the nationwide standard.
Medina says, “We’re all trying to make sure we all have a quality life and can breathe clean air. We have to make sure this air is not in our backyards.”
Moderators went on to ask candidates to give their opinion on California Sanctuary State status, as well as the policies that follow with it.
Medina and Goodfellow embraced California’s status while White and Ochoa Bogh were on the opposing fence, stating that it would only disrupt communication between different public safety agencies (Law enforcement, FBI, state government and so on.).
Furthermore, Ochoa Bogh - who stated she is a daughter of immigrants - stated that while she does not believe in Medicare for All; however, she does support “a free market approach to healthcare” that aims to provide quality healthcare for everyone in California.
Goodfellow, also a daughter of an immigrant, touched upon how the status of someone’s citizenship plays a role into if they call the police if a crime occurred. Goodfellow also wants to play a role in making a pathway for citizenship easier for undocumented immigrants.
White, who drafted the first statement against the Sanctuary State status, believes that police and law enforcement officials have a job to carry out.
Candidates were asked to give their opinion of the California legislation that mandates all corporate companies have at least one women representative on their board.
Ochoa Bogh sees the legislation as “insulting.” She believes that women are “incredibly capable of gaining support in gaining those leadership roles,” and detests the idea of the government having to mandate all boards for a female leadership position.
Goodfellow explained that boards with a female perspective are more successful than companies without one. In addition, Goodfellow cited J.P. Morgan’s public declaration of how they will no longer take a company public if they did not have a female on their board of directors.
White used personal examples of his wife and children to show how women are indeed smarter than men and how the government should focus on governing and stay out of our lives. White is also in favor of informing the public on which businesses do and don’t have females on their boards.
Medina, who seemed to have an answer right out of the gate, spoke about educating our females to reach their ambitions while also providing them more opportunities. Medina says, “We really have to set forth that ‘we as women can do a lot more!’ And we also have to tackle the disparities among women of color. We cannot forget that the women of color, Latino and African-American men, are earning far less than the white women.”
After an hour of questions from the A.A.U.W. board, moderators read audience questions submitted throughout the forum.
On average, we spend about $40,000 per homeless person a year. The first audience question asked the candidates to express how they can better spend the budget on the current homeless crisis.
Medina answered first, dissecting that the cost is composed of all aspects of living (healthcare, dental, housing and so on). Medina believes that lawmakers need to look at the whole program and see which aspects need more or less funding.
Ochoa Bogh believes that if more public and private behavioral health services provided ‘wrap-around service,’ then the cost would likely decrease on both ends. Ochoa Bogh said, “We have to do a better job in creating both public and private enterprise relationships and collaborations in order to better meet those needs [behavioral health].”
Goodfellow and White both asserted the fact that jail is not housing for the homeless. Goodfellow believes that the way to combat the homeless crisis is to use that money to house people while White looks to change the sentencing laws in the state and eliminate government from the equation because if the government couldn’t solve the issue, then get them out of it.
Following the homeless, gears shifted towards the children as candidates were asked if the state should publicly fund childcare and if so, could they do it through tax crediting or free childhood education, and so on.
Ochoa Bogh jabbed at this question first, elaborating on how it would be great to “incentive opportunities for local school districts to be able to provide some sort of assistance in helping our children be able to have the same place to go before and after school, helping our local parents be able to do their jobs while still having a learning opportunity for our children.”
Goodfellow took the question from a business owner’s point of view, citing that we are the only country that does not offer its employees paid family leave. Goodfellow made her point clear, “These children are all of our children and if we don’t want to be paying the societal costs down the road then we need to invest in them, at those early ages.”
White believes that the school systems have become the primary childcare providers; however, he also believes that the government is spending too much money on unnecessary services and are already doing enough care of our children.
Medina spoke about her first-hand experience of deciding between work or staying home and not being able to afford child care, a decision that a lot of families still struggle with today. She believes that child care is not awarded to everyone and sympathizes with those that apply for programs who find themselves on a waiting list for better assistance. It is an issue she wants to solve not just for those struggling, but even for those who meet the threshold for childcare applications.
The final question that candidates received was about a brand new ordinance - regarding Prop 13 - that is still circulating for signatures. Moderators explained that this new law would categorize dwellings into residential and commercial properties and adjust their property tax rate accordingly. Candidates were then asked if they were for or against this circulating law.
Goodfellow, who owns both a small business and home herself, believes California needs this type of deal because not only are there “carve-outs” for small businesses, but also because the taxes taken from big businesses would likely go back into our schools and communities.
Medina followed in Goodfellow’s steps, saying that the money generated from the new tax can go towards getting necessary programs for education institutions.
White and Ochoa Bogh expressed similar distaste for the new ordinance. White sees the deception of promised ‘local revenue for government and schools,’ saying that big corporations are not only going to eat the cost of their new property tax, they’re going to pass it on to the rest of the homeowners in local areas.
After the final question, moderators awarded time for candidates to present their closing statements. Moderators then took an audience vote whether to end the debate or ask one more question.The audience favored not asking another question. Instead, the evening finished with chatting and getting to know the candidates personally through face-to-face interaction.
Voting for California’s primaries are just around the corner. Be sure to have completed your ballot or mail it in by Tuesday, March 3rd.