Public Affairs Special; Election 1988: Candidates State Assembly 58th and 64th Districts

Kaos CEO public affairs specials are made possible by grants from Disneyland Park announcing its new attractions Star Tours now boarding passengers for space flight adventure by Cigna landmark incorporated developer of Southern California real estate and builder of Landmark homes by the Peter and Mary Muth foundation by the Crane Foundation and by supporting viewers of this television series. Welcome to election 88. A series of election programs designed to present the candidates and the issues to voters for the November general election. Your vote does matter and this program aims to help you be better informed in making those voting decisions. And today's program will present candidates for the state assembly in the fifty eighth and sixty fourth assembly district. There are eight elected

members of the assembly representing Orange County. Both the fifty eighth and sixty fourth district are held by Republican incumbents. The 58 assembly district covers the northeast and the northern most coastal areas of Orange County in the southernmost corner of Los Angeles County as well as Catalina and San Clemente islands in Orange County the includes the city of Huntington Beach and Seal Beach in the coastal community of Sunset Beach in Los Angeles County. It includes the southeastern part of Long Beach and the Signal Hill and Catalina Island areas. There are about one hundred eighty four thousand voters in the 58 assembly different Of the ninety one thousand or forty nine percent are Republican and seventy three thousand or forty percent are Democrats giving the Republican Party an edge of 18000 voters. 54 percent of the voters are in L.A. County and 46 percent live in Orange County. The sixty fourth is Amby district occupied the north central portions of Orange County it borders on Los Angeles County in the north and as many heavily populated city and foothill communities include the cities of Laba FULLERTON Placentia portions of Anaheim are also within its boundaries. Most of the district lies

north of the Santa Ana Freeway. There are about one hundred fifty eight thousand registered voters in the 64 district of these eighty seven thousand or 55 percent are Republican and fifty six thousand or thirty five percent are Democrats giving the Republican Party a thirty one thousand vote margin in this district. Not present today as assemblyman Dennis Brown Republican the incumbent in the 58 this great Ross Johnson the Republican incumbent of the 64 and Richard Greene the Peace and Freedom Party candidate in the 58 this great. All three candidates declined. Andrew Kincaid Democrat in the 58 district is a real he is a former national representative of the American Federation of Government Employees. He's on the Democratic Central Committee of Los Angeles in Orange County and also with the state Democratic Committee. He lives in Long Beach. Scott they're libertarian right. You're for the mailbox division a right concept International in that it can be

done under the regional newsletter of the Libertarians. In his also completing a degree in Political Science from Cal State San Diego he lives in Long Beach. Donald you are a Democratic candidate in the sixty fourth district is a carpenter and construction consultant is a veteran of World War 2 and previously worked in the construction trade and as an iron worker. Mr. Heuer lives in Fullerton. And elected member of the California Assembly now received forty thousand eight hundred sixteen dollars a year for the two year term of office plus eighty seven dollars per Deum for every day that the legislature is in session. Each candidate will now make a one minute they've met about his candidacy. After which I'll ask him questions about the issues and now let's start with Andrew Kincaid. They are much Again my name is Andrew Kincaid. I am seeking to represent you in the 50th assembly district. My interest in running for this position is that I think there are so many things that Mr. Brown has left undone he has failed to support efforts to

improve water conservation to help our schools reduce class size and many other issues that I think are critical to our future. I'm for improving a bad situation in our public schools where we are now. In fact the most overcrowded in all of the United States. I like to help solve problems. Not just talk about the ideological aspects of them. Thank you very much. All right let's go to Mr. stair please. Hi I'm Scott steer and I'm the Libertarian candidate for the state assembly 58 district. I'm a small businessman and beach and I'm very concerned about the issues at hand in Huntington Beach and Long Beach area. I've been a 15 year resident of Huntington Beach and I am finishing my degree at San Diego State. The reason I'm running for this office are because I believe in the principles of the Libertarian

Party I believe they work at a state level at a federal level and both at local levels. I think that Dennis Brown while saying that he is a fiscal conservative has done nothing to reduce our taxes and increase our economic liberties and our our Democratic candidate will not do that either. I think the real issues in this campaign are more government or more liberty more taxes or more liberty or more legislation or more liberty. That's your choice. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Hewitt. Thank you Mr. Cooper. I really appreciate the opportunity to come before people of my own stead. We know what the problems are. Now we've got to figure out a way to solve them. It's just like an out of Will Bill. If you don't do a maintenance on it every so often you either pay me now or pay him later. That's the problem with government today. We're doing a maintenance job.

We're not. Also we are going to try to establish a better educational system one that will entitle everybody to an opportunity for a full education. Our problem today is that we are put into a form of stereotyping. We stereotype people in order to make ourselves look much bigger. If we don't reach down and help that person that we're stereotyping we would become a bigger and better person. Thank you very much. I'd like to ask each of you before I have a list of questions that I'd like to ask each of you to comment on what you think are the important issues or let's reverse it and go to Mr. Steere now ask the question. If you had to name the top two or three issues in this campaign what would you say they are. I would probably start off with transportation. The best approach to transportation problems that exists in our community

are through privatization of of the transportation industry. The government is convinced that they are better able to handle it. Yet they will not allow private groups to come in and try to provide you with better transportation systems at a lower cost. And if they were to they would be proven wrong. Recently the state legislature allowed is allowed privatization of some toll roads in Orange County and that we had to be seen whether or not that is successful but I'm convinced that that privatization would do a much better job for transportation system what would you like to see that expanded for example privatization maybe have a rail light rail system I certainly would and I think there are plenty of gun hearing and plenty of government on when that could could be made accessible to private. And they would be more than welcome to bid for those type of transportation systems I think is a good alternative.

Alright that's cool and out to Mr. M.L. Let's go to Mr. Heuer get you what you think are the top two or three if you're in the campaign. Number one is education. That's our number one our problem today is that we're focusing money and channeling money in Iran direction especially in a fast food chains where we're trying to out people to work but at a minimum wage I think we should have vocational training vocational training so that when a person comes out of high school of them that are not going on to college can go right into the job market and have substantial wages. And you don't think we're doing a good enough job on vocational training like the trades and so forth. No I do not because we have too many dropouts in the school today that are standing on street corners just wowing away time. Anything else besides education then that you would put down of the major issue that concerns you. Another issue is day care centers. I feel that they say a lot of people say that we should not. Involve government but I feel that if the

government put a certain priority on it and the employer put a certain priority out of it then we could substantially find daycare center so that the mothers can see their children throughout the day of the day. All right. Mr. Kincaid one of the issues that you crystallize so far. Well I'm concerned in general with simply the for the future issues of the state. We've touched on transportation Absolutely nine of the 10 busiest freeway interchanges in the country are found in California. We touched on education education deplorable we have the business we have the crowd just the most crowded classrooms in the country. We have the lowest amongst the lowest per capita spending in the country for education. There are some other issues too. Our future in business in the in California

we have this terrific potential. Sitting on the edge of the Pacific Basin too to make great headway and in our commerce and industry. And we're not taking advantage of it. There are things that we could do to assist our more dynamic smaller companies into moving into international trade and it could be done very economically. But we're not doing it. Let's stay right on education. As you can see the ballot issue we have the biggest number of ballot issues that are going to confront voters that we've had since 1966. And there are three different issues that that deal with education on the ballot I'd like to ask you about these three. Seventy eight would give six hundred million dollars and bonds for higher education that the higher learning number 79 would give eight hundred million to schools that's K to 12. And number 98 would provide for certain mandated school funding in the future. How do you stand on those three issues

78 79 ideate. What is your inclination to create money for schools. Well my first inclination is I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I have no doubt that the schools need the money. On the other hand I think that we need to make sure that that money gets to the classroom and not stopping off at the administration building. And but lastly I have to support them. Even though I don't feel he was me when he sees it even though I feel that we should be funding on a pay as you go basis we have entirely too many bonds out there of course the first two are bond that will do for building and a third one as for financing for operation. But in general and it's a hard choice if you had to make the hard choice you going to vote yes. I was three and yes I am all right. Are you going to vote on those three issues. I'm going to vote yes on it because I have no other alternative in order to have two

substantial weight education being a grandfather in the future of my grandchildren are very much a state here and of course you realize that they will have to pay for their road education in the future because the bonds will have to be paid off in the future. All right let's go to you now Mr. stair. How are you going to vote those three if you will as a little rain I'm going to I'm going to defend liberty across the board I'll start with education. I'm opposed to the three bond measures and I am opposed to it basically because. The emphasis on forcing our children to be educated in forcing the taxpayers who do not have children who are going to be educated by a college system is wrong. Tax Credit should be given to those who do not have children involved in the in state tax or state college system and in private schools down below the college level. Parents should be given a choice and they should be given tax credits if they are

educating their own children that should be something that should be allowed. Now the the the main reason why I am opposing this is are we going to vote no on all for all three of them yes because we're talking about after after the principal and interest is paid American. The California taxpayers are going to spend one point one billion dollars on the first 78 1.4 billion on the second 79 and I believe I'm not sure about the physical ramifications of the 98 I don't think it's terribly expensive but all of these bond issues that simply amount to 10 to 20 year postpone taxation to the tune of close to six billion dollars now if if that isn't more detrimental to the to the people of California then the bond issues themselves I I think not. You know I wonder when thing you're quoting a lot of figures there. What alternative you offer Can you really offer an alternative to a young 2 year old or a 3 year old that's looking for the opportunity

to go to a higher education. Well part of the problem that they've mention about about overcrowding and these types of problems that they want to resolve with with further taxation in the form of a bond by a lawand children to be taught by the parents or to be taught through private education. You are reducing the number of college and high school overcrowding in the nation. I mean in the country and in the state and you you're basically giving the system a chance to work with the people who want to commit to participate in it rather than forcing them to participate in it and you're not forcing the 9 using taxpayer to pay for other people's education. That's going back again to do you Mr. Kincaid. People have a choice of their Whether going to vote for a Democrat Kincaid or vote for your Republican opponent to the incumbent. What what the biggest reason you give them for voting for a Democrat or Republican or another with what is

wrong in the district that you're running and that you think you could correct. I think that the quality of representation provided by the incumbent is entirely ideological he does not support that. Forgot about Mr Brown. Yes I don't like to say his name too often. What do you mean is it a theological What is your quarrel with Mr. Brown. Well essentially he has one of the most conservative positions in the entire assembly. He's been in for 10 years which is a lot longer than he thought that anybody should be and when he started this he has been known through much of that time as the leader of the Cave men the most conservative votes on on almost everything. He has a lot of notorious votes he was the only person in the assembly to vote against a rat abatement bill in a few years ago. He essentially provides a level of representation that is not in tune with

the with the population of the district. If a district only knew where he came from if you want to you want to make it anything about that what is it what is the reason that you think that the incumbent. Well I think the obvious should be doing. I think that Dennis Brown is one of the new least accessible state assembly representatives in the state. What do you mean by that. He does not spend a lot of time in his in his district. He has failed to attend any of the debates that he's been invited to or any other forums for the camp for the campaign and that's disappointing but what I really think is the difference is that he he is a physical conservative through rhetoric but he's not following through on his principles of concert physical conservatism. He is not he's not supposedly supporting programs to reduce the taxes in the state.

And as far as social issues he's a wash he is he is convinced that strong arm tactics are going to solve our and our state's crime problem and throwing more money at the at the at the police and other enforcement agencies are going to do it rather than coming from a different approach. You're actually going to support strong law enforcement. I certainly do but I don't I don't enforce I don't support misdirected law enforcement victimless crimes have have basically sent another bond issue on on the board here and that is increasing. Our prisons are the size of our prison system Well one of the more victimless crimes that we continue to have on our books the more people we're going to lock up who have offended no one else except for quote unquote society. And that is a drain on the taxpayer and it's a drain on our on our per hour crime prevention or I'm going to say it's a drain on our police system which would be better used by going out and and get and rounding up people who are who are assaulting

other people and robbing other people those are the those are the things they should be concentrating on. What would you put like for example drug addicts people who are drug ruining their own lives with drugs what how would you consider about that. Well I don't consider that unless they have unless they have. Done something detrimental to another unless they have physically or verbally or for that would have their way assaulted another individual I don't think that their position they should belong in jail at the cost of thirty five thousand dollars a year to the California taxpayer. All right Mr euros give you a chance now if asked a judge or gentleman what is it you think is wrong with the way that the incumbent is now managed to do to get that make that made you want to run. Well one of the things about the incoming Ross Johnson he's been not visible on Orange County at odd. You've heard it said that Orange County is a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. Russ Johnson doesn't even want to visit here so I think that's a sad situation. Well

he declared his candidacy he declared it a 15 or 1 Harbor Blvd. That's an office that's not a home. And that scares me when people take and move their family to Sacramento and get 80 dollars a day every day. The assembly is in session and takes that money and spends it in Sacramento. Plus his paycheck. Now to me if I'm getting 80 dollars a day a subsistence allowance Lockhart's all the assembly people get that. Well yes whether they live in Orange County and I won the assumption. So it to me it take monies for something and not utilizing it for that purpose is fraudulent. Let's move to another area. Orange County had a really serious long range water problem and that's never been resolved. As you know they voted down the peripheral

canal the governor had a plan and that that plan was not that successful. And there seems to be this continuing battle between the north versus the south of California for our long range water and I'm talking about when we get the population in Orange County three million in the year 2010 we'll have three million and we'll have 3.4 million in the year 2030. What about that long range water what would you do as an elected member of the assembly to try and address this problem of long range water need for Orange County let's start with you Mr. Kincaid. OK I think that this is probably the most critical issue that's going to face us in the next 20 years that water is always been critical for the prosperity of California. Right now we're looking at a system that was supposed to have given us our water without it without problem for indefinitely. It will not in fact probably survive the turn of the century. We've got a system that

is that is built around present. Forecast for for a rain fall and they're changing as we've talked about recently the global changes in the weather patterns. So what would we do about it as well. We obviously have to do more planning design and construction of reservoir capacity and at whose expense. Well in as much as we're all going to drink it we all have to pay for it. Now there are some problems that go to who is going to pay for it. 85 percent of all the water that is in the California system goes to agribusiness and 35 percent of the water that is delivered to agribusiness is wasted by them because they're still using antiquated delivery systems opened irrigation which would you favor something like another peripheral canal or something to channel more water down. You know I mean I'm not in favor another perfectly now I am in favor of. Improving water conservation first.

That's the major thing and a lot more emphasis has to be beyond that do you have any other suggestion. The fact that people should conserve water is absolutely absolutely and all of us have to conserve water but we also have to start the planning designing construction of future reservoir capacity both surface and underground. All right you want to say oh yeah I thought I'd like here Pago I don't we only have a few minutes later I think another part of the reason that the water is being used the way it is in agribusiness is because there Spain an average of somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 per square foot of water and and the the local whoring of the per acre foot I mean and the and the local people are saying 250 dollars per acre foot. And that is that is causing them to to to squander the water that they have and not pay attention to the to the waste that's being used. And if they were they were forced to pay more of a more projects more close

arrangement that we have that we have to pay for water if they had to pay for more. They would be more careful with it. And as far as coming up with new programs to supply more what like in this critical canal will he use upwards of 85 percent of it they're going to be the people we have to look for to come up with most of the funding for whatever need whatever situations may exist that are going to benefit us. I mean if you are Hooper about water you know I had the opportunity of working on the aqueduct and we brought it down from orbit California and it did help me in many ways and it helped me to prosper. But one of the things most people don't realize 14 percent of the water comes into the alley in Orange County. The rest of us stays on the other side of Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley a lot of it being it by agricultural that dried out and one of the things I feel if we're going to build another one that the big corporations over there in the San Joaquin Valley pay for their act would act to substantial weight their own livelihood rather than have the taxpayer continue

to pay it. And we advise the water in Orange County now a county that was directed here when they said they were going to go there. Would you favor another resurrection of the writ of the peripheral canal project or something like that to just do what Harding Valley just to through the San Joaquin Valley because then pumping plants are very expensive to pump the water up and over the mountain. Do you think that's going to take care of us when we hit that 3 million mark in the year 2010. I believe if we get all that water plus the water that we have here now we also have a dam sitting right up here just above Saugus and we do have water stored up there we do have water stored in other areas. I see. OK well thank you very much I appreciate all of you taking part. And that's the thing is distressing to me is that California now have 13 million registered voters. But as we go into this election there are 6 million other eligible voters people who would be eligible to vote who are not even registered. In other words the missing 6 million in this election so I hope

the people who are registered will get out and vote. Our time's about up now and I want to thank our candidates for their comments to be with us next Friday evening at 8:30 when I'll have the candidates in the 67 69 and 70 this MP races. I'm Jim Cooper thanks for being with us. The e public affairs specials are made possible by grants from Disneyland

Park announcing its new attractions Star Tours now boarding passengers for space flight adventure by Cigna landmark incorporated developer of Southern California real estate and builder of Landmark homes by the Peter and Mary Muth foundation by the crane Foundation and by supporting viewers of this television series.