From now until the June Primary I am going to be posing questions to the candidates for the 35th State Assembly District. Sometimes they will be policy questions and sometimes they will be focused on other subjects.
I will post them Friday night and give the candidates until Monday night to email me a response that I can post. If a candidate doesn't respond they will concede this blog to the other candidates.
The questions won't involve them creating well-researched issue papers but instead will help us understand the different ideologies and backgrounds of the candidates. Some of them will help us understand them personally. I'd expect most of them wouldn't be more than a paragraph or two.
Candidates, here is your first question:
Can you share with us a few of your most influential teachers and why they created a lasting impression on you? Feel free to share a few from elementary through your college years. Include what grade/subject they taught and where they taught at.
Please email your replies to me and I will post them next Monday.
Note to Mike Stoker:
The other candidates have sent me built in widgets to post whenever I write a blog entry covering this campaign. Send me a widget if you want me to post yours.
Leave your suggestions for Week #2 questions in the comments section. You don't need to register to comment but please keep it classy. Questions must be addressed to all candidates.
I think this is a great idea!!!
Word on the street is that Audra has relocated to Conejo to run against Parks for County Supervisor. Maybe she should try getting a real job for a change instead of constantly feeding at the taxpayer trough. I think Parks will beat her easily anyway since no one likes a carpetbagger.
Brian:
Great idea posing these questions to the 35th AD candidates on your blog.. Levels the political playing field, and gives us working-class stiffs the chance to pose questions directly to the candidates.
Posting direct questions to these candidates will test the agility of their thinking, celerity of their responses, and commitment to cyber-democracy..
After all, as is often said, "..Democracy IS dialogue!.."
Here's one for you, hot off the presses, given the Governor's release of his proposed 2010-11 State Budget today..
On average, 42,000 jobs per month were lost in California since the Great Recession began in 2007. Yet in spite of that fact, the Governor's proposed 2010-11 General Fund budget earmarks $78 per capita on State bureaucracies, and only $1.60 per capita on Labor and Workforce Development.. Do you agree that this is an appropriate reflection of the State's fiscal priorities? If not, how would you work to change it if elected to the State Assembly? Be specific, please..
Factual Background:
The 2010-11 State Budget just released today by the Governor's Department of Finance projects $82.9 Billion in General Fund expenditures. Combined General Fund Expenditures for the bureaucracies of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the State Government total $2.8 Billion, a 55% INCREASE amounting $999 Million over the 2009-10 current fiscal year. In the same budget, General Fund expenditures for Labor and Workforce Development purposes totaled $59 Million, a paltry 3.5% INCREASE amounting to $2 Million over the current year.
The Department of Finance estimates that nearly 1 Million jobs were lost in CA since December of 2007. Dividing that total job loss figure by 24 months yields an average monthly job loss figure of 41,667. For purposes of calculating per-capita spending numbers referenced above, State population is rounded at 36 Million people.
(Source Document: Governor's 2010-11 Budget Summary Document - See URL Above)
Brian, it will be interesting to see whether Susan, Das, or Mike will choose to respond, and if so, what they say... My guess is all three will duck the question, for reasons known only to them and God.. For the sake of everyone of the One Million Californians who’ve lost jobs in this State, I hope that I’ve guessed wrong..
NostraDemus