Most of the candidates for California’s First House District turned out for a League of Women Voters candidates’ forum in Chico on Tuesday.
Washington isn’t working, nothing gets done and divisiveness has reached troubling proportions. Most candidates said they would bring people together, and do it better than the man who wasn’t there: Congressman Doug LaMalfa who declined to appear.
As of March 31, LaMalfa, with $300,000 in campaign cash on hand, is clearly the man to beat. That’s almost four times his nearest challenger in the money race, Republican former prosecutor Joe Montes, and 55 times Democratic hopeful Jim Reed. The others have even less.
Appearing before an audience of just 40 people, the candidates talked party politics, extoling familiar positions, but often with a North State twist.
The candidates addressed a flashpoint of national politics: the perpetual funding battles over Planned Parenthood. The candidates largely stuck to mainstream party positions.
“I would not fund Planned Parenthood and I would do everything in my power in fact to defund it,” Joe Montes said.
Jeff Gerlach, the only candidate not affiliated with a party, was adamant.
“I would never consider cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood,” Gerlach said.
Reed, on his third campaign trail outing praised the organization and said he hoped to again gain their endorsement before addressing health care and reform more broadly:
“I personally believe that Medicare is a great system and it should apply to all people,” Reed said. “Some people call that universal health care, some people call it single payer, but I believe its time has come.”
Douglas Cheadle who likewise ran before also chose to ponder the involvement of government in health care, but reached a far different conclusion.
“You have to understand that government is too invasive,” Cheadle said.
“Government has no business doing a lot of things that we’ve given government the power over.”
Cheadle, who proclaims himself an “1856 Republican,” also drew from century-old beliefs of Margaret Sanger to condemn the organization.
“I personally have a problem with Planned Parenthood in that its history involves eugenics,” he said.
Cheadle, who volunteers at a hospital in his spare time, went on to forcefully denounce the Affordable Care Act.
“What we have right now is legislation that has trampled on our constitutional right,” he said. “Individual mandate tramples on our constitutional right. If we give government the right to tell us what we must have, where does it end? It won’t end.”
Montes also stated his philosophical opposition to the program, suggesting the nation’s health care system was better off before recent reforms.
“I do not believe that the federal government has any role in our health care,” Montes said. “I don’t think the state government should have much of a role in our health care. I think what we should be doing is working with private sector, but we need to provide funds.”
On foreign policy, Gary Oxley, an emergency room nurse, said the United States has a military presence in too many foreign countries. He also said the constitution was under threat from international treaties signed by Congress, singling out the Organization of American States and the 1948 Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.
Reed said the nation should stop involving itself in civil wars.
Breaking up California was another issue raised. Montes spoke glowingly about the intentions of State of Jefferson activists, but stopped short of endorsing the idea.
Gerlach said if elected he wouldn’t try to block it if it won public backing, but he seemed doubtful it would come to pass.
“If we get to that point and I’m the congressman, then I would absolutely endorse it, if I was there, but the execution right now like I said is terrible, their branding is terrible, their logo is terrible, there messaging is terrible,” he said.
The candidates also addressed undocumented immigration. Cheadle urged revisiting the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to people born in the United States. He said America had to dispense with what he called “anchor babies.”
Reed, the Democrat, said those with no arrests should be permitted to stay if they pay a small fine.
Montes said Washington should cast away current practices and return to the Brusero program which permitted low skilled laborers seasonal entry during the Second World War.
Under California’s new top-two primary system, the two top vote getters in the June 7 primary, regardless of party affiliation, will face off in November. Eligible voters wanting to cast a ballot next month have until May 23 to register.