There are four candidates on the June 7 ballot for the newly drawn state Assembly District 80, which includes south San Diego, National City, Chula Vista and Imperial Beach. They are small business owner David Alvarez and environmental advocate/businesswoman Georgette Gomez, both Democrats, and retired contractor Lincoln Pickard and technology manager John Vogel Garcia, both Republicans. The top two vote-getters will advance to a Nov. 8 runoff election. Alvarez and Gomez are also on the June 7 ballot in a separate election to complete the term of the previous assemblymember.
The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board sent each a 13-question survey and is publishing their responses here.
If you have comments or questions about the election or any of the candidates after reading this interview, please email Editorial and Opinion Director Matthew T. Hall at matthew.hall@sduniontribune.com.
Below are John Vogel Garcia’s responses and a link to other responses.
Q: From wildfires to sea level rise, the climate emergency is increasingly affecting California. What immediate steps should California lawmakers be taking to address it?
A: While global climate change is real and human activity may factor in, there are more immediate causes of the increase in the number and severity of wildfires. These are more likely attributed to criminal negligence of power companies that are aided and abetted by greedy, corrupt legislators and the incompetent lack of proper stewardship of forests by state agencies. The state should grant local agencies more control of their environment to set sound brush management policies and emergency response preparedness like San Diego County did when it purchased helicopters following the devastating 2003 Cedar fire. Another consideration is to rapidly expand the use of rooftop solar to mitigate the need for huge transmission of electricity from out of state. Unfortunately, Democratic legislators won’t be willing to bite the hand that feeds them.
Meet the candidates for California State Assembly District 80
David Alvarez, Georgette Gomez and John Vogel Garcia for California State Assembly District 80
Q: From wildfires to sea level rise, the climate emergency is increasingly affecting California. What immediate steps should California lawmakers be taking to address it?
A: While global climate change is real and human activity may factor in, there are more immediate causes of the increase in the number and severity of wildfires. These are more likely attributed to criminal negligence of power companies that are aided and abetted by greedy, corrupt legislators and the incompetent lack of proper stewardship of forests by state agencies. The state should grant local agencies more control of their environment to set sound brush management policies and emergency response preparedness like San Diego County did when it purchased helicopters following the devastating 2003 Cedar fire. Another consideration is to rapidly expand the use of rooftop solar to mitigate the need for huge transmission of electricity from out of state. Unfortunately, Democratic legislators won’t be willing to bite the hand that feeds them.
Q: The governor’s pleas to reduce water use have been widely met with indifference. What, if anything, should state lawmakers be doing to address drought conditions?
A: The governor’s pleas for Californians to reduce water consumption are another demonstration of the incompetence of Democratic state officials. The fact is that the Democratic-controlled Legislature has failed to adequately plan for the water needs of the state. During the last 60 years when Democrats have mostly held the Assembly, they neglected to fund water infrastructure to meet the ever-growing demand. The state should invest in local solutions like expanding the Sweetwater Authority’s desalination facility, adding new wells and increasing capacity, creating additional desalination facilities like the one in Carlsbad that claims to generate 50 million gallons of potable water a day “from a drought-proof source — the ocean,” or exploring new uses for recycled water. It is shameful of the governor to put the blame for water shortages on Californians when the state has not created new water infrastructure since the 1970s and allows most of our water to evaporate. The Legislature needs to make water infrastructure a priority over expensive pet projects like the over-budget, overdue high-speed rail for which there is no consumer demand. Californians are hurting because of the corrupt, inept policies of Sacramento elites.
Q: What would you do to address the surging gas prices in California?
A: During this time of rapid, uncontrolled inflation, the state needs to immediately suspend the gas tax and give Californians a reprieve at the pump. There is absolutely no excuse for the unconscionable ineptitude of the Democratic supermajorities in the Legislature to reject a bill that was intended to give the people relief from the skyrocketing cost of gas and instead to accept a new tax increase in July. The Democrats in Sacramento are so out of step with the voters that they take it for granted that they will be reelected. California has some of the richest petroleum deposits in the world. We are the seventh-largest producer of crude oil in the 50 states and rank third in oil refining capacity. Assembly Democrats just don’t believe that voters will do anything to fix the problems they have created.
Q: How do you strike a balance between reducing the state’s dependency on fossil fuels and addressing energy affordability issues, including the high cost of gasoline?
A: To stop the corruption in the state Capitol, Assembly Democrats must stop taking money from criminally negligent Big Power companies. The influence of big money in Sacramento ensures that there is not challenge to the dominance of Pacific Gas & Electric and the like. Once we address the corruption, then we can look to new solutions like widely expanding rooftop solar and exploring recent advances in safe nuclear energy.
For more than 40 years, France has safely used nuclear energy to meet electricity demand throughout the country.
Fear is no longer an excuse to reject safe, non-polluting energy production. When state authorities bail out the criminally negligent PG&E and make the victims, their customers, pay for it, the elite betray a revulsion for the very people who elected them.
Q: How would you bring down the high cost of housing, both for homeowners and renters?
A: The solution to the state’s housing crisis is too complex to be addressed by just one solution, but given the constraint of the question, the priority must be focused on reducing the cost of new housing construction.
The overbearing Democratic-controlled Legislature needs to restrain intervening in the market and allow local authorities to decide where and what kind of housing is needed.
Over the long term, the state can do this by
a) creating goals and incentives for local communities to review constraints on the available land, zoning regulations and fee structures;
b) encourage builders to look at cheaper prefabricated construction to offset the rising cost of raw materials; and
c) promote vocational training in construction-related jobs to increase the number of skilled workers available.
As people move into new homes, they leave behind dwellings for new occupants.
Q: Homelessness is growing dramatically across the state. How would you address it?
A: To address the overall failure of the Great Depression era and the later New Deal war on poverty, the state needs to return to a promotion of the nuclear family as the bulwark against systemic poverty and homelessness. The surest way to fend off poverty and homelessness is to raise children in families with their biological mother and father. The rise in the homeless population has many causes that each need to be addressed to achieve any significant reduction: increasing cost and scarcity of available housing; mental health disorders enabled by state handouts without proper treatments; and proliferations of drug and alcohol addiction and crime. The state needs to explore new approaches to solving these age-old problems. For example, regarding mental health and addiction, it is time to look at alternatives to moral/criminal approaches to addressing this cause and get our neighbors off the streets and into treatment. The sheer neglect of the homeless population by the Democratic-controlled Legislature is another example of why we cannot just send the same advocates of vacant policies back to Sacramento. Real change is needed to empower local communities to address this issue. A full audit of all state funds must be done to account for the astronomical expense that to date has failed to remedy the problem. The inhumane conditions of tent communities from San Francisco to San Ysidro are evidence of the neglect of the controlling party, like slumlords who profit off the misery of others.
Q: What, if anything, should the state do to make mass transit a viable option for commuters?
A: Building the public transit infrastructure to get commuters to and from their destinations in a reasonable amount of time is a worthy goal of the government. When I worked Downtown, it was easy to take the trolley from Chula Vista. I quite enjoyed the ride which afforded me time to pray, read and rest. It saved me time and money. Now, I permanently work from home. At the city of San Diego, an employee union offered discounts to all members for transit passes. These incentives of private entities making a commitment to public transportation can be an option to viability. The key is making public transportation attractive and affordable without burdening those for whom it is not an option.
Q: How will you balance public health with economic and educational concerns going forward in this pandemic or the next one? What specific steps and strategies, from lockdowns to mask mandates, would you recommend or rule out if there is a new surge in deaths and hospitalizations?
A: It is the duty of the elected officials to make policies that serve the common good. The public health community is charged with assessing and advising the lawmakers to make sound laws. Included in this role is the need to weigh the threat and benefit to the public of the policies enacted. The preeminent purpose of government is to secure essential natural rights for the citizens. Other founding principles of our republic, such as separation of powers, popular elections and federalism, ensure that governmental power cannot be consolidated in the hands of one person and that decisions are made as locally as possible.
Yet in California, the governor, with the happy compliance of the supermajority Democratic-controlled Legislature, assumed unbridled power to disastrous effect (i.e., the governor’s administration’s officials at the Employment Development Department paid inmates unemployment insurance when owed to citizens who were out of work due to COVID-19 lockdowns). Despite more than 50 years of control of the Legislature since the 1970s, the Democrats remain as clueless as ever to the plight of the people. A republic must maintain the sovereignty of the people as President Abraham Lincoln famously declared that the American union is one “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” This remains the source and moral authority of our strength as a nation and the California Republic!
This pattern of incompetence, corruption and derision must end.
Q: California has the strictest gun laws in the nation yet has had some of the nation’s worst mass shootings this year. What more, if anything, should be done to reduce gun violence in California?
A: I believe in objective moral truth that informs individual natural rights based on natural law that conforms to divine law. America’s founding documents specify rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness; guarantee free exercise of religion, the press and expression; and secure individual’s firearms and private property ownership, among those inalienable natural rights. The problem of mass shootings will obviously not be solved by regulations law abiding gun owners. The solution is to move California’s concealed carry reform laws in the direction of the 40 states with more permisive laws to issue permits to any law-abiding citizen requesting one. Forty-two states in the U.S. allow all law-abiding citizens to obtain a concealed carry weapons permit. Two of the largest states, Florida and Texas, have tracked the concealed carry statistics and report that virtually no crimes are committed by permittees. In California, the issuance of a permit is left to local authorities applying the conditions to be met, a system that often results in political favoritism to political contributors. The natural human right to property ownership extends to the possession of firearms either for sport, self-defense or deterrence of tyranny.
Q: California has adopted a number of criminal justice reforms in recent years. What would you change and why to ensure justice is equitable and effective?
A: Justice, being an essential responsibility of a free republic and natural right of the people, must be ordered to the common good. Recent reforms have decriminalized theft and other offenses leaving law-abiding citizens without recourse to the state for redress of grievances. It punishes the productive lawful public and emboldens criminals, precisely the reverse of justice. This situation cannot long stand. We must demand that the law preserves the rights, privileges and property of the innocent. We must support local communities to ensure laws are justly enforced, services are equitably provided and natural resources are safeguarded. And we must limit the powers of the state government to interfere with the lives of citizens.
The ability to use criminal activity to attain the willing cooperation of lawbreakers to enter rehabilitation under threat of worse penalties is a form of tough love. This is needed to break the cycle of violence and lawlessness.
Q: What single change would you make to improve California’s K-12 public school systems?
A: The change I would make to improve California’s K-12 public school systems is to have parents treated as customers. Rich and poor alike, parents must be recognized as the primary and principal educators of their children as they create stable homes and foster an atmosphere for well-rounded personal and social development. This means that school districts and sites need to rethink the options they make available. Parents should have the right to pick and choose between various schools without regard to boundaries, provide feedback on teachers’ performance, and be welcomed at school board meetings. Parents are the primary educators of their children and have the right to know what is being taught and how their son or daughter is being treated in school. Parents entrust their children to professional educators who work at the privilege of the families they serve and deserve to be treated as partners in the education of their children. Schools, on their part, should offer a variety of programs and emphasis to meet the diverse needs and traditions of the families they serve.
Q: Should taxes in California be increased? If so, which ones?
A: California lawmakers tout a state surplus. This is the people’s money and should be returned to them. There is no reason to confiscate more of a family’s income under these circumstances.
Q: What is the most important issue we have not raised and why?
A: This campaign is focused on fighting for families and hard-working taxpayers who have been left in the dark as a result of failed Democratic policies. There is perhaps no better evidence of this fact than Assembly Bill 5, which severely curtails many industries, forcing thousands of independent contractors to lose their jobs and businesses to downsize or close down entirely. I am committed to repealing AB 5 and replacing it with legislation that enshrines the rights of Californians to control their careers and reap the fruits of their own labor.
My experience in making government work better for the people has prepared me to bring a bold, fresh perspective to the state Legislature and create much needed change. If we want to change how Sacramento operates, then we must change who we’re sending there. That change starts with ousting power-hungry politicians and replacing them with leaders committed to freedom and limited government, and that means electing John Vogel Garcia.
It is time for radical change in the makeup of the power structures in Sacramento. We need to rethink how California is governed. Democratic majorities have controlled the Assembly for too long. It is madness to believe that continuing to elect Democrats will results in anything but greater incompetence, negligence and corruption.
The key to restoring California to the envy of the world is to trust and support families to make the best decisions for their own good regarding real options for health care, education and employment.
We can bring real prosperity back to California if we give Republicans a chance. I pray for your careful discernment in this upcoming election.
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