Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 22

It's wonderful that our district is doing so well economically. However, I cannot ignore that the fundamentals on transportation and housing, education, and crime have not been addressed. Accordingly, while some of us may feel good because of economic growth, those same issues will continue to get worse due to the increasing population demographics.

Transportation: governments favor jobs because of the increasing tax base, but with those jobs comes the demand on our roads and housing. It is a fantasy that you can have economic development but not have the other pressures on the infrastructure. We need to look at other alternatives, for examle, moving jobs closer to existing housing rather than more dense housing closer to jobs.

Education: California used to be the envy of the world. The key to improving education is to first return it back to local control. State control has not worked. Next, before we start spending hundreds of millions on the latest and so called greatest, let us first equip our schools with needed supplies, enough new books, and decent libraries. Let us bring back the many music, arts, sports,etc. Let us bring back school buses so that our children can be safer and we can reduce the number of cars on the road during commute times.

Crime: in this era of increasing fear(real and perpetrated by the media), our children are being denied a chance to develop social skills for living. Our fear forces our kids and ourselves to stay inside. The near extinction of the stay at home parent and worries about crime, has funneled our children into bureaucratic settings where overseers are always present. These changes have limited kids access that we at one time enjoyed: unrestricted free play. And the same is true for the rest of us--older or younger. Let us make sure that we enforce the laws and penalties already on the books and putting the violent criminals in jail while spending as little of your the taxpayer's money. As the military has and is downsizing and discarding old equipment--let us make use of it and build tent jails in our desolate areas. If they were good enough for our military, they are more than good enough for inmates. Jail should be a place nobody ever wants to go back to.

In 1996, the voters passed Proposition 208, the CAmpaign Finance Reform Initiative. You would think the politicians would have got the message to clean up their act. Instead they sued and had thrown out by a fellow group of politicians called judges. And so they continue to raise obscene amounts of money. Multibillion dollar corporations and PACs are only happy to oblige in exchange for corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks, subsidies and other perks. At the same time your taxes and fees for services are going up, and the safety standards that protect your health, life and the environment are attacked or ignored. As your candidate, I will follow the guidelines you voted for in Proposition 208 and only ask you, the voters of the 22nd Assembly District for help and support.

I would not have been in public office if it were not for the help of the friends, supporters and you--the voters. I need that help again, only more, if I am to serve you--the brains, heart and body of Silicon Valley--The 22nd Assembly District. I ask for your vote on November 7, 2000.