{"id":9014,"date":"2012-02-24T05:20:09","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T13:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=9014"},"modified":"2012-07-01T14:10:43","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T21:10:43","slug":"q-and-a-candidate-forum-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/02\/24\/q-and-a-candidate-forum-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A Candidate Forum Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
(L to R) Lee Rodgers, Candidate for Congress, 25th District; Steve Fox, Candidate for State Assembly,36th District; Michael Rives, Candidate for Lancaster City Council; John Kiramis, Candidate for Lancaster City Council; Catherine Ipsen, wife of LA District Attorney Candidate Steve Ipsen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 Six candidates running for city, county and state offices outlined their platforms Wednesday to a crowd of about 60. Hosted by the Democratic Club of the High Desert (DCHD), the event was billed as a Question and Answer Forum to allow candidates to introduce themselves to Antelope Valley residents.<\/p>\n

Candidates were given three minutes for an introduction before taking three questions from the audience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Star Moffatt said she had spent six years in the military, was a college graduate, and had completed one year of law school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First up was senate candidate Star Moffatt who said she had already received the California Democratic Party endorsement, and she stood for fairness, accountability, and transparency. If elected to California’s 21st State Senate District, Moffatt said she would legislate for the protection of jobs, education, small and midsize businesses, social security, disabled people and senior citizens.<\/p>\n

When asked, Moffat said she was \u201cpro gay rights\u201d and \u201cpro choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery woman has the right over her own body,\u201d Moffatt said. \u201cI\u2019ll give you the hypothetical, you have a young lady who is raped by her own father\u2026 you should have the right to choose to keep or abort; that is her choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moffatt became emotional when explaining her stance on medical marijuana. She said her mother was a breast cancer survivor and going through a lot of pain, which could be relieved by medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate seeing her suffer so I am pro marijuana dispensaries,\u201d Moffatt said. \u201cI think that we should have them in the communities and they should be taxed, and then those tax revenues, we could put back into the schools, we could put back into the communities and most importantly, we could have the sheriff\u2019s [department] \u00a0monitor those dispensaries for the safety of the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Rives introduced himself as a democratic candidate for Lancaster City Council before launching into an attack on the current city government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a divided city, we have people living in fear, not of criminals, but of our law enforcement,\u201d Rives said. \u201cOur city government does not do anything for seniors, we have workers struggling because of high gas prices, we have homeowners facing new taxes like sanitation fees, but yet our city government does nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
We have a dysfunctional city government that quells dissent and misspends money, Rives said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rives said the City Council was responsible for losing $50 million in the \u201credevelopment fiasco,\u201d and if elected to the council, he would give the public straight answers on the state of the city\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

Rives also blasted the city\u2019s latest agreement with Ecolution for a proposed Materials Recovery and Conversion Facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a garbage dump and it\u2019s going to create minimum wage jobs, that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to do,\u201d Rives said, adding that he would like the city to look to smaller retailers for bringing jobs into the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think instead of starting big like Rex Parris and his friends who make deals with Solar City and big companies throughout California, let\u2019s stay small and try to get some of these retail people to come in town and create small,\u201d Rives said. \u201cStart small and then we work our way up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lancaster City Council candidate, John Kiramis, the sole Republican on the panel, also stressed the need for the city to take a different approach in creating jobs for residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cLancaster has two huge forces in its arsenal to get jobs, one is an immense labor pool, the second is cheap land,\u201d Kiramis said. He cited Stockton, California as a city that had successfully used its cheap land and labor pool to bring in jobs from technology companies in the nearby Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Catherine Ipsen spoke for her husband, LA District Attorney candidate Steve Ipsen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn Stockton you have the labor force of National Semiconductor, Qualcomm, Hewlett Packard\u2026 there\u2019s no reason Lancaster can\u2019t do that,\u201d Kiramis said.<\/p>\n

But standing in the city\u2019s way, said Kiramis, was a tarnished reputation filled with \u201cinferences and accusations of racism that stem from Section 8 housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiramis said the primary reason he had decided to run for city council was to bring transparency to city government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a City Council in Lancaster that shows up, votes, and leaves. The votes are always 5-0 or 4-0, depending on whether the mayor decided to show up that night,\u201d Kiramis said. \u201cThere\u2019s no discussion, there\u2019s no debate\u2026 the absence of transparency even clouds some of the good work they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In stating his case for public office, State Assembly candidate, Steve Fox, emphasized the need for a sound economic plan to balance the state\u2019s budget and said cuts across the board had crippled the education system.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a teacher, I\u2019ve watched the extremely large classes and how unnatural it is to actually teach,\u201d Fox said. \u201cThey\u2019re now cutting the buses, now the kids won\u2019t be able to get to classes\u2026 all of that\u2019s wrong, all of that has to be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n

On another note, Fox said California should heed states like Florida and Texas that had eliminated taxes for the middle class.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Congressional candidate Lee Rodgers sharply criticized sitting Congressman Buck Mckeon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhy can\u2019t we do something like that to give you more money, more spending power, and we\u2019ll make some money on the backend from the sales tax?\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n

Fox harshly criticized Assemblyman Steve Knight for his voting record.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of 150 votes, he only voted yes nine times in the last three years\u2026 he voted against women, he voted against education, he voted against jobs, all he does is cause gridlock in the state assembly,\u201d Fox said. \u201cWhat we need to do is get rid of the legislators who are not helping us and causing gridlock, the Runners, the Knights, and now, Mr. Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking for her husband, LA District Attorney Candidate Steve Ipsen, Catherine Ipsen described a faulty criminal justice system that targeted minorities and tried to \u201cfelonize\u201d as many cases as possible, especially in the Antelope Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially what they\u2019re doing is felonizing every possible nonviolent, nonserious, nonsex offender crime that they can,\u201d Catherine Ipsen said. \u201cThere\u2019s a monetary incentive to do that, it\u2019s based on the number of people that are sent to state prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said, if elected, Steve Ipsen would put into action \u201cReform First,\u201d a plan that allows youthful, nonviolent offenders a chance to avoid the felony label by completing monitored employment programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet a job and work for a year, you won\u2019t become a felon, you come back in a year, we\u2019ll reduce it to a misdemeanor, you work for another year, we reduce the misdemeanor so you won\u2019t have anything on your record,\u201d Catherine Ipsen said.<\/p>\n

Last to speak was Congressional candidate Lee Rodgers, who criticized Congressman Howard \u201cBuck\u201d McKeon for his part in the Countrywide loan scandal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
About 60 residents attended the Question and Answer Forum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re out targeting minorities and giving them higher interest rates, he got a special interest rate that would have saved him $68,000 on his mortgage,\u201d Rodgers said.<\/p>\n

Rodgers said McKeon\u2019s wife was running for Assembly in the 38th District and McKeon was using his influence to get federal lobbyists to donate to his wife\u2019s campaign, which was illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at their financial reports, pretty much all their money came from the defense industry,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cWhy does the defense industry have any interest in a sleepy little assembly race? They\u2019re currying favor with him because he happens to be the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the separation of church and state, Rodgers said religion had no place in politics or in the government. Additionally, Rodgers, who is a doctor, said he would strongly advocate for both Medicare and social security, if elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a specialist in diabetes and complications of diabetes, I see a lot of patients on Medicare and also on social security, and that\u2019s what’s keeping them out of poverty,\u201d said Rodgers. \u201cYou have to strengthen entitlements and not weaken them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congressional candidate, Laura Molina, and LA District Attorney Candidate, Mario Trujillo, were scheduled to attend the forum but did not show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Six candidates running for city, county and state offices outlined their platforms Wednesday to a crowd of about 60. Hosted by the Democratic Club of the High Desert (DCHD), the event was billed as a Question and Answer Forum to allow candidates to introduce themselves to Antelope Valley residents. Candidates were given three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}