20 BASIC QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR
Click here for the letter of intoduction from former Senators John Vasconcelos and Bill Bagley


A - CALIFORNIA'S DEMOGRAPHY:

1 - What do you know about California's current demography? What percentage of California's population is what we used to call the "majority" and what percentages of our state's population are Latinos, Asian-Pacific Islander Americans, African Americans, now and projected in 2020?

2 - What do you think of California's nation-leading blueprint? What public policies will you pursue in addressing the huge expansion of older adults in California, due to the retirement of boomers and the advances of medicine?

B - CALIFORNIA'S FISCAL CRISIS:

3 - In your view, what are you 3-5 root causes of California's current fiscal crisis? What is its projected size in these next 15 months? How you would balance our budget now, with actual proposals for either budget reductions and/or revenue increases?

4 - Where do you stand regarding Proposition 13? Would you support its repeal or any modifications regarding either residential or commercial property? What is your stand on proposals to reduce California's unique Proposition 13 requirement for an affirmative vote by two-thirds of the members of each house of the legislature to enact any tax increase and/or to adopt any budget?

5 - What do you think government should be in the business of doing? Do you support restoring local government decision-making and revenue-raising authority? Where do you stand with regard to the current efforts to generate large scale reform in how California is governed (e.g. the proposed California Constitutional Convention or the recommendations by California Forward?

6 - Do you know how many General Fund employees the State of California now has, and what percentage of them are employed in our universities and in our state prison system? What is your position regarding state public employee pension reform?

C - CALIFORNIA'S ECONOMY:

7 - Will you identify your three highest priority proposals for improving California's economic development, and your three specific proposals for generating more jobs for Californians?

D - CALIFORNIANS' PUBLIC SAFETY:

8 - Describe your basic public safety philosophy - what combination of incarceration (more prisons) versus prevention versus rehabilitation (less recidivism)? Would you support amending California's current "3 Strikes" law so that its life-time sentence provision is incurred only if the third strike is violent or serious? How would you propose that California comply with the standing Federal court order regarding over-crowding?

9 - What is your stand regarding the "war on drugs" - especially with regard to the personal possession of drugs currently made illegal? Do you have an incarceration or a public health approach? Do you support the therapeutic use of marijuana? What is your stand on the November ballot initiative to legalize and regulate and tax marijuana?

E - CALIFORNIA'S ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE:

10 - Describe your basic environmental protection philosophy: what are the key provisions in our current environmental protection legislation and regulation, and are these provisions too much or too little or about right? What is your belief regarding whether climate change is caused by human activities, or just part of natural cycles?

11 - Do you support implementation or repeal of AB 32?

12 - Do you support, or would you eliminate, the mission and work of the California Coastal Commission? Do you support the forthcoming major California Water Bond Proposal that was put on the ballot by the Governor and Legislature?

F - CALIFORNIA'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS:

13 - With regard to California's k-12 public school system:
Do you believe the state of California should provide and fund a K-12 public education system for all of its students, including immigrant children? Describe your philosophy of education: How do children best learn? What should be the goals of our public schools? What is your position regarding class size reduction? Teacher tenure? Charter schools? Vouchers to be given to parents for use at the schools of their choice?

14 - With regard to California's Higher Education System:
How do you define the essential capacities and skills that every California student should have developed to be fully prepared for living and working constructively in the coming future? What is your view of California's 50-year-old Master Plan for Higher Education, and its pledges for universal access, affordability and quality? Would you propose changes to the Master Plan? What is your view of the current levels of our Cal-Grant funding? Of the role of California's independent universities and colleges? Would you encourage the new Joint Legislative Committee reviewing our Master Plan to renew California's commitment and funding for universal access for every qualified California student?

G - CALIFORNIANS' SAFETY NET:

15 - What is your view of current expenditures required to maintain a safety net for our least advantaged Californians? What is your assessment of the status of California's Welfare-to-Work Program? How/would you change that system? How do its support levels measure up to our federal poverty index, compare with costs of foster care (were the parent denied welfare)?

16 - What is your position regarding the California's IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) Program for persons in need? How do its costs compare with the cost of nursing home care for our elderly fragile Californians?

H - ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT OURSELVES, OUR HUMAN NATURE AND POTENTIAL:

17 - What is your vision regarding this most basic conflict of visions: Do you believe that humans arrive in life tending toward becoming evil (needing to be tamed) - or tending toward becoming good (deserving to be realized)?

18 - Are you familiar with, and do you support, the findings of the 1987-1990 California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility?

19 - How do you respond to this declaration: "California's primary challenge is to realize the promise of our multicultural democracy, with gender equity, in the global economy, in this age of technology?" How do you propose to lead in bringing all Californians together toward becoming a diverse community committed to fulfilling this challenge - as a model for our entire world?

I - LOCAL QUESTIONS

20 - Other questions to be raised by other Californians, especially regarding local issues, for asking by correspondents

For more information, and to find out ways in which you can get involved, please contact Executive Director Jason Spencer at jason@politicsoftrust.net.