As your representative from the 48th Congressional District, I will support federal grants for local agencies and individuals, to continue programs to supply water to their ratepayers.  I will also support new projects that these agencies may develop to augment their current programs.  Severe drought conditions require such an initiative.

San Diego County is enduring its ninth driest year in 128 years: fewer than 5.33 inches of rain have fallen, based on the normal amount.  Therefore, this issue merits stronger federal support, than a loan and mere words.

In congress, I will provide grants to the Advanced Water Purification agency, instead of a loan.  This joint power authority was created by the Padre Dam and Helix Water Districts, as well as the city of El Cajon and San Diego County.  

I will also fund individual actions, as part of the solution.  I will vote to supply rebates to those who buy rain barrels and supply some of their own water.  In addition, I will support subsidies for installation and use of gray water systems that reuse water from laundry, dishwater, baths, and showers.

Our immigration system needs comprehensive reform. This has been sought for years by immigration lawyers, members of Congress and numerous presidents. The main hindrance to getting this done is the unwillingness of many politicians to work collaboratively on immigration law.  

Assuming that no comprehensive reform can be achieved, I propose the following:  

1) Create a path to citizenship over eight years for those here unlawfully (about 10.5 million people). Many of these residents are married to U.S. citizens and have children born and raised here. They are employed, pay taxes and are a productive part of our communities.  

2) Update the family-based immigration system, which would allow family members to enter the nation and become citizens. This would ensure that families would stay together.

The reason why I am running for the U.S. House of Representatives is that the people of the United States are more polarized than ever. It is time for working citizens to stand up and fight for the life of our democracy.  

As we all know, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Bearing this in mind, I will, when elected, serve all of my constituents in the 48th Congressional District.  

I’ve lived in this area my entire life, and as a resident of the newly established 48th Congressional District, I know and collaborate with many whose political preferences differ from mine. However, we share many basic values on family and community. Just as when I coach my son’s West Hills Little League team, I work for the entire group. Our community means more to me than any partisan connection!  

As a member of Congress, I will listen to the voices from across the entire 48th Congressional District. I will hold town halls, survey constituents and have offices in at least two areas of the district, so my staff can easily assist constituents.  

As your member of Congress, I will combat climate change by protecting wildlands, rivers, estuaries and the ocean from harmful uses. I will protect the backcountry of East County from urban sprawl and large wind and solar farms. The Cleveland National Forest must be a protected water shed, for public recreation, not permanent housing or industrial level power generation.  

Furthermore, I will create subsidies for microgrids, rather than industrial-scale production. Innovative use of ocean currents to generate energy for communities along the coast, geothermal energy for use by communities near these sources, wind energy produced by wind farms located closer to the users, and distributive solar on individual homes or near buildings where energy is used. We must reduce wildfire-causing wires strung across miles of wildlands that are subject to damage by high winds during East County’s annual Santa Ana events.  

The water shortage and continued drought has become a true burden on California, one that we can lessen by investing on two fronts. Frist, by shifting to large scale Controlled-Environment Agricultural efforts (Indoor agriculture and vertical Farming) we can reduce overall water needs by optimizing resource usage. Secondly, by installing desalination plants strategically around the state’s coast, we can offset the drop in available water caused by the drought while simultaneously boosting local economies with the jobs created to construct and operate said desalination plants. 

In regard to our immigration laws, two areas that would greatly benefit from reevaluation are the U.S. capped percentage by country for immigration, and how we go about the distribution of immigrants seeking new life in the U.S. The attempted Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 was a move in the right direction that would change our immigration system to a more merit-based one that allowed the U.S. to allow in, and benefit from, skilled laborers wishing to come here.

Coupling this with new programs designed to disperse new arrivals to less densely populated states in need of particular skill sets could help our great nation flourish as a whole. By providing a modest avenue to share state cultures with a wider audience and allow for healthy competition in monopolized industries, we would have a chance to create new lasting opportunities in states that have seen decline in available jobs as the market needs continue to change over time.

I think immigration is an act that needs some level of reciprocation and joint benefit. Ideally those with particular trades or skill sets in demand would be allowed in, and the US would work towards getting them into the states and communities that would most benefit from their presence. Beyond that, those who can prove to be finically stable and not be a burden of the state should have a means to immigrate. The very notion of people wanting to come to America is a sign we as a nation are doing something right. When it comes to refugees and asylum seekers, we should do our part to help our fellow people, but the process should be looked at as one used for temporary relief, and shelter during incredibly trying times with the goal of those seeking refuge being able to return to their homelands. Permanent status for those under these difficult circumstances, sadly, should still be a rarer occurrence and not the active goal. Humanitarian relief should be our first approach prior to taking in refugees if it’s possible.

I think democracy is only at risk if we continue to elect those who fail to safeguard and protect it. I believe in the resilience of the American people and the great experiment of modern democracy we are meant to embody, and I know so long as we push for those who will fight to protect our democracy and remove those who see political office as a means of self-enrichment at the cost of said democracy, we will continue to lead the way.

To help ensure that our democracy stands firm, we should work to move Election Day to a weekend or the following Monday and make it a national holiday. This would free up time for more people to be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Additionally, we need to do more to push for total transparency and early voting as to allow for more thorough review and tallies as opposed to the current system where we can see hectic & rushed efforts to finish the tally as fast as possible for the iconic “night of” calling of elections. 

Artificial barriers to voting is the antithesis of a free and fair election process and we as a nation should work towards allowing our citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Congress can combat climate change by focusing on making it an economically favorable option. A higher focus on the economic potential of greener initiatives can make actions to deal with climate change more palatable. One such concept Congress can look at is shifting of subsidies and creation of more specialized grants to spur on a transition to large scale vertical farming operations and indoor agricultural efforts, practices known as “controlled-environment agriculture” that allow for growth in less-than-ideal climates while optimizing use of resources to reduce waste. While requiring an initial investment, it can help reduce unneeded land usage and ensure American agricultural independence as we create the environment for the crops we need.

I’m against fracking, and specifically against the expansion of the practice, but current practices must remain till we can properly substitute them for cleaner practices. I believe it is important that we maintain current practices as we transition into renewable energy. While eventually we need to do away with fracking, and transition passed gas and oil where possible in favor of renewables, first we must create the new infrastructure to facilitate 100% clean energy. However, there should be stricter oversight & penalties where harm to the ecosystem happens in our current systems.