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Republican Rep. David Valadao and Democratic Assemblymember Rudy Salas are battling to symbolize California’s closely agricultural twenty second Congressional District, which incorporates parts of Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, in what is taken into account one of many nation’s best races.
The race is one in every of 10 key California contests within the Nov. 8 midterm election that might decide the stability of energy within the Home of Representatives.
Salas’ solutions are drawn from a questionnaire despatched to candidates in aggressive California congressional races, in addition to his voting document. His responses have been edited for readability and size. Valadao didn’t reply, so details about his views had been collected from his marketing campaign web site, voting document, debates and information protection of the race.
UPDATED Oct. 24, 2022 | 5:04 PM
Why do you imagine try to be elected to Congress?
Salas “I’m proud to be born and raised within the Central Valley. I attended public faculties and labored within the fields with my father, studying the worth of a tough day’s work. As an assemblymember, I get up day-after-day fascinated with methods to enhance the lives of Central Valley households,” Salas mentioned. He highlighted his work within the Meeting on water for farms, healthcare and prescription drug prices, and votes “towards elevating gasoline taxes and in favor of suspending the gasoline tax.”
“I’ve delivered lengthy overdue time beyond regulation pay for farmworkers, clear water for our communities, invested in group faculties and elevated funding for regulation enforcement. I’ve by no means been afraid to take a tricky stand, even when my celebration disagrees.”
Valadao Valadao’s marketing campaign web site calls him a “proud son of the Central Valley” who has “at all times fought to do what’s proper for the Valley.”
“We have to defend our water, put an finish to out-of-control inflation and outrageous gasoline costs, work to carry new jobs and job coaching to the Central Valley, and get up for seniors and veterans to make sure they get the advantages they deserve,” the web site says.
What about your experiences make you most certified?
Salas Salas pointed to investments for which he advocated within the Meeting, together with for bettering water high quality, training, public security and combatting valley fever. He additionally highlighted laws that allowed farmworkers to earn time beyond regulation pay in addition to his work on clear ingesting water for Valley households and water for farmers.
“I’ve been a steadfast watchdog of your hard-earned tax {dollars}, holding public officers accountable once they misuse your cash,” he mentioned. “I used to be the one Meeting Democrat to vote towards elevating the gasoline tax. Valley households can’t afford an additional $1.19 per gallon in taxes and charges.”
Valadao Valadao’s web site says his work on his household’s farm, which consists of two dairies in addition to farmland in Kings County, and his involvement in agriculture and dairy trade teams give him perception into points necessary to the area.
If elected, what could be your prime legislative priorities?
Salas Salas mentioned he’d work to cross laws reducing prescription drug prices and insurance coverage premiums nationwide. “I’ll combat to carry firms accountable for worth gouging, and I’ll cease any cuts to Medicare or Social Safety. In the end, this district has by no means gotten again from the federal authorities what it places in. Altering that might be my first precedence.”
Valadao On his marketing campaign web site, Valadao mentions serving to Central Valley farmers, bettering advantages for veterans and navy servicemembers and sustaining the Valley’s water provide as priorities. The web site says Valadao needs to decrease the unemployment charge and healthcare prices within the San Joaquin Valley, reform immigration coverage, give educators and oldsters “sources and suppleness” and facilitate the manufacturing of oil and pure gasoline in California in addition to renewable power.
UPDATED Oct. 24, 2022 | 5:08 PM
On what situation would you’ll work with the opposite celebration?
Salas Salas mentioned he’s “somebody who will get issues achieved regardless and regardless of partisan politics.” He added that 82 out of 83 payments that he’s helped get signed into regulation within the Meeting had bipartisan assist.
“I’ll work with anybody of any celebration who’s keen to strengthen households right here within the Central Valley. It received’t be on only one situation — I imagine that we will get issues achieved on all the things from reducing drug costs to bettering our water sources to strengthening our financial system,” he mentioned.
Valadao Throughout a televised debate in October, Valadao mentioned partisanship is likely one of the largest points dealing with Congress and the U.S.
“I’m pleased to say it’s not as dangerous as what you see on TV,” he mentioned. “However while you get into a variety of the extra necessary matters, that’s the place it will get actually ugly. I imply for us, particularly, water is a really divisive subject and we’ve had a variety of fights and that’s why these debates are necessary….”
He added that debating “with folks we disagree with is a core perform of what we do” in Congress.
On abortion:
Salas “That could be a choice that ought to be left for a girl to make together with her doctor, her household and inside her religion — no native, state or federal politician ought to have any say.”
Salas co-sponsored Proposition 1, a measure on the Nov. 8 poll that will reinforce the state’s abortion protections underneath the state Structure.
Valadao Valadao is a co-sponsor of the Life at Conception Act, which as written would ban abortion nationally with no exceptions. The invoice, which was launched within the Home, says “the best to life assured by the Structure is vested in every human being in any respect levels of life, together with the second of fertilization.”
Earlier than the Supreme Courtroom’s choice this summer time reversing Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling guaranteeing a nationwide proper to abortion, Valadao signed on to an amicus transient asking the justices to overturn Roe.
Valadao mentioned throughout a Q&A with Bakersfield’s KGET-TV on Oct. 12 that he helps exceptions in abortion bans for rape, incest and to guard the lifetime of mom, a departure from the Life at Conception Act.
On LGBTQ rights:
Salas “I’ve at all times opposed discrimination towards LGBTQ Individuals and can proceed to take action,” he mentioned.
Valadao Final yr, Valadao voted towards the Equality Act, which gives LGBTQ folks with specific safety towards discrimination underneath federal civil rights legal guidelines.
In July, he was amongst 47 GOP members of the Home who voted for a invoice to guard marriage equality in response to an opinion from Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas that known as for reversing choices that enshrined LGBTQ rights.
On the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, election integrity and accountability for the rebel:
Salas “The Jan. 6 rebel and assault on the Capitol was an outrage, and people accountable — together with those that aided and abetted the assault — should be held accountable,” Salas mentioned. “It’s also important that we defend the best to vote for all Individuals. Whereas we should stop voter fraud, it additionally can’t be used as a bogeyman to make it tougher for sure folks to vote.”
Valadao Valadao was one in every of 10 Republicans who voted in 2021 to question Donald Trump over the violence on the Capitol on Jan. 6. On the time, Valadao mentioned, “President Trump was, with out query, a driving drive within the catastrophic occasions that occurred on Jan. 6 by encouraging lots of rioters to incite violence on elected officers, workers members and our consultant democracy as an entire.”
What’s the federal authorities’s position in making an attempt to cease mass shootings?
Salas “I’m happy that there was bipartisan progress made in June and supported the gun security invoice negotiated by each Republicans and Democrats to save lots of lives. I’m extremely upset that it took extra kids’s lives misplaced to make that occur.”
Salas is usually extra skeptical of gun laws proposed in California than others in his celebration. In September, he voted towards a invoice that will have rewritten state laws on hid carry licenses.
Valadao Valadao in June voted towards the Defending Our Youngsters Act, which made a number of adjustments to federal firearms legal guidelines together with establishing new legal offenses for gun trafficking and increasing the forms of weapons and gadgets which might be regulated. He was one in every of 43 Republicans who voted in assist of a invoice to increase coordination of alert networks for lively shooters.
What’s your opinion about efforts to overtake police funding?
Salas Salas mentioned he helps funding regulation enforcement and reforming use-of-force insurance policies.
Valadao Valadao co-sponsored the Make investments to Defend Act of 2022 to ascertain a grant program by the Justice Division to fund coaching for de-escalation, home violence response and officer security in cities with small police departments. The invoice additionally gives grants for physique cameras and psychological well being companies for officers.
“Police departments in small communities, like many within the Central Valley, wrestle to have sufficient funding to correctly recruit, prepare and supply sources for his or her officers,” Valadao mentioned on the time.
On healthcare:
Salas Salas mentioned he helps making farmworkers eligible for advantages underneath the Reasonably priced Care Act. He mentioned the Farm Labor Modernization Act, which handed within the Home final yr, could be the “greatest first step” to creating {that a} actuality.
Extra broadly, Salas writes on his marketing campaign web site that he’ll increase Medicare and “combat to defend the Reasonably priced Care Act towards makes an attempt to intestine its advantages or permit insurance coverage corporations to disclaim protection to Californians with preexisting circumstances.”
Valadao In 2017, Valadao voted for a Home GOP invoice that sought to repeal and change the Reasonably priced Care Act. (The invoice didn’t cross.) He writes on his marketing campaign web site that he “believes the perfect healthcare is a market-based method to healthcare reform that gives people with aggressive selections and addresses the wants of these unable to afford healthcare insurance coverage.”
On immigration:
Salas “Repeatedly, Congress has failed to repair our damaged immigration system. Members of Congress have spent years placing their very own private political pursuits forward of outcomes for our communities. And our households and our financial system right here within the Central Valley are paying the worth,” mentioned Salas, whose mother and father immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico.
“I imagine that we’d like a pathway to citizenship. There are lots of people within the Central Valley who’ve labored and lived right here for over 5-10 years and paid their taxes and are in good standing, law-abiding and ought to be afforded the chance to be a citizen of the US.
“On the similar time, we should carry our border safety into the twenty first century to make sure now we have protected and safe borders.
Valadao Valadao, whose mother and father immigrated to the U.S. from Europe, coming from the Azores, says on his marketing campaign web site that he helps reforming the immigration course of and “an affordable and accountable pathway to citizenship for these wishing to enter our nation and people already right here.”
“Quite than concentrating on these merely making an attempt to lift their households, we should always equip regulation enforcement with the instruments to concentrate on undocumented immigrants who’ve dedicated critical crimes,” he mentioned.
What’s the federal authorities’s position in coping with the homeless disaster?
Salas “We have to work to finish homelessness right here within the Central Valley, and that begins by each investing in inexpensive housing and in addition making certain native governments have the sources to assist folks off our streets. In Congress, I’ll be a accomplice on this situation to make sure we’re getting the sources we’d like, but additionally carefully finding out the outcomes to verify this funding is getting used successfully.”
Valadao Valadao has not spoken publicly lately about homelessness. In August, he wrote on Twitter that he had a “productive dialog” with Delano Police Chief Tyson Davis about tackling homelessness and medicines.
“We want to verify our regulation enforcement are properly outfitted to deal with these challenges,” he wrote.
In April, Valadao requested $1.5 million in federal funding for an emergency homeless shelter in Tulare. It isn’t clear whether or not any federal {dollars} have been allotted to the undertaking. Voters in Tulare in November will think about whether or not to approve a tax on hashish companies. A portion of the cash from the tax would go towards the shelter, officers say.
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