Racing for congress

Congressional district candidates speak of their views

sion the morning of May 3.

The current 30th congressional district representative is Democrat Henry Waxman.

Six candidates for California’s 30th congressional district informed the public of their opinions regarding contreversial topics at town hall meetings in the Great Hall.

The candidates, which represent three political parties, were each given two minutes to summarize their political platforms, and then answered students’ questions regarding illegal immigration, taxes and tuition increase.

The event, which was open to the public, was moderated by instructor of political sciences Denise Robb, Ph.D.

The candidates who participated were Democrat Vince Gilmor, Green Party’s Michael Powelson, Republican Mark Reed, Republican Susan Shelley, Republican Navraj Singh and Democrat Brad Sherman.

Congressman Sherman was not able to attend the debate the evening of May 1, to which he sent a representitive, and was hosted at the Great Hall for a question and answer ses-

The 2012 congressional elections will take place Nov. 6. These were the candidates’ platforms in regards to the following issues:

Illegal immigration

Powelson: “This country thrived thanks to immigrants,” he said. “It’s outrageous the way immigrants are treated in this country.”

Reed: “I’m for people who come here ready to work and seek a better life,” he said. “I’d vote for elements of the dream act.”

Shelley: “Right now, we need economic growth,” she said. “We just can’t pay for people coming here right now.”

Singh: “No country in the world has a better immigration policy than the U.S.,” he said. “But people who come here illegaly have broken the law. Do you want to tolerate that kind of behavior?”

Sherman: We support the Dream

Act. We need to pass the dream act, and make sure higher education is funded properly.

Taxing the people

Gilmore: “We should abolish income tax,” he said. “It’s unconstitutional and illegal.”

Powelson: “We should tax the wealthy more,” he said.

Reed: “It’s not fair to tax invetments and divorce,” he said. “When your children hit the ground, is it fair that they owe the counry $100 thousand off the bat?”

Shelley: “Income tax and property tax should be equal, but should only be 5 percent,” she said.

Singh: “All taxes should be lower,” he said. “If you’ll have lower taxes, you’ll have so much money coming to the U.S. you won’t know what to do with it.

Tuition increase

Powelson: “Let’s go back to free education,” he said.

Singh: “Education is becoming dust,” he said. “We need to stop tuition price from increasing.”

“The college has no money, and we’re still $4 million short,” President of Academic Senate Tom Rosdahl said in March when explaining the senate the reason for the planned hiring freeze.

The new hires are expected in the following departments: Library, Counseling, Speech, History and Math.

“As the district decides along with the college how many will be able to be hired, we then decide how many to go down on that list,” said Tom Rosdahl.

A total of ten new hires is the maximum the district is allowing any Los Angeles Community College to add as full time faculty members.

The committee will be accepting one librarian, one counselor, two speech professors and four math professors.

“We are going through a number of changes, changes on everything, especially on administration,”

President Kathleen Burke-Kelly said in this Monday’s Academic Senate meeting.

As a result, new committees will be established to advertise the positions, which will need to be advertised for about six weeks.

Yet, some committee members feel there should have been new hires for other programs that help students.

“ I believe there should be new hires for the writing lab and academic success,” chair of Chemistry department Isidore Goodman said. “These programs are the ones that help shape our students to become more efficient.”

Pierce College business major Mayra Cruz feels there should be more help for students.

“It takes days, sometimes weeks, for us to have a chance to speak to counselors,” she said.