[Noozhawk’s note: We invited each of the nine candidates for the 24th District seat in Congress to answer a series of questions about issues of importance to local voters. The responses are being published, three candidates each day in alphabetical order, beginning Saturday. Click here for the complete series index.]
Salud Carbajal, 51, is a Democrat and three-term Santa Barbara County supervisor representing the First District, which includes Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito, part of Santa Barbara and Cuyama in the county’s remote northeast corner.
Click here for more information about Salud Carbajal.
Noozhawk: If elected, what specific issue will be your No. 1 priority in Congress?
SC: I grew up on the Central Coast, attended public schools here and raised my family here. I want to make sure our working families have the same kind of opportunities to get ahead that I’ve had.
In Congress, my priority will be expanding opportunity and security for the working and middle class — from making college more affordable to raising the national minimum wage to supporting small businesses and protecting our environment.
Q: Given the extreme division and polarization in Congress and the nation, what specifically will you do to help break the deadlock?
SC: As a Santa Barbara County supervisor, I’ve worked across the aisle to preserve our natural environment and open spaces, expand health insurance for our kids, invest in our highways and roads to create jobs and maintain our quality of life.
The partisanship in Congress is unfortunate and damaging. In Congress, I will work across the aisle — just like I have here on the Central Coast — to get things done. I believe that’s the kind of effective leadership we need in Congress today.
Q: How would you describe your political philosophy? Liberal, moderate, conservative, progressive, socialist, libertarian, other? Explain why.
SC: I am a proud Democrat. I believe we need to protect our community’s most vulnerable members, and work to expand opportunities for our working middle class. And to do that, we have to work across party lines to get things done.
But I also believe there are issues of conscience where you must stand firm on principle, including a woman’s right to choose, marriage equality, civil rights and protecting our environment.
Q: What personal and work experience prepared you for this job?
SC: I have spent my career in public service because I want to make sure all Central Coast residents have the opportunity to succeed. My public service began in the Marine Corps Reserves and upon graduating college I continued that service in my community helping run our public health and human service programs.
In my three terms on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, I’ve focused on getting results by working across the aisle.
Because of our bipartisan work, we have the highest rainy-day reserve in the county’s history, the highest credit bond rating in the state of California, and we’ve balanced our budget each and every year, while ensuring essential services were provided for our community. That’s the kind of leadership we need in Washington.
Q: How well is the United States doing in the area of military preparedness? What, if anything, would you change?
SC: As a veteran, I understand that matters of national security are not partisan issues. My first priority is the safety and security of our country.
In Congress, I will work to make sure our national security policies are tough, but also smart. I would work to expand our public- and private-sector partnerships to keep America on the cutting edge of cyber security to ensure that our businesses, homes and infrastructure are safe from foreign or domestic attacks.
I’m committed to defeating terrorist groups around the globe, and will work to ensure our military and special forces have the resources they need to keep us safe.
Q: California will have a $15 minimum wage in a few years. Do you support raising the federal minimum wage, and if so, to what rate?
SC: I am extremely supportive of California’s decision to raise our state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2020. In Congress, I will fight to increase the federal minimum wage because no one who works full time should live in poverty.
As the son of a farmworker who worked hard supporting our family while we lived in public housing, I know how difficult it is to live paycheck to paycheck.
Q: Briefly outline your position on climate change. What, if anything, should we as a nation be doing about it?
SC: There is no question that climate change is real and we, as a nation, must do everything we can to protect our environment now through mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting and preparing for the future.
I am proud to have served on President Barack Obama’s task force on climate change to come up with a range of sustainable solutions to be implemented at the state and local levels, and to have the Sierra Club’s endorsement.
I will fight to protect our Central Coast’s environment and renew our investments in clean energy sources and technology, so that future generations have clean air, clean water and the opportunity to enjoy these open spaces in our region.
Q: What changes, if any, would you like to see made in the federal tax code?
SC: We must work to expand tax cuts for small businesses and entrepreneurs to help them grow and hire new workers and stop incentivizing larger corporations to move their jobs and operations overseas.
I will work in Congress to expand opportunities for working- and middle-class Central Coast families who deserve opportunities for economic growth and success.
We also need to close the carried-interest loophole that allows hedge funds, private equity firms and venture capitalists to avoid billions of dollars in taxes each year. Wealthy corporations are given too many allowances in a country where we have some of the worst income inequality in the world.
Q: Share your views on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. What, if anything, would you change?
SC: Everyone deserves access to quality, affordable health insurance. We cannot go back to the old days when insurance companies could drop you if you got sick, or refuse to cover you if you had a pre-existing condition. Specifically, we need to address the exorbitant cost of prescription drugs in our country, and work with insurance companies and devise incentives to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
We must permanently end the Cadillac tax. We have to make sure that health care remains affordable, and I will focus on making sure the Affordable Care Act works for everyone.
Q: What changes in abortion law, if any, would you support as a member of Congress?
SC: I believe that decisions about women’s health should be personal ones between women and their doctors. In Congress, I will fight to expand access to contraception and defend a woman’s right to choose, which we are seeing attacked both at the state and federal levels.
Q: The debate over immigration and guest-worker programs hits close to home for this district, with ICE raids on Santa Maria-area farm businesses and an alleged arson at a Nipomo farmworker housing complex. What changes, if any, would like to see made in immigration law and enforcement?
SC: Millions of immigrants currently live in the United States without documentation and without legal protections, in constant fear of deportation.
Central Coast agriculture depends on this workforce, and we need to make sure they can hire the workers they need legally and that those workers are protected under the law.
When I immigrated with my family, it was legally, through a system that worked. Now that system is broken.
The real answer to fixing our broken immigration system is through comprehensive immigration reform that only Congress can enact. In Congress I will work to bring these immigrants out of the shadows and on a path of earned citizenship, so that they can contribute to our economy by paying taxes.
These are families that, like all of us, want live with dignity, without fear and to contribute to our great nation.
Q: What changes, if any, should be made in federally funded college loan programs?
SC: It is becoming more and more difficult for students to graduate from college without an inordinate amount of loan debt.
I was the first in my family to graduate from a four-year university with the assistance of financial aid, student loans and the Veterans Education Assistance Program. Unfortunately, these resources are not going far enough to reduce the crushing debt for students and their families today.
We need to do everything in our power to make college more accessible and affordable, including lowering interest rates for government-backed loans, allowing students to refinance their loans, just like mortgages and car loans, expanding financial aid and the Pell Grant program, and pushing universities to keep costs down if they want to continue to receive federal research dollars and other aid.
I also support two years of tuition-free community college so that students can take their first step toward a college education.
Q: The Refugio oil spill put a spotlight on federal pipeline safety regulations. What can regulators do to prevent future spills?
The Central Coast is home to some of the most diverse and beautiful places in the world. In Congress, I will continue to support Congresswoman Lois Capps’ legislation to improve federal oil and gas pipeline safety and monitoring regulations, and reduce our dependence on offshore oil drilling.
I will continue to say no to any new offshore drilling, and instead encourage us to move toward cleaner energy solutions that help create new jobs, like we did with the solar power facilities in the Cuyama Valley and on the Carrizo Plain.