[ From: Assembly Candidates Clash in Ventura By Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star, September 17, 2009 - please view original posting for full text, podcast and comments ]


... two of the three candidates for California’s 35th District Assembly seat tangled in a lively debate in Ventura.

Democrat Das Williams, a Santa Barbara city councilman, and Republican Mike Stoker, a former Santa Barbara County supervisor, focused on the state government’s fiscal problems and the best way to balance the budget and restore the quality of public schools...

... Williams and Stoker took turns speaking before a small breakfast crowd, and then faced off in a question-and-answer session in which they frequently talked over each other and challenged each other’s answers. When it was nearly over, Williams joked, “Next time we’ll put on some gloves.”

Williams and Stoker are both Ventura County natives and veterans of Santa Barbara County politics, and both pointed to their records in local government as signs of how they would vote in the Legislature. Both claimed credit for streamlining local government and balancing budgets in tough times — Williams during the current recession and Stoker in the early 1990s.

When the talk turned to the problems that plague the state, though, their differences were clear. Stoker said the state’s budget crisis is a spending issue, and could be solved with a return to the policy in effect in the 1980s, which tied increases in state spending to inflation and population growth. He also advocated cutting the work force of all state agencies by 10 percent.

State spending, Stoker pointed out, is about 40 percent more than it was when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took office in 2003.

“Did you see a 40 percent increase in California in your state getting better, in your schools getting better, in your roads getting better?” Stoker asked.

Williams said he doesn’t support a spending cap, and said the state needs some spending cuts but also more revenue. Higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol would raise billions of dollars that could offset the deficit and reverse some of the recent cuts to schools, he said.

The most important thing, Williams said, is funding public schools well enough to return California to the top of the nation in education.

“I believe the state has made a significant error in cutting public education,” he said. “It’s short-sighted. ... It’s not just something for kids, it’s an investment in our business climate in the long run.”

...

Das with Nephew, 2008, reading a family favorite: "Frog and Toad Are Friends"

Labels: 35th Assembly District, public education

[ From: Oxnard school officials end fast protesting budget cuts By Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star, Monday, August 24, 2009 - see original article for full text, images, comments and podcast ]



Das Williams, right, a city councilman from Santa Barbara, joins Oxnard School District Trustee Denis O’Leary in eating apples to break a seven-day fast protesting school budget cuts. - Photo by Joseph A. Garcia


A small group of educators and local officials opposed to steep funding cuts to public schools ended their weeklong fast Monday surrounded by lanterns and supporters inside Oxnard’s Plaza Park.

Calling themselves STARVE — Solidarity To Achieve & Recover Valued Education — a group of eight Oxnard School District trustees, employees and others pledged to forgo solid food to bring attention to the billions cut in state funding for schools.

The state budget and the latest round of cuts already was approved, but STARVE participants called on California’s elected officials to find a way to restore the funds.

“It’s for the kids,” said Oxnard Trustee Ana Del Rio-Barba, one of four on the hunger strike who spent each day at the park talking about their efforts and collecting signatures on a petition.

“We’ve done letter-writing (campaigns), phone calls and even trips to Sacramento,” she said, but those efforts didn’t stop the cuts. She hopes something as extreme as a hunger strike will shake things up.

Del Rio-Barba and Oxnard Trustee Denis O’Leary plan to head to Sacramento today to deliver petitions to state officials. Petitions were circulated in local communities and online. In Plaza Park alone, Del Rio-Barba and O’Leary estimated they collected about 1,000 signatures.

“The fast really wasn’t the important part of this,” O’Leary said. “The important part was to get people to sign (petitions) and to get people to talk about it.”

Along with O’Leary and Del Rio-Barba, the school district’s attorney Bonifacio “Bonny” Garcia and his wife, Laura, also spent their days at the park. All four would head home to sleep. Others, including district employees and Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, also participated in the weeklong fast, officials said.

There were some headaches and lightheadedness over the week, but everyone stayed healthy, they said. Diets varied and for some included protein shakes. Del Rio-Barba said she stuck to lemonade and maple syrup, and O’Leary said he drank water, juices and iced tea.

“I didn’t think I could do it,” O’Leary said Monday. Wearing yellow T-shirts with the STARVE logo printed on them, he and others thanked their families and supporters at the vigil Monday night. About 40 people watched and applauded as group members broke their fast by biting into red apples.

Along with the petitions, O’Leary and Del Rio-Barba will take letters and banners from local students to Sacramento today...

Labels: public education