Stumping outside the box

Democratic House candidate leaves the district to attend a MoveOn.org rally in Huntington Beach.Huntington Beach isn’t in the 48th Congressional District, but that didn’t stop Congressional candidate Steve Young from making a quick campaign stop in Surf City on Wednesday.

At a MoveOn.org rally in front of Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s office, Young urged Rohrabacher and other House Republicans to vote against the federal budget proposal, which Young argued would cut billions from social spending programs.

Characterizing the budget proposal as “reverse Robin Hood” -- in that it takes from the poor and gives to the rich, he says -- Young said the spending plan “would create two separate Americas in which the middle class could not survive.”

Young will vie with Republican state Sen. John Campbell, American Independent Party candidate Jim Gilchrist, Libertarian Bruce Cohen and Green Party candidate Béa Tiritilli in a Dec. 6 election for the House seat.

Also at Wednesday’s demonstration were area activists who said they would be hit by the budget cuts, including inner-city teachers who said their students would suffer and religious representatives who said many poor residents depended on entitlements.

Santa Ana Community College student Genevieve Kotowski said she was upset that Congress was considering making $14 billion in educational cuts from programs that she and other students need.

“It’s bizarre and unacceptable,” she said. “It devalues education and goes against logic and human decency.”

REGRETS?

And in other campaign news, Jim Gilchrist may have been sorry he boycotted a Tuesday night candidates forum in Irvine because it elicited some interesting suggestions on what’s arguably his favorite subject: illegal immigration.

Gilchrist is best known as the founder of the Minuteman Project, a volunteer group that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border to deter illegal crossings. He opted out of the forum because he disagrees with the political stances of the League of Women Voters, who co-sponsored the event with the city of Irvine and UC Irvine.

At Tuesday’s forum, Young proposed a program that would charge immigrants a $3,000 fee to cross the border if they can provide information about where they’ll live and work. Money that now goes to smugglers could be going to the government, and the border patrol could be reduced, Young said.

Those immigrants then could be tracked and would have to pay a fee every six months to renew their status as legal U.S. residents. The program also would offer green cards to illegal immigrants for turning in employers who have hired them, Young explained Wednesday.

“This is not an amnesty program, and it is not leading to an legitimization” of illegal immigrants, Young said. “They still have to go through the normal course if they want to pursue, for example, U.S. citizenship.”

Campbell has already gone on record supporting a border fence and a ballot measure to create state border police in California.

The sound bite that likely would have had Gilchrist aching for a rebuttal? Tiritilli’s answer to a question about benefits for illegal immigrants was, “If undocumented immigrants are the problem, then let’s give them their documents.”

She elaborated on her idea Wednesday, saying she supports creating more opportunities for immigrants to earn citizenship, such as the McCain-Kennedy bill, which offers new temporary visas for workers and some other undocumented immigrants.

“I’m not advocating completely open borders,” Tiritilli said.

“I think one aspect of the whole debate that’s been ignored by every other candidate is the United States’ culpability in the economic situation in Mexico,” she said. “We keep pushing free trade agreements -- CAFTA, NAFTA and so on -- when we should be pushing fair trade.”

Creating jobs that don’t pay a living wage does nothing to decrease the incentive to come here illegally to earn better pay, she said.

A video of the forum can be viewed at www.ci.irvine.ca.us.

EARLY ENDORSER

Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore announced this week he’s endorsing Dana Point City Councilwoman Diane Harkey in the anticipated race to fill 35th District state Sen. John Campbell’s seat. Many expect Campbell to win a Dec. 6 election to the 48th Congressional District U.S. House seat.

In a statement, DeVore praised Harkey as a fiscal conservative who will carry on Campbell’s legacy. He criticized Huntington Beach Assemblyman Tom Harman -- Harkey’s only opponent -- as a “serial tax increaser” because he twice introduced a bill DeVore said would lessen the voter majority needed for property tax increases, and he supported two bills that would boost consumer fees to benefit the environment.

SUPERVISOR BLURBS

While the race for the 48th Congressional District seat and possible state Senate race have gotten more ink, anticipated 2006 contests for Orange County Supervisor seats have continued quietly with just the occasional blurb from someone’s campaign.

One of those came last week from former Assemblywoman Pat Bates, who announced the venerable Marian Bergeson has endorsed her in her bid for the fifth district supervisor’s seat. Bergeson, of Newport Beach, is a former state assemblywoman and senator, and she served as state secretary of education.

Bates is competing with Laguna Niguel City Councilwoman Cassie DeYoung and former Laguna Niguel City Councilman Eddie Rose for the fifth district seat, which represents a district that includes Newport Coast and Laguna Beach. Current fifth district Supervisor Tom Wilson is termed out next year.20051117iq2sduknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Steve Young, a candidate for the 48th Congressional District seat, spoke at a MoveOn.org event outside the office of U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) in Huntington Beach on Wednesday. Young and other speakers asked Rohrabacher to vote against a budget proposal currently before the House.