As the 2020 general election draws closer, The Daily Aztec’s Patrick Doyle sat down with congressional candidates Brian Maryott, Jim DeBello, Sara Jacobs, and Georgette Gómez from California’s 49th, 52nd, and 53rd congressional districts to see how they line up on issues most important to college students.
Here were their responses on the issues.
Homelessness:
Brian Maryott (R – CA 49th): “Obviously affordability of housing in California is an issue as well, but I don’t think the lack of available housing is the core issue, it’s more of an addiction and mental health issue.”
Mike Levin (D – CA 49th) has not yet responded to our interview request.
Jim DeBello (R – CA 52nd): “My thought is we need to provide a helping hand, not a handout. All the handouts that we provide aren’t taking people off the street”
Scott Peters (D – CA 52nd) has not yet responded to our interview request.
Georgette Gómez (D – CA 53rd): “HUD needs to redo it’s formula of how we reissue money to local cities. Our need for housing has not been reflected in that formula. We’ve been getting less money despite increased need for housing.”
Sara Jacobs (D – CA 53rd): “I think we need to modernize the funding formula so that San Diego actually gets the funding that we need to address this crisis from the federal government. I also think we need federal programs that fund homelessness prevention”
Student Loan Debt:
Brian Maryott (R – CA 49th): “We have to leverage federal resources better than we are. The federal government is the ultimate central bank and has access to money at virtually no cost, and we have to use that again and bring more lenders in the marketplace so we can have the best possible terms.”
Jim DeBello (R – CA 52nd): “I think the government should not expand efforts to help people for higher education…(Student loan debt) is an obligation, and that’s the way the world works. … I think there’s ways to have workout plans where payments can be deferred or spread out over a longer period of time.”
Georgette Gómez (D – CA 53rd): “I’m a strong supporter of introducing loan forgiveness, and I think it needs to occur for people who are in low income brackets as well as medium income.”
Sara Jacobs (D – CA 53rd): “We need to allow student loan debt to be refinanced… I think we need to be able to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy. I personally believe that the most progressive thing we can do is have more targeted approaches to student loan forgiveness”
The Economy:
Brian Maryott (R – CA 49th): “We have people leaving California because they can’t afford the energy crisis, we have businesses running out of here like their hair’s on fire because they can’t pay for the energy… (Getting rid of fossil fuels) would completely crush any economic opportunity for you and your fellow students.”
Jim DeBello (R – CA 52nd): “We need to, obviously, support those who have been forced to be unemployed through state unemployment benefits, and we can’t sustain the high rate of unemployment supplement that we have because it’s obviously sending us further into debt—and frankly, it’s an incentive not to work.”
Georgette Gómez (D – CA 53rd): “We need to provide more relief to small businesses as we’re bringing back the economy. We need to rethink San Diego as very dependent on the tourism industry.”
Sara Jacobs (D – CA 53rd): “We need to be spending money on things like universal pre-k, on things like health coverage, on things like college, because that actually improves our economy which means we’ll actually have more tax base down the road.”
For the full video interviews with each candidate, stay tuned to The Daily Aztec’s YouTube channel.
Patrick Doyle is a sophomore studying journalism and political science. Follow him @PatrickDoyle100.
