By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Contributor
Tuesday voters near UCLA will not only help decide the next
president of the United States, but will also elect one of five
candidates running for the California State Assembly from the 42nd
district.
The 42nd district is one of only two to have five candidates
running for the assembly. The district includes Westwood, Beverly
Hills, Bel Air and Hollywood.
Democrat Paul Koretz, Republican Douglas C. Taylor, UCLA student
and Natural Law candidate Ivka Adam, Libertarian Mark Allen Selzer
and Green Party candidate Sara Amir are all vying for the seat left
vacant by Democrat Wally Knox, who has termed out of the
legislature.
“We’ve gone door to door and covered about 60
percent of the precinct,” said Taylor who has been promoting
the idea of “One America,” insisting that the
Republican Party is a party for all people.
“We’ve also gone to shopping malls to hand out
literature and meet the voters. We’ve been to many community
events,” he continued.
In a traditionally Democratic district, Koretz, who could not
immediately be reached for comment, will be Taylor’s toughest
opponent.
A West Hollywood City Councilman since 1988, Koretz graduated
from UCLA in 1970 with a degree in history. He was a co-founder of
Bruin Democrats.
A supporter of programs to reduce air pollution, Koretz places
environmental and social issues at the top of his agenda.
He has served as the Southern California Director of the
California League of Conservation Voters and as the Administrative
Director of the Ecology Center of Southern California.
A strong opponent of gun proliferation, Koretz authored a bill
that banned semi-automatic weapons in West Hollywood.
During the primary, Koretz stressed the problem of low education
funds, pointing out that California is one of the lowest spenders
in the nation on education.
Taylor, who also stresses the importance of education, promotes
competition between schools.
“Vouchers are very important,” Taylor said,
“and school choice is very important.”
Taylor added that he is against quota-based affirmative action
saying that schools should take “whomever gets the best test
scores.”
The Republican candidate also insists that students’
safety and comfort are vital. Taylor said he promotes safe
neighborhoods, backs three-strikes laws, and believes that an
effort must be made to keep students safe.
He said one of the most important issue of this election is
traffic reduction.
He supports “fast-tracking” funds for an extensive
light metro line that would work in cooperation with the existing
subway system to reduce traffic on the 405 and 101 freeways, as
well as on surface streets.
The Green Party candidate, Amir, agrees that traffic congestion
issues need to be addressed. She too supports funding for a light
rail.
But Amir also said there should be more incentive for people to
carpool. She said people should not commute as far as they do
now.
“Where you live is where you should work,” Amir
said.
Amir has made frequent visits to UCLA, and her platform calls
for affordable higher education.
She called the policy by which students can have federal aid cut
off if they are caught twice with possession of marijuana or other
drugs insane.
Amir, said she was frustrated with what she believes is a lack
of campaigning for the race.
“Nobody is campaigning in this district. There is no
campaign literature,” she said.
She added that Koretz is “banking on just being a
Democrat.”
Adam, a third-year economics student at UCLA and the Natural Law
candidate, sees the importance of education.
“I believe that education is the source and long-term
solution to many of America’s problems, because
America’s problems are human problems,” she said.
Adam supports raising teachers pay, perhaps through matching
block grants, believes this would enhance competition for these
jobs.
Currently Adam is studying abroad in Singapore, and has been
keeping up with the elections via e-mail and Internet.
Another issue important to Adam and the Natural Law party that
the other candidates did not mention is genetic engineering of
crops.
Adam said she believes genetically engineered foods should be
clearly labeled as such.
“We do not know if genetically engineered foods are safe
for you and your family, safe for the environment, safe for the
future of mankind.”
Libertarian candidate Selzer expressed a point of view that the
major party candidates did not.
“The drug war is futile,” he said,.”Teenagers
can get any amount of drugs whenever they want, even if they are in
jail for doing drugs.”
Selzer supports legalization of all drugs.
“Private groups, religious groups should give out drugs
and then the kids have a place to go, they have someone asking,
“˜Why do you need this?’ Or, “˜Do you want to
talk?'” he said.
Selzer said he knows his chances of winning are not good, but
believes he can pressure the Democratic Party to address their
concerns if he and Amir can pull some votes away from Koretz.
“If I can do that,” he said, “then next time
they might not run such a pro-drug war type candidate.”