Republican Michael A. Jackson and incumbant Democrat Betty Karnette, both of whom are competing to represent the 54th district in the California State Assembly, addressed a small lunchtime crowd at the Southwest Terrace.
Both candidates encouraged students to vote in the Nov. 7 election.
“I was a teacher before I was elected, so I know students are busy,” Karnette said. “But you should never be too busy to vote.”
She said politics is all about relationships and representatives have to be able to understand and get along with their constituents in order to govern effectively.
Jackson said he is running for office because the government is no longer representing the people.
“You might not be surprised to know, but both parties are basically corrupt,” he said. “A lot of people aren’t paying attention to what our legislators are doing up in Sacramento.”
Both Jackson and Karnette addressed the rising cost of education.
“Tuition keeps going up because the bureaucracy is misdirecting all the funds that should be going to our schools, to our colleges, to get an education population,” Jackson said. “It’s going for political cronyism basically. Until you participate in government and start taking an active part, you’re not going to get the benefits of this great American society and you’re going to get the bill down the road.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for students to have to borrow so much money to get through school,” Karnette said. “I think everybody ought to help because, when you learn something, you contribute to society. So, anything that can help education, I support.”
Both Jackson and Karnette talked about issues that affect Long Beach and its surrounding areas.
“Port safety is one of my big issues,” Jackson said. “If you allow the same type of potential exploitation as we allowed at the airports for 9/11, pretty soon we’re not going to have ports. Because it’s very easy right now for al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood, or any other extremist group, to just hop into a truck and drive a bomb in a truck into the ports and blow it up.”
Jackson said he wants to set up a screening program for hiring truck drivers and port workers. He said he wants shipping companies and truck drivers to pay for the screening system instead of having taxpayers pay.
Karnette said she does not want to see more flights coming to Long Beach’s airport but she would like to see the airport remodeled.
“We do need a new airport – a new airport building – but I don’t want any more flights,” she said.
