California Lieutenant Governor Candidates Spar Over Moderate Label
SUNNYVALE (AP) -- The two candidates for California lieutenant governor on Thursday tried to dispel notions that they are both moderates cut from the same political cloth, sparring in their first live debate over issues ranging from the environment to immigration.
Incumbent Abel Maldonado and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom tried to persuade an audience made up of members of a Silicon Valley employers group that they would use the largely unsung second-in-command post to create jobs, restore the state's public universities and overcome the partisan stalemate gripping Sacramento.
"I do have an example, and his name is Abel Maldonado," said the Republican lawmaker whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed to the lieutenant governorship in April to fill a vacancy. "I'm a family man first, I'm a Californian second ... and if the next governor is (Democrat) Jerry Brown, I'm going to be his partner."
Newsom said the list of responsibilities the lieutenant governor has, from serving on the Ocean Protection Council to chairing the state's Economic Development Commission, are important, but that leaders must have "the ability to use your moral authority, not your formal authority, to make a difference in the world."
"I fought for the things I believe in, (even if) it wasn't in my job description," said the Democrat, who in 2004 famously challenged California's gay marriage ban by having his city issue licenses to same-sex couples.
The forum turned testy when Maldonado blamed San Francisco's policy of not reporting illegal immigrants to federal authorities for making the public "afraid" of immigration reform because a triple murder had been committed by a juvenile offender who avoided deportation under the city practice.
The lieutenant governor was answering a question about Silicon Valley's need for high-skilled immigrant workers.
"They let convicted illegal aliens out onto the street who eventually murdered three people. That's why when we have immigration reform around this country, people say, 'Why should we do it? Look at San Francisco.'"
The debate format did not include time for rebuttals, but Newsom got his own licks in when the topic turned to higher education and the tuition increases and budget cuts the state's colleges have suffered. The lieutenant governor sits on the governing boards of the University of California and California State University systems.
"It's incumbent on a member of the CSU board and the UC Board of Regents to get serious about this and to fight to freeze tuition, just like the governor of Maryland did over the last four years," he said. "My opponent has been there (in Sacramento) the last 12 years, and we've seen these devastating cuts."
Newsom eventually responded to Maldonado's immigration comments, albeit obliquely, when he was asked which of his experiences in politics had been hardest. He said it was when other elected officials used race, gender and sexual orientation "as a wedge issue to advance their political careers.
"You hear a little of that today. It's sad to bait voters and don't fight for the rights of people," he said.
Both men mostly hewed closely to the messages they have used in their political advertisements, with Newsom criticizing Maldonado for voting against the state's landmark greenhouse gas emissions cap and Maldonado citing his experience in Sacramento working with members of both parties.
Newsom said he supports a ballot initiative that would allow the state budget to be passed with a majority vote instead of the current two-thirds vote needed now. Maldonado opposes it.
The heat rose again when the candidates were invited to specify the differences between them. Newsom cited Maldonado's opposition as a lawmaker to the series of bills that gave same-sex couples who registered as domestic partners the rights and benefits of marriage. He also said Maldonado was opposed by Planned Parenthood, and major environmental groups had endorsed him because of Maldonado's record on water and air quality legislation.
"I don't know that's a very moderate record," he said.
Maldonado came back later in the debate to question Newsom's budget priorities, which he said included $240,000 for an employment program for transgender people and $58,000 in transportation and security costs for the mayor's 2007 wedding in Montana.
"Those are some big differences," he said.
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