October 14, 2004

Democrat Ira Ruskin and Republican Steve Poizner fight for Assembly District 21

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Fourteen cities along a 40-mile stretch from San Carlos on the north end to Almaden Valley on the south, containing some of the most educated voters in the state, represent California Assembly District 21.

And two candidates, Republican Steve Poizner and Democrat Ira Ruskin, are entrenched in a fierce battle for the seat, being vacated by Democratic Assemblyman Joe Simitian who is running for Senate District 11.

Steve Poizner
Poizner, 47, is a wealthy Los Gatos tech entrepreneur who grew up in Texas. He has invested more than $4 million of his personal wealth into his campaign, more than any Assembly candidate in California history.

Poizner is hoping to position himself as a moderate Republican like former U.S. Congressman and Sen. Tom Campbell and former Sen. Becky Morgan.

Poizner hailed from a conservative family and began at a young age trying to fix what he thought was broken. He now wants to repair a broken and dysfunctional Sacramento.

He received his bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas.
In 1978, he moved to Silicon Valley to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he received his master’s degree in business administration and graduated as an Arjay Miller scholar in 1980.

During the past 20 years, he founded two technology companies, Strategic Mapping and SnapTrack, and he’s been active in the Palo Alto Jaycees and numerous other charity and advocacy organizations such as EdVoice, Aspire Public Schools and the New Schools Venture Fund.

His wealth was accumulated by co-founding SnapTrack—a start-up global positioning system cell phone technology company acquired in 2000 for $1 billion by Qualcomm. His take of the deal was said to be worth between $100 and $200 million.

In 2001, Poizner was one of only 12 people chosen out of a pool of close to 1,000 applicants to serve a year long White House Fellowship, which he began Sept. 4, 2001—just days before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, timing that made his first assignment as director of critical infrastructure protection in the National Security Council urgent. Six months later, he started the White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth, which was implemented by a presidential executive order and his proposal for a $300 million mentoring program for adolescents in low income areas received prominent mention by President Bush during the 2003 State of the Union address.

In 2002 he spent two semesters teaching American government to seniors at Mount Pleasant High School in East San Jose to better understand classroom conditions in public schools.

“I had to spend a lot of money early just to create a competitive game here,” he said. “We’ve gone from having no options, but the Democratic nominee, to two viable options. Without my money I wouldn’t have a chance. You can’t buy voters, but you can get on voters’ radar screen with a good product.”

Ira Ruskin
Redwood City Councilman Ira Ruskin, 60, is a native of New York. He’s the former mayor of Redwood City. He was elected to the city council in 1995 and re-elected in 1999 and 2003.

Ruskin finished first in a field of 12 in the first election, first in a field of six in the second election and first in a field of seven in 2003.

Ruskin has been working for more than 20 years as a communications consultant for technology companies, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 firms, and for nonprofit and government agencies.

He received his master’s of arts degree from Stanford University in communications in 1983 and his bachelor’s of arts degree in history from the UC-Berkeley.

He has worked to improve public education and services for families, protect the environment, create affordable housing, promote economic prosperity, and defend women’s rights.

While serving on the Redwood City Council, Ruskin played a critical role in developing childcare requirements for new businesses and residential developments. He also led the effort to provide city funding to Shelter Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing shelter and transitional services to homeless families and individuals, especially battered women and children.

In the area of education, he helped establish libraries/media centers in every Redwood City School District elementary school, developing homework centers at city libraries, building new school playgrounds and working with the county to build new school playing fields. He also worked with the Redwood City Education Foundation, which restored music to the second through fourth grade curriculum.

Ruskin supported the Bair Island Open Space Preserve and the closing of levees on Bair Island by Redwood City to protect endangered species. In addition, he has promoted successful conservation policies including city cost-sharing incentives for energy- and water-efficient appliances, a water reclamation program and programs educating homeowner associations in water conservation for large-landscape areas.

He also helped establish a budget reserve policy for the first time in Redwood City, which has helped the city during the economic downturn. He was instrumental in establishing the Redwood City Council planning and budgeting process, consisting of setting clear and defined Council priorities for a two-year cycle and aligning the budget and staff resources with those priorities.

Ruskin helped establish affordable housing in Redwood City’s transit corridor and created a policy in Redwood City requiring nursing homes to admit visiting community police officers to prevent elder abuse. He’s a women’s rights advocate, initiating a forum of education and protest about the use of rape as a genocidal weapon of war in Bosnia.

One of Ruskin’s biggest accomplishments is the formation of a committee of 28 Bay Area cities and water districts in Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties that buy their drinking water from San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy regional water system.

Last year, the committee worked with the legislature to pass three pieces of landmark legislation–including AB1823, mandating the repair of the system.

Ruskin serves as director of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, which deals with the county and regional transit/transportation infrastructure.

So far, Ruskin has spent more than $1 million on the campaign, money coming from many unions, political action committees, the Democratic Party and even trial lawyers in Santa Monica. Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez is said to be helping him raise additional funds to retain what he considers a Democratic seat. Nunez has asked many Democratic candidates to transfer money from their own campaign accounts into Ruskin’s.

Candidate Q & A
Last week, both candidates agreed to come to the Times office separately and talk about their priorities, positions on the issues, and the propositions. Below is a summary of those interviews.

The state and the economy
Do you feel we are heading in the right direction toward balancing the state budget? If elected, how would you proceed?

Ruskin: I want to begin to close tax loopholes such as those allowing corporations to headquarter off shore in name only so that they’re unrightfully exempt from state corporate taxes. I would also create a luxury tax on yachts.

Poizner: We’re not just bankrupt, but in massive debt. I oppose using any more debt to solve short-term deficit problems. I’m in favor of spending caps tied to the health of the economy. I also favor sunset provisions so all programs and policies get reviewed on a regular basis.

What is your position on Schwarzenegger’s Government Reform Plan? Have you read the 2,500-page report?

Ruskin: One part of this document deals with overall massive reform; the other with small efficiencies that can be easily adopted. In education, there’s an efficiency that would ensure that all courses at a community college are tailored to go with courses at the University of California and California State University systems so that we don’t have different requirements.

Poizner: It contains some bold and exciting proposals and some that need more thought and evaluation. There should be a blue-ribbon commission that comes along and says, ‘Let’s take a look at what we’re doing.’ ”

What is your position regarding Assembly Constitutional Amendment 2, which will force members to forfeit salary and reimbursement if a budget isn’t passed by June 15?

Ruskin: I would support it. There’s no reason why people shouldn’t be accountable. Locally, we’ve helped institute the first ever budget reserve policy in Redwood City history. I have a record of fiscal responsibility.

Poizner: It’s a sign of the dysfunctional Legislature that we have. A lot of my criticism cuts both ways. We have to do some restructuring. I’m in favor of anything that forces policymakers to get their jobs done on time.

What is your stand on piggybacking legislature (ex: teacher reimbursements and registration for boats)?

Ruskin: It’s important that legislators be accountable and that they have integrity. Many times, these things are done to finally get the yacht tax out.

Poizner: I’m in favor of legislation that goes through a normal set of scrutiny and public hearings and I’m against gutting bills at the 11th hour and putting language in leaving legislators wondering what they’re voting on. I don’t agree with adding things to bills that are irrelevant to the subject of the bill. We need people in the legislature to speak up.

What are your plans with regard to workers’ compensation reform?

Ruskin: Any reform needs to involve insurance rates. Small, medium and large businesses are hurting. They have large rate increases cutting into their profitability. I’ll fight to lower the rates, even if it means regulating the rates. It’s the only industry that does not have rate regulation.

Poizner: Workers’ compensation rates are still almost twice as expensive as the national average because there’s so much ambiguity in the benefits and therefore it leads to a lot of litigation. Most workers’ compensation insurance companies went bankrupt and left the state.

Health and welfare
What is your position regarding the closing of San Jose Medical Center?

Ruskin: I want to keep as many health centers open. I don’t like to see any close. As a city council member I’ve worked to aid clinics at schools. We need to work to restore money to health. We should not be closing health centers.

Poizner: It’s clear that this area doesn’t have enough trauma centers and enough hospital capacity. A lot of people use emergency rooms for their medical clinics, which is driving the costs of some of these medical centers up. It would be much more prudent if we create programs that allow low-income people access to preventative and chronic care to keep them out of emergency rooms.

What is your position on Proposition 72?

Ruskin: I support it.

Poizner: I’m against it. It’s a huge mistake to stick it to businesses.

What is your position on Proposition 71—stem cell research?

Ruskin: I’m a strong supporter of it. It’s a great investment. Right now the biotech industry is where the high-tech industry was in the 80s and 90s. Having them here is a competitive advantage for Californian and for this district.

They’re going now to be shifting from research to manufacturing. I favor the biotech tax credit to keep the manufacturing jobs here and maintain the competitive edge. Between the two, the biotech firms would be in good shape.

Poizner: I fully support it. It was a tough call because it’s a $300 billion dollar chunk of debt. I’m in favor of using debt for long-term investments. I’m convinced that stem cell research presents fantastic opportunities to cure some horrible diseases. People from all over the world come to Stanford to get training on stem cell research, mainly from China. We’re training these brilliant Chinese scientists who go back to China and get full funding. In 10 years, China will own the whole stem cell industry and if we don’t step up to the plate.

What is your position on Proposition 63—mental health services expansion and funding, which levees a tax on incomes of more than $1 million?

Ruskin: I support it. It’s an important move in the right direction. We need to finance mental health initiatives.

Poizner: The intention is good, but the last thing we need is another sort of dedicated specific revenue string coming from an initiative that ties the hands of the legislature. I’m concerned about chasing more jobs out of here.

Regarding Assembly Bill 1205, what are your plans to repair the loophole that allows for the placement of sex offenders without local authority notification?

Ruskin: I believe there should be full notification of sex offenders’ placement.

Poizner: I’m in favor of doing whatever it takes to protect kids, period.
Education

Do you feel that Schwarzenegger’s plan to merge 20 education entities into one Department of Education—eliminating 58 county school superintendents and offices of education—is the right move for schools?

Ruskin: I don’t approve eliminating the county offices of education and the placing of community college administration within an already crowded cabinet. I think the community colleges will suffer. I can’t see how that would help because I believe in local control for schools. It would regionalize already large county offices.

Poizner: I support the consolidation of policy-making power when it comes to public schools in Sacramento. I don’t support the elimination of the county boards of education. I’m convinced they play an important role. They bring Sacramento a bit closer to the action.

What are your plans, if any, to reduce increased prison funding that some feel took vital funding from schools? Will the passage of Proposition 66 ease the overcrowding and need for more prisons?

Ruskin: I’m against it. It takes several crimes such as arson and says that they would now be considered less serious crimes. We need to have improved access for everyone to high quality education, health care, prenatal care and doing things like this, which in the long term will reduce the prison population and lower our need for prisons.

Poizner: The number of prisons has gone from 12 to 32. The number of prison guards has gone from several thousands to tens of thousands. I’m not a fan of locking up non-violent criminals at all or very long. During the height of the recession, when we were laying people off and we were closing fire stations, the prison guards got a 37 percent pay raise. Prison guards make an average $75,000 a year while a teacher makes an average $50,000 a year. Proposition 66 is a mistake.

What is your position on charging out-of-state university students higher fees?

Ruskin: I think it’s fine. The first priority should be for state residents.

Poizner: I’m supportive of having out of state students pay their fair share.

How do you feel about devoting more resources to schools (on local levels) and allowing them to make expenditures necessary to them—not what the government says they can spend the money on? What are your plans?

Ruskin: One of the central precepts of my campaign is to increase local control of schools. I believe that administrators, teachers, school board members and parents in the district know more about what the districts need than anyone in Sacramento. There are now more than 100 categoricals, which should be reduced to 10.

Poizner: We need local control. We now have a state education code that’s 2,000 pages long and growing with lots of rules and regulations that constrain what they can do locally and these funding streams that come with strings attached.

What is your position on Proposition 1A and, if passed, how would the increased local revenues be disbursed (general funds, schools, etc.)?

Ruskin: This would replace Proposition 65 to stop the state from continually balancing its books on the back of local cities and other districts. I’m supporting the governor’s deal on Proposition 1A.

Poizner: This would prohibit state government from stealing money from cities and counties to pay off its budget deficit. They shouldn’t be able to rob cities and counties’ coffers.

Illegal immigrants/non-US citizens
What is your position on granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants?

Ruskin: I support it. It’s a matter of health and safety. Not giving undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses is not going to keep them out of the country. America and California are magnets for people and they’re going to come and they have been coming. My big concern is having people on the road who don’t know how to drive and have no insurance.

Poizner: I oppose providing driver’s licenses to people who aren’t here legally. I oppose doing anything that would provide any additional incentives for people to come here illegally. That said, I’m a huge fan of legal immigration.

Casinos/slots
Do you feel Indian casinos should pay their share of state taxes?

Ruskin: Yes, of course.

Poizner: Yes, I do.

What is your position on Proposition 68?

Ruskin: I oppose it. I oppose both gaming propositions on the ballot.

Poizner: I don’t support either of the two gaming initiatives. We have a ton of gaming in this state already. Casinos are designed to take money from those who can least afford it. I’m against gaming in the urban areas. I don’t think it’s good for the wellbeing of the community.

Poizner: I’m against both of the propositions and hope they fail.

Business/transportation/environment
What is your position on outsourcing? Do you think we do too much on a local level and how should we put limits on it?

Ruskin: I oppose the government using taxpayers’ money to outsource jobs. The main way to prevent outsourcing of private dollars is by having the best education system, which is our competitive edge. I also favor the manufacturing investment tax credit to keep jobs here.

Poizner: You can’t pass rules and regulations that tell businesses they can’t do business where they want to do business because they’ll pick up and leave completely, which is what they’re doing in a rapid clip to Nevada, Arizona, India and China. There no longer is a friendly healthy business climate here. Fifty percent of all the venture capital in Silicon Valley is being invested outside the state.

Regarding transportation issues, which are the most critical for San Jose?

Ruskin: We need to look into how rapid transit is done and make sure we maintain the freeways and roads in good condition. We need to start releasing state transportation money that has been held up over the last several years and we need to improve rapid and mass transit.

Poizner: Billions have been stolen out of the Proposition 42 trust fund. That’s going to hurt transportation projects around the state. I’m going to pass some new piece of legislation that will prohibit robbing money out of one area to pay for short-term operating losses.

What is your position on Proposition 59—public records, open meetings?

Ruskin: I support that.

Poizner: I’m in favor of anything to improve transparency. I’m opposed to late night sessions where legislation is getting changed and there is no public scrutiny. Thank goodness the media is there to be a watchdog.

Your district encompasses a geographic area extending from San Carlos in San Mateo County to and Almaden Valley in Santa Clara County. Many feel that lines were drawn to protect incumbents and supposedly, legislation has been introduced to amend re-districting, with backing from Gov. Schwarzenegger. It may go to the voters in a special election next year. What is your position?

Ruskin: I favor redistricting reform. I would have an independent commission of judges and then, to have accountability, I would require the legislature to ratify their recommendation.

Poizner: The most damaging thing that’s been done to this state is when the Republicans and the Democrats carved up the state. It was a conspiracy to rig the system to protect incumbents from one party or the other. I’m a big proponent for redistricting reform.

What are your plans with regard to environmental issues and what in your opinion is foremost?

Ruskin: I consider myself an environmentalist. I will fight to maintain the open spaces that surround our cities that are essential for our quality of life. I will fight to improve air quality. We’ll have the opportunity in two years for the legislature to pass the maximum feasible standards for emissions for cars and light trucks and I want to be there to make sure those new standards are the maximum feasible standards so that our air is protected. I want to protect our water. I want to continue to allow the environmental groups to sue the big polluters. I’m against Proposition 64, which would take away the right for environmental groups to sue big polluters.

Poizner: My foremost concern is to get the heck off of fossil fuels, not only from an environmental standpoint, because even though we have some of the strictest air quality protection laws in the state we have some of the worst air pollution in the central valley which has some of the highest asthma rates in the country. People suffer from poor air quality. Not only do fossil fuels provide much of this air pollution, but we need to stop relying on it for national security reasons. Fifty percent of our energy comes from countries that are totally unreliable.
California needs to lead the way. I’m in favor of incentives for hybrid cars.

Campaign
What experience/visions make you the better candidate?

Ruskin: People need to elect candidates to public office who have experience and who reflect the values of the district. I’m that candidate. I have accomplishments in a decade of public service in every area of importance to the people of this district. In women’s rights I’ve fought for choice for 40 years. I’ve fought for battered women’s shelters. I’ve fought for childcare opportunities to be a priority in San Mateo County. My environmental record is extremely strong. I’ve helped to preserve open space, create tree planting and preservation policies, helped clean toxic waste out of the slews that go to the Bay. I have a strong record in health issues. I helped create the new emergency medical response system in San Mateo system, which cut medical response time in half. I’ve worked on state issues, getting the state to pass legislation mandating San Francisco to fix the Hetch Hetchy system. I believe my experience sets me apart. I believe experience is necessary to hit the ground running in Sacramento.

Poizner: Voters in this district are going to decide this campaign based on their assessment of the candidates’ leadership skills and whether they can be independent thinkers in Sacramento. I have 25 years of experience. In the 1980s I was on the forefront of the movement that got women accepted into men’s clubs as full and equal members and now the Rotary, Kiwanis and Lyons clubs admit women into their memberships. In the 1990s I demonstrated my leadership skills in the private sector where I started a company that transformed the entire cell phone industry. And since the year 2000 I’ve been working with Republicans and Democrats in a bipartisan way to improve the performance of public schools. I sit on six nonprofits all focused on improving the public schools. I co-founded four of these six groups. If you have leadership skills but you can’t exercise them because you’re beholden than that’s not good. I’m not going to be beholden to anybody in Sacramento. I’ll only be accountable to voters in District 21.