california recall elections - balitang america

Candidates in California's recall election continued to court voters, in the two weeks before the reinstated October 7th recall election date, and with all legal challenges swept aside.

In Los Angeles, Filipinos believe that the federal court’s decision to reinstate the recall election is right because there is no need to further prolong the uncertainty. A number of Fil-Am voters are not afraid of being disenfranchised due to punch card voting machines, which research points to being error-prone.

Los Angeles County is one of six counties with this voting machinery, which prompted the litigation. The others are the counties of Mendocino, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Clara and Solano. These counties represent about 40 percent of the state's registered voters.

In the 2nd debate of the election, held in early September, 3 of the frontrunner replacement
candidates answered questions on issues affecting California’s minorities, including Filipino Americans.

Armed with graphs and tables, Green Party candidate Peter Camejo explained to Balitang America why California’s state budget is in the doldrums, when it should be enjoying a surplus instead.

[CAMEJO: This is at the most that could possibly be needed to maintain a balanced budget. In the history of California, a 6% compounded, this is the general fund money; this is how much money came into the state of California.//CUT HERE.]

Camejo also proposed reversing the cutbacks in services and education along with calling for higher taxes on the wealthy, who, according to him, have not been paying as much taxes as they should have been.

[CAMEJO: …this is the poorest 20% in our state. They pay the highest tax rate, 11.3. The wealthiest 1% pay the lowest tax rate, 7.2.//CUT HERE]

Gabriel Lerner, one of the event’s media panelists and the State and National news editor of La Opinion, the country’s largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, felt that there was not enough time for each and every candidate to fully expound on their answers.

[INSERT LERNER INT HERE]

Jay "Stone" Shih, anchor of China Crosstalk over KTSF says....

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For Balitang America, Momar G. Visaya in Los Angeles.

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