Name: Shawn Casey O’Brien Party: Democrat Campaign Web site: www.obrienforassembly.net City of residence: Santa Monica Age: 50 Marital status: Divorced Number of kids: One daughter Profession: Social Security recipient/Author HAVE YOU EVER HELD PUBLIC OFFICE BEFORE?
No HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ARRESTED? IF YES, FOR WHAT?
Yes. Possession and distribution of medical marijuana.
WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE?
Toyota Camry.
PET PEEVE?
Personal questions on political questionnaires.
PHILOSOPHY ON LIFE?
All life is struggle. In order to escape suffering, one must give up fear, ego and desire... In other words, I’m a failed Buddhist.
HOW DO YOU RELIEVE STRESS?
Brew beer and award-winning mead. 1. Concerning the pollution and bacteria levels in santa monica bay, what programs do you believe have been effective and which have not? What can be done differently? How, as an assembly member, do you plan on securing more funding for clean-up efforts?
Follow the recommendations of the Malibu Watershed Advisory Committee to find, clean up and monitor all pollution problem spots on the 109-mile watershed that ultimately feeds into Santa Monica Bay. As to what can be done differently; vigorously enforce all laws and sanctions against repeated polluters of the watershed. As an Assembly member, I will work with coastline legislators and various grassroots groups to turn up the political pressure on all legislators to protect California’s coast, which the vast majority of California’s want preserved and protected. 2. CALIFORNIA RANKS AS ONE OF THE WORST STATES IN PER-PUPIL SPENDING. WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO INCREASE PER-PUPIL SPENDING? WOULD YOU CUT PROGRAMS FROM THE STATE BUDGET? IF SO, WHICH ONES? OR WOULD YOU INCREASE TAXES? IF SO, WHERE?
Rethink Prop 13 and remove commercial property from under its protection. This property, re-appraised at current market values, would bring in $5 billion a year that could (and should) go to funding of schools and local governments... which have suffered the most with the passage of Prop 13. I also believe in an oil severance tax and a closing of all corporate loopholes in order to do away with our structural deficit, fund our state’s social needs and create a surplus. 3. SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT THE WESTSIDE OF LOS ANGELES HAS BEEN NEGLECTED IN TERMS OF FUNDING FOR TRANSPORTATION. WHAT STRATEGY WOULD YOU USE TO GET MORE FUNDING? WHAT PROJECT WOULD SOLVE THE IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS AND HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
If the $37 billion bond passes in November, there is enough money allocated ($20 billion) to fund public transportation and extend the Red Line subway system to the Westside, as well as kick-start the stalled effort to get light rail going along Exposition Boulevard, from Santa Monica to downtown, as well as “double” the diamond lanes along the 405 to take pressure off Pacific Coast Highway. 4. IS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION A PROBLEM? IF SO, WHAT’S THE MOST COST-EFFECTIVE AND COMMON SENSE WAY TO SECURE OUR BORDER? DO YOU BELIEVE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION HAS HAD AN OVERALL NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE IMPACT ON CALIFORNIA? WHY?
If you want a real, effective solution to illegal immigration, we are going to have to have a continental solution. We must raise the standard of living across the whole continent of the Americas. Such diplomacy would involve Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Latin America, and would begin with the repealing of NAFTA and replacing it with treaties that contain core, labor, wage and environmental guarantees that, as I said before, raise the standard of live across all the Americas and thus stop the poor from having to illegally cross the border in order to feed their families. Immigration is part of what has made America great. 5. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE FACING SANTA MONICANS? HOW DO YOU INTEND TO ADDRESS IT?
It’s the same for Santa Monica as it is for the state of California. Unless we prepare for the aging baby-boomers — their health care, transportation and access needs — the wealth of Santa Monica and California will disappear in a generation. We need statewide, if not national, health care. Barring that, we need to give the Insurance Commissioner the power to regulate health care insurance premiums, the double-digit inflation of which is the primary cause of working people losing their health care coverage in California. 6. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP THREE PRIORITIES DURING THE FIRST YEAR AS AN ASSEMBLY MEMBER? Saving the Social Safety Net. Tax Fairness. Campaign Finance Reform. 7. IN 100 WORDS OR LESS, WHY SHOULD PEOPLE VOTE FOR YOU? My politics are simple. I believe in social justice and plenty for all. As the social safety net not only protects the most vulnerable among us, but also built and sustains the middle class, I will lead the fight to make sure they these programs are preserved. We must outlaw fundraising while the legislature is in session and, if elected, I will not spend one moment of my time raising money for future political office. I intend to be a full-time legislator, not a part-time fundraiser.
Common sense for the common good — Shawn Casey O’Brien for State Assembly.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 3, 2006. Read the original PDF.