The left wing hippie liberal types have been gathering in California since the 60s. Now after 50 years of left wing hippie liberalism we're number 50. Way to go.

"2. Poverty — The level of poverty in California has increased systematically, ..."

So has the Mexican population. They sneak in here and have lots of babies who are all U.S. citizens living in poverty. I don't want my hard earn dollars going to support some mexican guy's family. Go ahead and scream racism, that's what causing all this, hiding behind the race shield.

If you don't know anything you can't get many jobs doing anything. It's very important that we invest in education and everyone goes. An uneducated workforce isn't going to get you very far. If everyone is in low paying jobs they won't be paying much taxes for all the things you need. If people were more educated they'd be in higher paying jobs and thus the state would be getting more taxes. Educated countries always do better than uneducated ones. It's just common sense. Don't cut from schools.

"you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink"

You can also build more schools but if people don't want to go what can you say. It's the type of people you have. America is a place where everyone is free to make his own way. Contrary to what leader Obama says, this IS a place where you are on your own. Too many have this entitlement "take care of me" attitude. You reap what you sow, get to work.

I noticed a lot of tech workers in silicon valley are foriegn workers from India etc. on H1-b visas. How does this count towards our employment rate? Are they considered employed Californians? If they have all the jobs and the Americans are out of work is that why the employment rate is so high?. Bill Gates has a training center in India to train thousands of Indians to come here and take our jobs. Why doesn't he start the training center here to train us instead? And don't tell me they work for cheaper. When they get here they get the high paying jobs at the same rate we do. They're not going to discriminate by race and hire one race for lower than another. Those jobs pay a certain rate no matter what race the worker is.

I think this is one of the best letter expressing an opinion of political issues. Case in point, Mark Stone spent a long time on the plastic bag ban as Supervisor, only to learn that this issue should be addressed at the State level, (which are his plans if elected into the Assembly). And, although I do support those who wish not to have PGE smartmeters at their homes, the moratorium created has been ineffective. These are the priorities and the typical career politicians that we keep electing just keep giving us "lip service" and not addressing them in any meaningful way. On the County level, my campaign is all about economic development, and plan to create a Board of Economic Development, B.O.D. specific to this task. This means jobs, and directly addresses unemployment, poverty and health insurance. The County can also help with the health issue by maintaining the Health and Human Services Dept. Education can be improved by having the B.O.D. support and expand vocational training in Schools. And we need to rally around our local schools, it pays off, (look at the recent article about the parcel tax for Scott's Valley). Finally, foreclosures I hope all the criminals involved with this go to prison. District 5 has many fixer upper properties, so if there is a way to get people into owning a home at a low cost with a job this will create a lot of jobs in home repair. And the County can help by making getting a permit actually an easy and worthwhile investment rather than an annoying deterrent and waste of time.

Why would you want to work when you can get free money? Why would you want to work if your money is going to be taken away from you and given to someone else?

California is a socialist freebie giveaway state.

It's this kind of Socialist, leftist "progressive thinking" that is ruining Cali.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII

1. Unemployment — California ranks No. 50 with 11.2 percent unemployment, “outperformed” only by Nevada. Closer to home, the Santa Cruz-Watsonville Metro area ranks No. 348 out of 372, with 12.2 percent unemployment. The same number applies to Santa Cruz County.

Is that really surprising? Look at the type of people around here. do you think any of these lazy hippie types are going to work or start a business where someone else might work?

2. Poverty — The level of poverty in California has increased systematically, reaching 16.3 percent of the population below the poverty line.

Ya so has the Mexican population. Lots more mexicans and lots more poverty. Is that really surprising too? I see them just hanging out in parks. And all those poor lazy homeless (by choice) hippie bums. If you choose to be poor then ya, we have a lot of poverty.

3. Education — California occupies No. 34 in Math and Science rankings, “below average.”

Sure, look at the people from points 1 and 2. A bunch of genius's? Also all the money goes to support the poor instead of the schools. Kind of like "giving a guy a fish instead of teaching him to fish".

4. Foreclosures — California ranks third in foreclosures per number of households.

Not surprising, we tried to give the American dream of home ownership to those poor who couldn't afford it to make ourselves feel good. Didn't quit work did it?

5. Health insurance — California ranks sixth in percentage of uninsured with 20 percent.

Who can afford that?

"Well, I am happy that, despite all these numbers, our elected politicians have their priorities right..."

Supporting millions of illegal invaders and all their generations of legal offspring.

"This election year, I plan to ask the candidates one single question: “What have you done for us lately?” "

They've done a lot for the mexicans by taking the rich peoples' money and giving it to them. California's a great place for them. They'll keep voting for them. And they're numbers are increasing, expect more of the same.

"The time has come to ignore traditional political affiliations and look for those who will take real action in order to solve real problems."

Lol, good luck with that. Anyone who even talks about enforcing the border is crucified as a racist instead of a "progressive thinker".

Great letter. Always helps to take a step back and look at our current situation and how we got there.

No doubt it's time to shake things up in local politics.

Are we talking local politicians, state or national in this discussion?

I totally agree however that this is a very good question to ask. another one would be "why should I trust career politicians today who were in office when we got into this position....