The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California and asked of all candidates for this office.

See below for questions on Budget Crisis, Education, Water, Health Insurance

Click on a name for other candidate information.   See also more information about this contest.

Answer from Matt T. Kokkonen:

Sen. Tom McClintock has pointed out that a 13% reduction in state spending over the next eighteen months would balance the budget. We need to move in this direction, not in the direction of raising taxes. We should eliminate unnecessary or duplicative state agencies, contract services out to the private sector, reform our workers' compensation system, re-negotiate bloated labor contracts with state employees, and consider suspending Prop. 98.

Answer from Matt T. Kokkonen:

Our priority should be that our children are properly educated in the basics of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and history. We need to demand accountability from the public schools, not simply give them additional monies if they fail to educate and train our kids for the work force. Public schools should be required to compete for students. This would encourage them to do a better job and become more efficient. I support charter schools and vouchers.

Answer from Matt T. Kokkonen:

First of all, we need to secure our borders so that we are not dealing with millions of illegal immigrants who place a tremendous burden on infrastructure and public services. We must insist that the federal government stop this invasion of lawbreakers into our state.

Specifically, in regard to water, we need to support new projects like dams and reservoirs which will increase our long-term storage capacity. Due to irresponsible fiscal policies at the state level, California's infrastructure needs ( water, power, roads ) have not been funded sufficiently in recent years

Answer from Matt T. Kokkonen:

My background in the insurance business gives me great insight into these issues and I believe this background will serve me well in the Assembly.

Addressing the issue of illegal immigration would be a first step in dealing with our state's health care crisis. The need to provide services to illegals takes away time and money which should be devoted to treating American citizens. In addition, I support the increased use of tax credits to permit those without health insurance to buy an affordable "no-frills" policy to cover their catastrophic needs. We need to move away from "gold-plated" insurance policies which drive up the cost of health care and we should give more power to health care consumers -- in the form of medical savings accounts -- to make these decisions themselves which would result in huge savings to the public.

The order of the candidates is random and changes daily.