(I pressed Jesse into service last night to pinch-hit for me at the event. Can you believe there’s a three-way primary in the 50th? – promoted by Lucas O’Connor)

Last night the Black Mountain Democratic Club hosted a meet and greet for Michael Wray, Nick Leibham, and John Lee Evans, the three candidates running for congress in California’s 50th district.

In addition to the normal club business and the special guests, John Lee Evans announced Bilbray Watch, a watch dog group monitoring all things Bilbray and gave the club an overview on how to write a letter to the local papers and have it published.

Close to 30 people turned out to hear from the three candidates.  While most of the attendees were Black Mountain Club members there were quite a few non club members present just to see and hear the special guests.  People seemed very excited to get their first glimpse and hear what hot button issues the potential new congressman from the 50th would be discussing.

Keep scrolling for more info specific to what each candidate said during their 10 minutes in the spotlight.

Before the meeting, I was standing alone and Nick Leibham came over to introduce himself to me and immediately asked me if I was a democrat and wanted to know if I was with Bilbray’s team.  I am not too sure what gave him that impression but I was not happy with the assumption… 

Nick Leibham spoke right after the meeting was called to order and left immediately after the conclusion of his allotted time due to personal reasons.  He started off with a brief bio and his personal history where he outlined his roots and DC political pedigree and finished up with where he stands on his main issues; Iraq and publicly financed elections.  He worked for a number of years for a congressman in Washington but didn’t mention the congressman by name.  Leibham also worked for the DNC as a coordinator of the 13 most western states but didn’t go into detail about the specific job functions he was responsible for. 

Leibham stated clearly Iraq is the biggest issue needing to be addressed.  He gave us a 50,000 foot overview of his three pronged approach:

1) Provide safe passage for people wishing to connect with family and friends who live in different parts of the country.
2) Redeploy troops around the middle east
3) Create a “diplomatic surge” by engaging Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and even Iran.  The diplomatic surge would be used to help stabilize and monitor issues in Iraq.

The second issue Leibham addressed was the need for campaign finance reform.  He prefaced the topic by saying he was going to talk about an issue that won’t get talked about much and isn’t on anybody’s top 10 list.  He explained how this is a house of cards issue with money being the one critical component that would topple the problems associated within our political system.  He committed to sign on to and support any bill that would move the system towards reforming the financial process within the political world.

While he didn’t take many questions he was asked was how he planned on financing his own campaign.  He said that he will be asking for money from family and friends.

Of the three, I think Leibham is the only one to have officially filed the paper work with the FEC.

After some meeting business and discussion topics, John Lee Evans spoke about his watch dog group “Bilbray Watch”.  He spoke in-depth about on how to write effective letters to the local newspapers and online publications.  Evans did a good job of outlining what the publications look for and what won’t be published and encouraged all of us to write and submit responses to articles covering issues and people in the 50th.  Outside of signing up for an email updates on Bilbray votes and writing letters, I didn’t hear too much more on what Bilbray Watch would be doing. 

Immediately following his discussions on “Bilbray Watch” we had a chance to hear more about Mr. Evans as a candidate.  He clearly stated his main objective was to remove Bilbray from office but didn’t offer any specifics on why he needed to go or how it was going to happen.  Evans briefly highlighted his time with the Peace Corps, the volunteer work he did with Dean, being a part of the Busby campaign and his professional career as a psychologist. After going through his personal story and some background on his politics, he outlined his major issues:

The 4 I’s

Iraq- Acknowledge we should have never gone to war in Iraq.
Immigration- Even though Bilbray is the immigration guy, no real ideas have been presented since he took office
Insurance- All Americans should have a similar healthcare plan equivalent to what members of congress currently have
Inappropriate intrusion into privacy- Need to restore the right to privacy 

Michael Wray did the best of the three candidates to verbalize why he is running.  He went through his history of being an activist and searching for that perfect candidate to support and finally came to the conclusion that maybe he is the candidate he is looking for.  It was time to step up and be the candidate he has been looking to work for and endorse. 

In a very clear concise message he said he was a progressive Democrat who is against the war, is for publicly financed elections and believes all Americans are entitled to healthcare but would be happy to start off addressing the children who do not have insurance.

He wrapped up by saying he was not interested in stating what he is opposed to but would rather lead by coming up with new ideas and putting those ideas into action. 

While the format wasn’t ideal because of candidates’ special circumstances, I think the club did a great job of providing the candidates with an audience and a forum to be heard.  I am looking forward to having another chance to hear the candidates speak more in-depth on not only their ideas but also how they will accomplish their goals should they make it to Washington.

Here in San Diego over the next several weeks, dozens of candidates for 2008 will be introducing themselves to voters.  In the 50th congressional district, all three democratic candidates (John Lee Evans, Nick Leibham, Michael Wray) will be appearing together at the Black Mountain Dem Club on 21 June.  So I started doing some background research and came up with this OpEd from John Lee Evans written April 20 which opens by asking “[w]here are all of these illegals?”  And it only gets worse.

John Lee Evans, it would seem, equates any brown-skinned person speaking spanish with “illegals:”

I had a new spa delivered to my house by a reputable local company. Setting it into the right spot was backbreaking work. None of the workers spoke English.

A licensed painting contractor sent over painters. They said they were from a Latin American country.

A middle-aged man who meticulously dried off my car at the car wash practically kissed my feet when I gave him a small tip. He was probably a descendant of the Mayas.

I drove behind a battered old car belting out exhaust on Interstate 5. I wondered if it was insured.

I walked into a hospital and there were women on the night shift mopping the floors as they spoke to each other in Spanish.

Then I went to a restaurant with the kitchen in full view. The hardworking staff all appeared to be Hispanic and they were speaking Spanish.

As a patron of all these businesses, how am I to know whether they are in this country legally or not? They may all be legal, but I doubt it.

Apparently, Dr. Evans is singularly able to judge a book by its cover.  I wonder whether, if he overheard me speaking French, he would start getting nervous about all the illegal immigrants from Quebec.  I wonder whether he presumes that any enthusiastic member of the service industry is reflecting a lack of citizenship.  But mostly, I wonder how it is that he manages to, essentially, declare an entire race to be illegal.

Dr. Evans takes Brian Bilbray to task for encouraging a climate of racial fear and overexaggerating the dangers of illegal immigration.  On these points he is correct; Bilbray has done those things and it has been ridiculous.  But Dr. Evans doesn’t actually have a different perspective on the issue.  Rather, he takes Bilbray to task over a matter of degrees.  He rightly points out that illegal latino immigrants aren’t terrorists, but that doesn’t address the crux of anti-immigrant fear mongers whose point is that if it’s so easy to get across the border, then terrorists can do it also.  Instead, all he manages to do is reinforce the notion that, while they may not be terrorists, all latinos should be eyed warily.

Dr. Evans prevails on Bilbray to address the issue of immigration in a “calm and rational manner,” without scapegoating.  But by dehumanizing an entire race and culture, Dr. Evans does no favors to those of us who oppose Brian Bilbray’s fear campaign.  As Democrats, or simply as people, no person can be considered illegal.  No language or skin color or country of origin or level of car maintenance can determine a person’s worth or legitimately bring suspicion on their right to live and work in this country.  To suggest otherwise is entirely unacceptable and, at the very least, John Lee Evans has a lot of explaining to do if he expects to be a Democratic nominee for Congress.