To read this article at the Press-Telegram website, click on this link. Marylou Cabral is running on the PSL ticket.
Knabe has 2 challengers
VOTE: A Cal State student and a doctor are taking on the three-term supervisor.
By Paul Eakins, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
Article Launched:05/27/2008 10:06:03 PM PDT
Two candidates are challenging 4th District County Supervisor Don Knabe in Tuesday’s state primary election, and they have their work cut out for them to unseat the entrenched, three-term supervisor.
The two challengers are very different: Marylou Cabral, a 21-year-old Cal State Long Beach student, activist and socialist, and Jay Shah, a 71-year-old Long Beach physician with the County Department of Health Services.
While the multitude of high-profile state and congressional races in the primary may overshadow local races, the three county supervisor districts that are at stake Tuesday are larger both geographically and by population than virtually any other elected position in the county.
In addition to the 4th District, the 2nd District and 5th District seats also are up for grabs this year.
The 4th District alone encompasses 37 cities and has nearly 2 million residents. The district runs along the southern edge of the county from Diamond Bar at the east, sweeping along the south and west coasts through communities such as Whittier, Lakewood, Long Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, ending above Los Angeles International Airport.
The three candidates for the nonpartisan position recently responded to questions about their qualifications and what they would do if elected.
Top priorities
Knabe and Shah say their experience working for the county or in public service makes them the most qualified to serve on the Board of Supervisors.
Before being elected to the board 12 years ago, Knabe spent more than a decade as the chief of staff for the previous 4th District supervisor. Knabe also served eight years on the Cerritos City Council.
If re-elected, Knabe said he plans to continue the priorities he has set over the past 12 years.
“I have diligently worked on legislation and priorities that benefit the lives of county residents: maintaining access to health care, keeping our streets safe with additional sheriff’s deputies, creating and retaining jobs in the 4th District, and making sure the county is an outstanding servant of its residents,” said Knabe, 64.
Shah, meanwhile, has worked for Health Services for 32 years, and he said county government is corrupt and wasteful.
“I want to cut waste,” Shah said. “I will audit all services and contracts in 30 days” after being elected.
The way county money is used also is an issue for Cabral.
“My priority is to redirect the county budget away from corporate interests and back to the people,” Cabral said.
She said the county should provide free, high-quality education from preschool through college – though education is generally funded by the state – as well as job training and free health care. She also supports giving full rights to all immigrants, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and creating a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions in the county.
Cabral said that as an activist, she has demonstrated her dedication to fight for the rights of the working class “without capitulating to the interests of corporate profits.” She has been involved in demonstrations to end the Iraq War, for immigrant rights and to support free education, she said.
Knabe said that during his 12 years as supervisor, he already has many accomplishments under his belt that have benefitted 4th District residents.
He said he has worked to create jobs, including joining in a successful fight to keep open the Los Angeles Air Force Base, which employs 4,500 people.
Knabe has directed county funding to the Energy Pathways program, which provides free education to former foster children and can lead to high-paying jobs at oil refineries. He also has supported the county’s Veterans Internship Program, which gives employment and training opportunities in county departments to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Knabe also lists among his accomplishments the development of the Safe Surrender program in 2001. The program allows parents or legal guardians to leave unwanted newborn babies at hospitals and other sites, rather than abandoning or endangering them.
New blood?
But Shah said that 12 years is too long for any one person to be in public office, and that Knabe needs to be replaced.
Shah said that his medical background will help him to address the county’s ailing hospital emergency room system, which has seen multiple emergency room and hospital closures in recent years.
Shah said the county should pay to open more emergency rooms.
Cabral agreed that county funds should be used to fund more emergency rooms. She said that if elected she would convene a task force of medical professionals and community organizers to discuss the state of health care in the county.
Knabe also said funding for hospitals is inadequate and needs to be improved. One problem, he noted, is that California hospitals rank last in the nation in receiving Medicaid reimbursements.
The ideal solution, he said, would be to implement health-care reform that ensures everyone has health insurance.
On issues such as crime and gangs, Knabe said county law enforcement agencies need to work more closely together.
Knabe also supports increasing the lengths of sentences for all inmates. Last year, he proposed a law that would allow judges and the Sheriff’s Department to determine whether inmates receive the alternative punishment of electronic home monitoring, with the goal of making all misdemeanor inmates serve their entire sentence.
Cabral had a different take on curbing crime.
She said that instead of increasing the number of law enforcement personnel or implementing “racist” gang injunctions, what is needed is better education, job training and a higher minimum wage to deter people from committing crimes.
Shah said he supports more rehabilitation for criminals, rather than just incarceration.
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