Carl DeMaio, a Republican and former San Diego City Council member, is running for the open 75th Assembly District seat to represent a vast swath of East County. To help inform voters, the San Diego Union-Tribune asked all the candidates a series of the same questions about their priorities, positions and campaigns. Their emailed answers have been lightly edited for clarity. Why are you running, and what makes you the best candidate? While millions are fleeing California, I’m staying to fight! Sacramento politicians have failed us and left us with the highest cost of living in the nation, record homelessness, failing schools, a crime wave and an open border. If you like the broken and corrupt system in Sacramento, then I’m not your guy. But if you want a fighter who will take on that broken system to hold politicians accountable for fixing these problems, then I’d appreciate your support. As chairman of Reform California, I’ve led numerous fights over the past decade to block costly and unfair tax hikes hurting our families, exposed and opposed corporate welfare, restored police and fire services, saved the city of San Diego from bankruptcy in 2010 and more. Voters know I cannot be bullied or bought by special interests — and that I’ll always fight for the little guy. What are the top 3 issues facing this district and California generally? First, California has a cost-of-living crisis because of high taxes and costly government mandates. Second, California has a public safety crisis because politicians refuse to arrest and prosecute criminals. Third, California has an illegal immigration crisis — not just because of the federal government’s complete failure to secure the border, but because California politicians have made us a sanctuary state and given out outrageous handouts to illegal immigrants at taxpayer expense. Fixing these three issues is my top priority, but I am also prepared to address other important issues — such as the loss of insurance for homeowners, controversial and politicized curriculum being put into classrooms, homelessness, etc. Finally, I’m appalled at the lack of constituent service in my district where residents can’t get a call back from other elected officials. That’s why my office is already taking on cases for residents no matter who has jurisdiction on the issue. What are the first 3 things you would do in your first/next term in the Legislature? I am not waiting to be elected to make change happen. San Diego families are being crushed by runaway inflation, and that’s why I’m currently leading the campaign to defeat the 35 local tax hikes placed on the ballot across San Diego County. Working families should not be asked to pay more when they are barely making ends meet as it is. Second, I’m leading a campaign to help pass Prop. 36 to support our police by giving them the tools to once again arrest criminals and combat the dangerous fentanyl drug overdose epidemic. Finally, I’m working to qualify three ballot measures for 2026 to block unfair utility charges, repeal the sanctuary state law and require voter ID in future elections. What would you do to curb climate change and its effects on California, including the fact that those effects are often borne disproportionately by communities of color? The better question is why are politicians hurting working families by imposing costly Green New Deal mandates on them, resulting in gas costing us $2 more per gallon than the national average and electricity prices that are nearly double the national average? There is no evidence showing California is solving climate change, but there’s overwhelming evidence that it is hurting working families by imposing insane costly mandates on them in the name of saving the planet. As for communities of color, the biggest problem I see hurting communities of color are public school districts that fail to provide a quality education to low-income, Black and brown children. Two-thirds of California students are failing math proficiencies and a majority are failing reading and writing — but among African American and Latino students the numbers are 70-80% failing. I’m going to fix that first. Do you agree with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson, allowing cities to criminally penalize homeless people with nowhere else to go for sleeping in public? Do you support the governor’s executive order directing agencies to clear encampments on this basis? Why or why not? I absolutely do — but I reject the framing of this question. The fact is we have empty shelter beds every night in San Diego County, but many homeless individuals reject the offer of a shelter bed when police provide them this option. California politicians have wasted over $24 billion in taxpayer funds since 2018 and have nothing to show for it except more homelessness. That’s why I’ve authored the “People First” plan to restore law enforcement’s ability to clear camps, greatly expand our substance abuse and mental health treatment programs, require homeless people to adhere to clean, sane and sober living rules and provide more shelter beds and transitory housing. And we have the money to do all this if we stop giving rich developers $1 million per unit for their boondoggle government-subsidized developments. What more would you do to combat California’s housing, affordability and homelessness crises? First, it may come as a surprise but the data overwhelmingly proves this: Homelessness and housing costs are two separate and unrelated issues. Homelessness is not an employment issue nor a housing issue — it is a substance abuse and mental health issue. Nationally homelessness has gone down by double digits even as national housing prices have risen. During the same time, California’s homelessness has gone up by double digits because we are pursuing fatally-flawed policies and wasting taxpayer money on boondoggle welfare housing projects and motel vouchers. If we want to solve homelessness, give law enforcement back the power to enforce the law and then partner with courts on diversion programs to mandate treatment for homeless people. On housing costs generally, we need more supply, and to achieve that we need to cut regulations and make California an attractive market for housing investment again. Do you support or oppose stricter gun laws and background checks? Which, and if you support them, to what extent? The data overwhelmingly shows that California’s highly-restrictive gun laws have failed to keep us safe. California politicians are beating the “guns are bad” drum simply to distract voters from the dangerous crime wave their policies have caused in our state. California politicians have coddled and empowered criminals and undermined law enforcement at every turn, while stripping law-abiding citizens of their constitutionally-protected right of self-defense. My focus will be on reducing crime — in all of its forms — and addressing the growing mental health crisis in our state that I believe drives a lot of the violence we see today. How would you evaluate the record of Proposition 47 in the decade since voters enacted it? Should voters scale it back by passing Proposition 36? Why or why not? Prop. 47 has been a complete disaster and has been the main driver of the dangerous crime wave hitting small businesses and residents across the state. I support Prop. 36 to reform Prop. 47 so we can once again prosecute retail crimes and drug crimes. By giving these tools back to law enforcement, we will not only reduce crime but will be able to tackle homelessness more effectively. I’m not waiting to get in office to fight on this, which is why Reform California is one of the biggest backers of the Yes on Prop. 36 campaign in the state. Proposition 3 would enshrine same-sex marriage in the California constitution by repealing the state’s 2008 ban, which has been unenforceable since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage but still remains on the books. Will you personally vote for or against Prop. 3? I am voting for Prop. 3 and have always supported marriage equality. Per the U.S. Supreme Court, marriage equality is already the law of the land — but I encourage those on the left to remember that the Constitution also protects religious freedom and it is also the law of the land.