Questions and Answers:

By Alex Easton-Brown

A Brief Summary of my positions

To represent the working families and the poor in a legislature which is dominated by powerful corporations and wealthy contributors. To be a legislator beholden to only the voters who put me there. To reform campaign spending and break the control of lobbyists over the legislature. To overhaul the funding of public education to bring all of California's school districts to a comparable level.

What specific policy, programs or issues would be your top priority if elected?

To build a firewall between lobbyists and the legislature and its staff. To prohibit campaign contributions, free lunches and ski trips, and strictly limit campaign spending by candidates.

Increase corporate taxes and marginal rates on the wealthy.

Reorganize school financing to take some of the burden off homeowners and spread it over a split-roll for corporate ownership and an enhanced General Fund.

Stop "scattergun/drive-by" legislation by adopting Public Policy Guidelines within the Democratic Caucus to rationalize our approach to solving the pressing problems of education,law enforcement, revenues and so on: To get everyone on the same page.

Redirect our 'war on drugs' away from marijuana enforcement and towards stopping the meth epidemic and its terrible social costs. License and tax marijuana for an additional $2 Billion in revenues per year and save another $1 Billion in enforcement costs. I believe we can get drugs out of the schoolyard by using dynamic market forces to take the profit out of dealing and put the gangs out of business. There is no inherent demand for drugs among young children. If we dry up the supply side by making it unprofitable to push drugs, we can control the distribution channels for marijuana and the hard drugs that 'ride' these channels.

Why are you the best-qualified candidate?

I am a research sociologist working in the field of social justice. I have worked with and studied both education and governmental institutions and have developed strong theoretical concepts to deal with the challenges they present. My wife is a high school teacher in Richmond and spent 3 years teaching prisoners at San Quentin. I raised my son during these difficult times and have dealt with many of these issues as both a citizen and an advocate.