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Candidates grilled on pressing political, local, legal issues
| Tuesday, May 6 2008 8:02 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 7 2008 7:55 AM
County Supervisor Ray Watson and Cliff Thompson, the man who wants his job, duked it out at a candidates forum Tuesday evening.
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Cliff Thompson posts a campaign sign in a Kern City lawn. Thompson is running for 4th District supervisor. On Tuesday, Thompson was part of a candidate's forum.
Supervisor Ray Watson answering a question at a forum in Taft between him and Taft City Councilman Cliff Thompson.
Larry Errea is a Kern County Superior Court commissioner elected Kern County Superior Court judge.
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The clearest separation came on the issue of property rights and development — an issue clearest in the Rosedale area, where Thompson sides with residents opposed to new, denser development.
"My feeling is your property rights extend to the end of your own property," Watson said. But he said people don't have the right to say what others can do with their land, aside from nuisances.
"I believe in private property rights of people in existing places," Thompson said.
Thompson said he would aim to streamline government, but he defended his support of a parcel tax in Taft — where he is a city councilman — to support a hospital.
"There are very few taxes I would support, but that's one of them," he said.
Thompson criticized Watson for not spending enough time in the district's outlying areas. Watson said he has gotten out to the communities around the county, but it's more efficient to schedule meetings back-to-back in the office than to spend time driving 50 miles.
Watson said he's generally for spay-and-neuter laws, but only after the county works harder to enforce its existing laws with patrols looking for unlicensed dogs.
Thompson said the county should look to San Luis Obispo County to learn how to run a no-kill shelter.
The supervisor forum was preceded by a forum of candidates running for Kern County Superior Court judgeships.
The eight judge candidates running — two for one position, the other six for another — stressed their experience, with each having a slightly different reason why theirs is better than all the rest.
Asked to pick a U.S. Supreme Court justice who best reflects their philosophy, most said they agree with the conservative justices, with Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts coming up most often. The exceptions were Holly Mitchell, who declined to name any, and Tony Heider, who said he likes Scalia's scholarship but also admires Justice Anthony Kennedy, because his decisions aren't predictable.
All said they would work to protect the rights of victims, although only Larry Errea pointed out that defendants' rights are enshrined in the Constitution.
Asked about immigrants marching in the streets, Errea said noncitizens are guests in the country and should behave accordingly. Other candidates weren't asked about that issue.
The evening ended with a forum on the two eminent domain propositions on the ballot, but only supporters of one of the two propositions showed.