Candidate for State Assembly, District 19

Not all candidates submit a statement of qualifications. A complete list of candidates appears on the sample ballot. Statements are volunteered by the candidates and have not been checked for accuracy by any official agency. Statements are published as submitted. Spelling and grammatical errors have not been corrected.

JOHN P. MCDONNELL

My occupation is Attorney.

My qualifications are:

I was born and raised in the Outer Mission in San Francisco. I graduated from the University of San Francisco and UC Berkeley Law School. I have been a business and tax lawyer in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for over 35 years. I want to bring this real world experience to Sacramento to fix serious, real world problems.

The two most important jobs of state government are education and public safety, and we are failing at both. Our K-12 schools have fallen to 38th in the country, and several low-income high schools suffer drop-out rates of 50% or more. This is a disaster that we must address. We have pretty much legalized thefts of up to $950 in goods. This has led to an explosion of car break-ins, and a new wave of shoplifting that threatens many small retailers. We raise taxes, repeatedly, but the problems just get bigger.

Our streets are now crowded with people we call “homeless.” But most of these people suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction and mental health problems. They are not “homeless,” they are “helpless.” They live, suffer and die on the street like animals. We need policies that move these broken people into medical treatment that can deal with their real problems.

I am not a career politician, and I would bring a fresh, outsider’s perspective to government. I would work to bring common sense solutions and efficiency to government. There is a better way.

John P. McDonnell

PHIL TING

My occupation is Assemblymember.

My qualifications are:

As the Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, virtually every spending proposal crosses my desk. My mission is to make sure your hard-earned tax dollars are well spent to tackle the homeless crisis, build more affordable housing, improve our schools, protect our health and our environment, address transportation gridlock and work to improve our quality of life.

With those vital goals top of mind, in the past two years I wrote and passed legislation that:

• Protects the public by making it faster to take dangerous weapons out of the hands of potentially dangerous individuals.

• Protects the environment and our health by speeding up the transition to electric vehicles.

• Promotes affordable housing by making it much easier to build backyard cottages – particularly in those suburban cities that were resisting them.

As Budget Chair, I can make sure we in San Francisco are receiving our fair share. In the past two years, we have brought home hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to:

• Create more affordable housing.

• Build more supportive housing to help the homeless transition off the streets.

• Expand daycare options and pre-school.

• Provide record levels of state funding for our public schools, over $12,000 per student.

My wife Susan and I are raising two daughters. I think about them before every vote – remembering that we are all working today to create a better future.

I’m proud to have won the support of the California Teachers Association, California Professional Firefighters, the Sierra Club and many others. I hope you will join us at www. PhilTing.com.

Phil Ting