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Photo courtesy of Canyons News.

CA-25 Congressional Candidates Gather For Forum As Special Election Nears

As the special election on March 3 approaches, a majority of the candidates running for California’s 25th Congressional District seat gathered at California State University Northridge (CSUN) to appeal to voters through a candidate forum Friday evening.

25th Congressional District Forum at CSUN

Join us as candidates for the 25th Congressional District seat take part in a live forum, broadcast live and in partnership with College of the Canyons and California State University, Northridge at the campus’ Northridge Center. The event begins at 6:00 p.m. Candidates present include in seated order: Robert Cooper III, F. David Rudnick, Cenk Uygur, Daniel Mercuri, Mike Garcia, Getro F. Elize, Aníbal Valdez-Ortega, Courtney Lackey, David Lozano and Christy Smith.Our moderators tonight include Univision 34 reporter Julio Cesar Ortiz, CSUN Assistant Vice President of Government and Community Relations Rafael De La Rosa and Fox 11 anchor Elex Michaelson. Note: DVR is available for this broadcast.

Posted by Canyons News on Friday, February 21, 2020

Ten of the candidates running for the CA-25 Congressional seat met at CSUN Friday evening for a candidate forum: Assemblywoman Christy Smith, Mike Garcia, Cenk Uygur, Robert Cooper III, F. David Rudnick, Daniel Mercuri, Getro F. Elize, Anibal Valdez-Ortega, Courtney Lackey, and David Lozano.

The candidates were then randomly split into three groups for questions, with Group A consisting of Cooper, Rudnick and Uygur, Group B consisting of Mercuri, Garcia and Elize, and Group C consisting of Valdez-Ortega, Lackey, Lozano, and Smith. 

While the forum-format of the event did not allow for rebuttals or direct conversations between the participants, some candidates took the opportunity to try and confront their opponents.

“There are huge differences between the candidates here, and I am really glad that Christy finally showed up so that we can have that discussion,” Uygur said in the first line of his opening statement.

After Uygur followed that up with a series of attacks aimed at Smith, the Assemblywoman refused to directly respond to him in her opening statement.

“It’s a pleasure to be here tonight to speak directly to those people who can vote for me, and those are the people who live in CA-25, and so I’m going to focus on that tonight,” she said.

One of the major issues discussed was that of homelessness and the housing crisis in the state of California. While some of the candidates differed in specifics, they largely echoed a similar sentiment of focusing on mental health and actually spending time with the homeless to determine what their needs are.

“We cannot be ashamed to help those with mental health challenges,” Garcia said.

Other issues discussed include medicare and government spending. The forum also featured a “lightning round” where candidates were asked more light-hearted questions in order to help constituents learn more about who each candidate is as a person.

The full video of the forum can be viewed above, or by clicking here.


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CA-25 Congressional Candidates Gather For Forum As Special Election Nears

3 comments

  1. Steve Knight, our RINO candidate was MIA. Democrats were as usual advocating for illegal aliens and “free” stuff, no thanks. Voted for Mike Garcia and listening to this gaggle reminded me of why I voted for Garcia. Go Mike!

  2. Mike Garcia has IT together and has my vote.
    So many “homeless” have mental health issues that have not been addressed.

  3. David Rudnick had the answer of the night when asked about capitalism. I voted for him but only once 🙁
    Why wasn’t he on the other ballot?

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