KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to impact the country, Republican Congressional candidate Mike Garcia has begun hosting virtual town halls in an effort to remain connected to constituents while also being mindful of the spread of COVID-19.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced many businesses, organizations and residents to change their approach to day-to-day life, including congressional candidates vying for the CA-25 seat left vacant after the resignation of former Congresswoman Katie Hill.
Garcia, who earned the second largest number of votes during the special election on March 3, has opted to host virtual town halls in an effort to respect the social distancing orders issued by the federal, state and county, while also reaching out to constituents within California’s 25th Congressional District
“It’s been very smooth,” Garcia said. “People are really still able to have the conversations and still get the updates from the campaign.”
Between 1,000 and 1,200 people participated in each of the first two town halls, where they had the opportunity to hear information on the coronavirus and the resources available for those impacted by it. Then, callers can submit questions during the call, which are fielded by several moderators selected from Garica’s staff.
“I think we’re getting good feedback,” Garcia said.
The topics discussed in each town hall are largely dictated by the caller’s themselves, ranging from border security and taxes to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, Garcia’s first town hall took a turn away from the campaign for a portion of time, as California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a “stay at home” order for the state during the town hall.
“It was like doing a live news broadcast rather than a town hall,” Garcia said. “It was such a fast-moving situation.”
Since then, Garcia has hosted two more town halls, one with the Antelope Valley, and another with the Santa Clarita Valley.
It was during the Santa Clarita Valley town hall that Garcia received the “best turnout,” with roughly 1,300 residents dialing in. Santa Clarita Mayor Cameron Smyth also came on the line during the meeting to publicly endorse Garcia.
“I am excited to endorse Mike Garcia for Congress,” Smyth said in a statement issued the following morning. “As a highly decorated Navy fighter pilot and long-time Santa Clarita resident, I have no doubt Mike is the right person to send to Washington D.C. and fight for our community.”
Garcia’s fourth town hall is set to take place Thursday evening, this time for the residents of Acton and Agua Dulce.
“We’re going to keep doing these,” he said. “As long as we’re in lockdown like this, we’re going to keep doing these.”
See Related: Santa Clarita Congressional Candidates Adjust Campaigns During Coronavirus Outbreak
In addition to the virtual town halls, Garcia’s team is also working on sending volunteers out to assist those in need during this period of uncertainty. More information on this can be found here.
“We’re setting up a volunteer-led effort for taking food to first responders and to hospital workers,” he said.
The runoff election between Garcia and Assemblywoman Christy Smith is still scheduled for May 12. However, the election will be done through mail-in ballots only, which are set to be sent out on April 15.
“It’s absolutely critical that people remember that there is an election coming up,” Garcia said.
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That’s good now he needs to tell everyone that this virus is airborne around infected people exhaling it. Therefore everyone should not go to public places like the grocery store,banks anyplace with people around unless they have a mask on or even a simple bandana covering their mouth and nose to prevent inhaled virus particles and unaware infected people exhaling virus particles
Why at this time are people politicizing the current situation? And I include Christy Smith in this comment. I quote from the story above: The topics discussed in each town hall are largely dictated by the caller’s themselves, ranging from border security and taxes.
Right now, the only people who can officially help us are Newsom and Garcetti like it or not. If we don’t like how they are handling it, vote them out in November. Until them let’s focus on getting through this together.
Robert, in Santa Clarita Mr. Garcetti is not a factor other than as mayor of a neighboring city. We have our own City Council and Mayor, all of whom are far better than liberal loon Eric Garcetti. For County issues, we have Supervisor Kathryn Barger, again far better than any of the other very liberal County Supervisors. As to what was discussed, as was stated, questions were asked by callers on issues that THEY think are important, not what you think is important for them to ask. Border security and taxes are very important issues to most folks in our City. We are however saddled with Governor Newsom.
Unfortunately Barger has not postponed the property taxes.
Federal and state income taxes were postponed from April 15 to July 15.
The state postponed mortgage payments for a few months.
The state, county and city postponed renters paying every month.
Property owners don’t get rent payments.
There are thousands of homeowners without jobs that are not getting a break on their property taxes.
Barger can do something about this. She choose not to help.
Our numbers of COVID-19 cases in California aren’t increasing as much as they would have been if Gavin Newsom hadn’t initiated the shelter-in-place advisory when he did. Then, others followed. Maybe you can be grateful for that, anyway.