Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Three Term Incumbent Mark Stone Candidate For Assembly 29th Distirct

courtesy Mark Stone
Mark Stone of Scotts Valley is running to retain his seat in the Assembly representing the 29th district.

A three-term incumbent faces a political newcomer in the race to represent California’s 29th Assembly district.  That covers most of the Monterey Bay area. Democrat Mark Stone is running against Republican Vicki Nohrden.  

Doug McKnight (DM): What do you think are the most important issues facing your constituents?

Mark Stone (MS): Well the ones we hear about most recently certainly housing homelessness significant issues around the Monterey Bay region. Water has always been and probably always will be one of the challenges for this area especially because we are not connected to the state or federal water projects. We also live in a very expensive area and a place where plenty of people want to come to and spend a lot of money for their own housing and that helps raise housing costs for all of us. And it's very very difficult for the people who are working in this area to live in this area. And as we finally started to link together transportation housing and understand where the jobs are where the living is and should be and make decisions in a broader sense. We will over time I think be able to make a dent in that kind of housing jobs imbalance that we see across the Monterey Bay region.

DM: One of the big issues on the Monterey Peninsula right now is public versus private ownership of water. Do you have thoughts on that?

MS:  I do. And when I first got on the Boards of Supervisors in Santa Cruz County we kicked Cal Am out of a little town called Felton and all of the same processes functions were in place they had taken over a water system there and were just jacking up the rates again and again and again. And the community rebelled.

We were very successful in running a tax measure and getting a vote to then make public the water system and we had a neighboring water agency that was willing and able to take them on very successful and moving away from that that profit motive of how you run a system to a public transparent mechanism to make sure that that system is accountable to the people.

DM: We going to go to the lightning round right now. Let me know are you in favor, opposed or have no opinion on it: state gas tax

MS:  I voted for it. I supported it. And if that gets repealed then all of the jurisdictions that have been relying on this huge infrastructure investment are not going to know what to do. And its really literally safety of our bridges, safety of our roads versus what has become very very political.

DM: Sanctuary State?

MS:  State sanctuary state is a bit of a misnomer and I know the federal government is all worked up about it. We are a state in a federation of states and we are subject to federal law.

DM: So the bill surrounding it; oppose...?

Stone: I voted for them, I supported them I worked they came through my committee I chaired the Judiciary Committee. So, I work on all of the liability aspects of these bills. And we worked very hard to make sure that they were rational that we were not putting any local police force, sheriffs, in a position of violating federal law but still being able to protect their citizens.

DM: Carbon Free California– All electricity from non-carbon sources—by 2045?

MS:  Incredibly, incredibly important for us.  California has been really leading internationally in bringing people together to keep us under that 2 degrees Centigrade temperature increase to attack ocean acidification on a broad scale and to get commitments our commitment as well as other jurisdictions commitments to take the energy fuel all these other and decarbonize them and go to renewables so that we can provide our energy in a way that is not continuing to erode the atmosphere that is so important for us to be able to survive on this planet.

Doug joined KAZU in 2004 as Development Director overseeing fundraising and grants. He was promoted to General Manager in 2009 and is currently retired and working part time in membership fundraising and news reporting at KAZU.
Related Content