Gary Michaels
State Senate - District 19
| Website: | garymichaelsforsenate.com |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/gary.michaels.1840 |
| Twitter: | twitter.com/GaryMichaels6 |
| Other: |
| Why are you running for office?: | Santa Maria’s annual per capita income is $19,647 — Santa Barbara’s is $41,525. This illustrates the difference in income between South County and the rest of the District. What we have in common is we need more jobs, especially in the clean energy economy sector: solar, wind, battery storage, clean transportation and agriculture. According to EDD, Santa Barbara County has 290 private industry clean energy jobs and 284 private industry oil and gas jobs. Ventura County has 360 private oil and gas jobs. Now is the time to align our environmental and our economic efforts while still fighting against oil spills and fighting for high-paying clean energy jobs. I am also running to improve the education of our high-risk children from K-12. That would include restructuring the Local Control Funding Formula and attaching accountability to funding. Housing affordability is a huge topic with many focuses, such as on farmers and rural farm workers. We must provide enough housing for H-2A visa workers so that they are not living in such crowded conditions that they might spread the COVID-19 virus to larger populations, including the seniors of the district. Healthcare is another concern of mine. We must give incentives such as more medical technology to attract more doctors to the area. If elected as State Senator, I will aggressively address the problem of creating affordable housing by studying laws written back in 2006 and 2008 that interfere with housing affordability. Because I am persuasive, I will help Governor Newsom with housing affordability. He is ambitious but aloof and needs me to work with the bureaucracy, pat colleagues on the back and schmooze with everyone in both the legislative and executive branches. |
| What makes you qualified for the job?: | With my decades of corporate and entrepreneurial experience, I am uniquely qualified to play a role in the economic recovery required to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is what we must do: I am the managing partner of Summa Solutions LLC., an agency dedicated to helping businesses and K-12 schools across the country contract with fiber internet carriers. I am also the managing partner of Summa E-rate Solutions, a sister agency which helps schools and school districts write technology plans and identify and complete USAC forms for Internet access discounts. My business experience comes from two industries: broadcasting and cable and the telecommunications industries. I have held managerial marketing and administrative jobs, complex jobs requiring high organizational skills. I have also held entrepreneurial jobs requiring trade openness, risk taking and creativity. I am trained in nonprofit and public accounting and have corporate and independent experience marketing to local, state and federal governments and private and public schools. As the managing partner of Summa Solutions, I am dedicated to helping businesses and K-12 schools across the country contract with fiber internet carriers. I understand hard work and what’s involved with running a business because I've worked in the private sector most of my life. One succeeds by providing quality service. My background allows me to identify and empathize with those who deal with unexpected circumstances. |
| What are your two main priorities if you win?: | My opponent has an extreme voting record and is not a moderate who works with both sides in Sacramento. This has already hurt Assembly District 37 and will hurt Senate District 19. I will immediately introduce collaboration and inclusion with Sacramento from Senate District 19. This will accomplish immediate results. I will focus on K-12 students falling behind from distance learning curriculums and more homelessness resulting from COVID-19. In addition, I shall improve the affordability and quality of life in our District for American families through the creation of more jobs and higher-paying jobs. |
| How will you interact with other governments?: | On the local level, I will collaborate and communicate with the banking and finance business, the transportation industry, the broadband industries and green energy source industries as well as the farming industry. I will work with local jurisdictions to support their needs going forward. I will be available to the locally-elected leaders. I will work with everyone. I will represent all constituents to move our community forward. On the state level I will do all of that as well. I will speak to our Federal government, Senators, our House of Representatives members to tell them what is needed to bring California's economy and housing back up to speed as it used to be. |
| What are your plans to help overcome COVID-19?: | I will author a bill for Statewide PANDEMIC, EARTHQUAKE and WILDFIRE test drills. The County Public Health office has documented a spike in COVID-19 cases in crowded houses where our farm laborers live. Overcrowding anywhere leads to an increase in COVID cases but of course it is far worse for the under-privileged, unemployed, poor and elderly in our beautiful state of California. |
| Which two issues are most important to you?: | Jobs, jobs and more jobs with higher-paying jobs in the sectors of business and industry. Also housing affordability as people must have shelter over their heads. That includes our poor, our unemployed and our seniors. The key to creating jobs through government policy is NOT LESS REGULATION OF SAFETY, NOT CUTTING WAGES, NOT SKIRTING ENVIRONMENTAL RULES. It IS letting the private sector do that for us by setting ground rules and having an incentive structure. I will do this in all the cities in this district if elected. We need the leaders of all the companies in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties to come back to their offices and lead their employees back into the marketplace. And the political class needs to support them, collaborate with them and do whatever we can to get burdensome SACRAMENTO regulations out of the way to help these leaders succeed. Thank you very much for the interview and I sincerely hope that you will vote for me, Gary Michaels, as your next State Senator. |
Extended Interview with Gary Michaels
