Rep. Salud Carbajal and challenger Dr. Brad Allen take part in 24th District forum

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-The redrawn 24th Congressional district now includes all of Santa Barbara County and portions of San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties.

On the ballot voters will see the name of three-term Democratic Representative Salud Carbajal and Republican Challenger Dr. Brad Allen.

They didn't actually face off in Sunday afternoon's forum since Carbajal chose to join via zoom.

During the hour-long discussion they disagreed on a number of topics, including climate change fixes and migration,  student loan forgiveness, the January 6th investigation, term limits, inflation and gas prices.

Rep. Carbajal said, "It's my understanding that this president is going to release another 15 million barrels of oil next month those are the types of things we need to do to address the oil challenge and stop oil company from profiting from ordinary Americans.

Dr. Allen said, "Where we were 2 years ago when prices were half of this. Do i think the companies suddenly got more greedy? They weren't greedy two years ago but they are greedy now? That is not the reason this is going up. It is due to the policies of this administration,"

They also disagreed on the supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

"It gave it back to the states ,the supreme Court gave it back to people like you to choose what you want to do," said Allen.

Carbajal said, "The states should not have the right over women's decision over their reproductive health care.and access to abortion. The only decision makers should be women."

The pediatric heart surgeon made no mention of his famous wife, Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith except saying they started a small skin care company together.

Allen said, " I understand the problems businesses are facing and how to fix them. You know career politicians, in general, have only worked in governments, so their answer to everything seems to be throw more money at it and more regulations."

Carbajal talked about coming to Oxnard and working in the farm fields with his father when he was 5-years-old.

During a question about gun safety proposals the former Marine reservist shared that he saw the pain of gun violence when his sister took her own life.

Carbajal said, "My sister when i was a young boy committed suicide with my father fire arm."

As for inflation, they both talking about the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Allen said, "The inflation reduction act is a joke. They named it that to make you feel like they were going to reduce inflation, but it wasn't going to do it."

Carbajal disagreed and talked about what it would accomplish in time.

He added, "The inflation reduction act also goes a long way to also reduce the cost of living for prescription drugs since medicare now will be able to negotiate on the free market."

Allen later went back to the issue saying, "It is price controls, it is going to reduce the amount of drugs you have and stop the amount of new drugs."

Both had some overlap in support for assisting Ukraine and saving Diablo Canyon and opposing new local offshore drilling including the Exxon Mobile pipeline.

They disagreed on California's plan to make the state a sanctuary for trans gender youth seeking gender affirming care.

They also appeared to disagree on COVID19.

Carbajal urged people to get the latest booster.

Allen said the vaccine didn't prevent COVID19 from spreading through the nose. He also suggested other countries that didn't have lock downs fared better.

In closing Dr. Allen said, "I want to bring something different i want to actually represent you not bring political ideology to Washington, I want to take the 40 years I have as a pediatric heart surgeon solving problems and bring that to Washington, not empty political talking points."

Carbajal said, "I will keep fighting for all these issues and Central Coast values and I respectfully ask for your support."

Voters will have their say on election day.

You'll find a link to the entire forum moderated by anchor Scott Hennessee, who was joined by political analyist and reporter Jerry Roberts and NoozHawk reporter Josh Molina on this website.