Emanuel, thanks for taking time away from walking the district to spend a couple of hours with us today. Let me start with a rough question. Many of us in this community were disappointed– if not surprised– that another progressive “political outsider,” Tom Geoghegan, lost to an elected official in the open seat in Chicago earlier this week. The victor, while perhaps not a brilliant and innovative outside-the-box thinker like Tom, is an acceptable progressive who has proven he will work hard for working families in his district. Is the race to replace Hilda going to have a different outcome? And why? How?

Welcome to FDL this afternoon/morning Emanuel.

What was your major at Stanford?

Why are you the best person to replace Secretary Solis?

Hi Howie,
First, thank you for having me. It is always a pleasure to be able web-forums like this, and to talk with devoted progressives like yourself.

On Geoghegan: I have to say that many on my staff were rooting for him to win, and were somewhat disappointed by his loss. Geoghegan had some trouble connecting with voters, and hopefully my roots in the East LA and San Gabriel Valley community will allow me overcome that problem. Additionally, I have a wonderful staff of devoted individuals working for me, and we plan on putting some serious shoe-leather to the ground to get voters to the polls.

Welcome to Firedoglake!

How do you look for volunteers in your district? Do you rely on friends of friends, walk-ins, where do you find that serious shoe-leather?

dakine01,

I think that we need representatives in Congress who know what its like in the San Gabriel Valley and East LA area. Because of the way the demographics work out, this district gets hit much harder than the rest of the nation. I think we need a representative who has economic experience to properly represent this area, and I think that, of the field, my experience is the most relevant to these times.

I was an Urban Studies major at Stanford, with a concentration on Education.

As a technical note, when you want to reply to a specific comment, there is a “Reply” button in the lower right of the comment you wish to reply to.

Are there any Rs attempting to run in this district or jus 3 flavors of Liberal/Progressive Dems?

How would you differ from a Hilda Solis in representing this didstrict?

egregious,

I currently have 17 full-time volunteer staff members, many of whom I know through my days at Stanford. Many of them were Obama organizers or staffers, and I am beyond grateful of the fact that they have put their lives on hold in order to help my campaign.

We’ve also been outreaching by having house meetings throughout my district. Voters come to hear about what I stand for, and offer suggestions about what they want fixed in the area. We’re getting people excited and engaged in this process, and many of them have come from those meetings to our office to volunteer.

Of the top 56 hardest hit districts in the country, in terms of foreclosures, 19 are in California. Fortunately CA-32 isn’t one of them. The homeowner base is weathering the storm far better than in the bright red districts of the Inland Empire, which are just catastrophes. Yet ALL– 100%– of the Republicans representing these districts, and all the hard hit districts in this state (from Dan Lungren and Ken Calvert to Mary Bono-Mack to Tom McClintock) voted against the legislation to ameliorate the foreclosure crisis Friday. Whoever gets elected in CA-32 is likely to be a strong proponent for this type of legislation that backs up working families. But how do you differentiate yourself from Chu and Cedillo?

Dan Lungren. uuuuffff. He is my representative. When I am reminded of this it makes me want to hide or go take a nap.

Damn! I was hoping it would make you want to organize a letter-writing campaign to the OpEd pages of all the district newspapers!

There are currently two Republicans in the race, Jim Hetzel and Teresa Hernandez, and more may come up before the filing date. However, this is a very Democratic district, and so they face an uphill battle against whoever wins the Democratic nomination.

I have great respect for Secretary Solis, and I am excited to see her at the head of that Department. And I certainly want to follow her lead on labor and women’s issues. I want to bring more economic expertise to Congress, coupled with the experience of having grown up in this community and knowing what it is like to live here during an economic crisis.

I have actually meet with the f++ker’s staff about health care and stood in front of his office with protest signs and worked on Durston’s campaign. Today I am a flat liner. Just for today.

I don’t mean to put you on the spot…well, actually I do. Senator Patrick Leahy has proposed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with the previous administrations actions. What would you, as the Representative of the CA-32, support?

1) Doing nothing, moving forward.

2) Patrick Leahy’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee

3) Appointment of the equivalent of an independent prosecutor, even if it requires a renewal of the independent prosecutor law, to investigate and prosecute any wrongdoing of the previous administration

4) Let the International Criminal Court handle it. (We’d have to actually sign the treaty…)

To address the two points in your question.

If I may, Republican counties included far more speculative types of real estate transactions, which is one of the reasons why they were so hard hit in terms of foreclosures. But in terms of overall economic impact, there are other factors to take into account. The fact of the matter is that foreclosures, no matter where they are, are affecting the asset values of financial institutions that lend to small businesses and everyday consumers. And that affects the more denses metropoliton areas, like CA-32.

As for Chu and Cedillo: I am the only one who has worked in the Treasury Department, and I have already spoken to over 70 national advocacy organizations, think-tanks, and government institutions regarding the state of the economy. I feel I’m best prepared, in these times, to represent this district. And to further dive into the differences in this race, I’m the only one to have grown up here, and I have lived through economic crisis already. To voters, my career and accolades only matter so much. As we’ve learned in congressional races around the country, you have to be able to connect to your constituents in order to properly represent them, and I can best do that.

(oops, forgot to add…)

5) What do you propose?

I support Patrick Leahy’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

Do you feel that Tim Geithner and Larry Summers are the right men for the job of turning the economy and the financial crisis around? Since you worked in the Treasury Department tell us why you feel these two will help (or not) the situation for average American families. Does it ever look to you like they’re more concerned with banksters and Wall Street than with working folks? They really seem to have a different perspective from Peter Orszag. Or am I imagining it?

I didn’t work with Larry Summers much, since he was leading a different team. As for Secretary Geithner, I have a lot of faith in him. He’s been in the trenches of this crisis given his previous position. In my interviews and interactions with Treasury Dept staffers, especially the career staffers who have worked with him in previous administrations, he brings a level-headed, professional attitude to the job. He doesn’t get bogged down by the politics behind decision-making.

Sadly, the appearance of Wall Street influencing the Treasury will continue, but with the mortgage foreclosure plan that was recently unveiled by the administration there is a clear difference in focus versus the previous administration, where Geithner was not at the helm.

Now there’s a loaded Q!

Emanuel, Judy Chu and Gil Cedillo are longtime office-holders who have plenty of name recognition, at least among people who follow local politics. How are you going to be able to counter that situation? Again, Geoghegan wasn’t able to.

He’s been in the trenches of this crisis given his previous position.

Isn’t that precisely Geithner’s problem? That he did nothing but allow the crisis to occur while he was already in a position to do something about it? NYFRB had a regulatory role for Wall St., which, under Geithner, they completelyt abrogated. What makes him any different now?

I’m running for Congress, I think I should be ready to handle anything! Please keep your questions coming. You aren’t rookies to politics, and I need your feedback as well in order to make me the better candidate and Representative.

I am the only one who has worked in the Treasury Department

when did you work there and in what area(s) did you work? thanks.

I wasn’t asking about your qualifications. I was asking why you think Geithner’s up to his job, considering his record of failure.

There were a number of regulatory agencies — including the FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), etc — which we could all plausibly pass blame to. Geithner was a part, yes, but was not the ultimate decision-maker.

Ultimately, however, we needed somebody for that position that had Treasury Dept experience (under different leadership), and understands how to deal with Wall Street. Tim Geithner was the right choice considering the circumstances, but that doesn’t mean we should give him free reign like Bush gave Paulson.

Your arguement that we need someone who knows Wall St. to be Treas Sec sounds like: we need a crook as Atty General, because he knows crime. I don’t buy it.

If you walk the streets with me, especially the Eastside of LA, where I grew up, my name ID is actually pretty high. If you walk with me on the east side of the district, including Covina, Baldwin Park, El Monte, and Azusa, they don’t really want to be represented by someone from Downtown LA. Judy Chu has name recognition, yes, but mostly in Monterey Park. None of the communities here have ever had Gil Cedillo on the ballot. Throughout the district, there is an affinity to East Los Angeles and Wilson High School that I am capitalizing on as a candidate.

How prepared are you to lead on difficult issues, even when it means going up against powerful forces inside your district? So many Democrats use their constituents prejudices as an excuse for voting against core principles. I’m not sure how voters in CA-32 felt about marriage equality but I’m guessing you support it. Is it something you’d be willing to fight for?

These are the tough decisions that need to be made in terms of choosing the right personnel. I think Secretary Geithner is up for the job. Again, that doesn’t mean we should give him free reign. What we need is congressional members who have economic experience that can challenge Secretary Geithner’s decision-making.

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Emmanuel Pleitez and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

First of all thank you for showin up here and for puttin’ yourself out there in rinnin’ for this nomination. I have two questions one of personal interest about the politics of the hispanic community in SoCal and one of concern about your economic identity since you are a graduate of Hoover University and you worked in the last Treasury Department with the some of the folks who enabled this last market crash.

First: What is the relationship between the larger “metropolitan” hispanic politcal leadership and elite and the local constituencies like yours? Is there a local “populism” that can be exploited in districts like yours that might distinguish you or a candidate like you from a Gil Cedillo?

Second: What is your view of Social Security, where do you think it fits in the anatomy of the American economy, do you think that there is a Social Security “crisis”, do you support future reductions in benefits and eligibility or do you support a lifting of the cap, reduction of the FICA tax by 1% and extension of eligibility by reduction of the eligibilty age?

Again, thanks for showin up here…it’s a treat.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE BASTARDS AREN’T DONE WITH US YET!

Voters in CA-32 did vote for Proposition 8, as did the rest of LA County, but it will not compromise my core principles. The campaign for marriage equality has not ended. We need to continue organizing in our communities to change public perception. I will call on activists and community leaders to make sure our district is well-informed about marriage equality. We can’t let discriminatory right-wing activists out-campaign us.

Politically, we need to fix our messaging and elect strong progressive voices who are not afraid of taking on the other side. So yes, I would be willing to continue the fight for marriage equality.

What we need is congressional members who have economic experience that can challenge Secretary Geithner’s decision-making.

in that case, is there anything you would challenge secretary geithner on regarding his decision making so far?

i do appreciate your time here and if i did not think the economic crisis was so critical an issue, i would not press it. but we’ve been watching and trying to educate ourselves on these issues and the equivalent of “don’t worry” does not give me confidence – just the opposite.

If anyone is interested in donating to to Emanuel’s campaign, there are a number of ActBlue pages accepting contributions. Emanuel, how about volunteers? Can you make effective use of people interested in helping out on the ground? And if so, how do they volunteer?

First: It’s not up to the Latino political elite to choose the Representative for our district. As I referenced before, despite Gil Cedillo’s name ID among us political-junkies, he is not well as well-known in this district, given that he doesn’t represent any part of it. I would distinguish my campaign with a strong field operation that taps the younger age demographic and the new political dynamic that desires change.

Second: I think that Social Security is a minor issue when compared to Medicare as far as entitlement reform goes. Medicare is really where we need to be focused on, as the increase in future costs will become a significant burden on our economy.

26?!

You are right to be worried, so please continue pressing your leaders about how we deal with this economic crisis.

The foreclosure plan that was recently unveiled should have been the first thing that Secretary Geithner did. Your critical voices are necessary in order for the right policies to be enacted. I would love to continue to hear what you have to say, so please email me at emanuelp@pleitezforcongress.com.

Any leader that tells you that they have the magic wand to solve this crisis is lying to you. We need leaders who will listen to all viewpoints, come in with relevant expertise, and be grounded with the understanding about how these issues affect the most vulnerable of our society.

The Constitutional requirement for age the House is 25. Senate is 30 to take office and President is 35.

Given the “caliber” of some of the folks currently serving in the House, on both sides of the aisle, maybe a few 26 year olds would be of benefit.

Citizen emmanuelpleitez:

“Second, I think that Social Security is a minor issue when compared to Medicare as far as entitlement reform goes…”

Thanks for your response to my question, unfortunatly I find the answer to reflect a dangerous attitude among wonks and corporatist Democrats that may portend a bad end to our current and future economic mess.

Please sign-up to volunteer on our website, pleitezforcongress.com. Or email me directly at emanuelp@pleitezforcongress.com.

We are nearing 1000 donors, and building momentum online, so please also contribute today. I need your help.

If you are in the area, you can drop by our office (4507 Valley Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90032). We’re here seven days a week, and we would love to see you.

Thank you for your time, and I hope to do this again soon!

maybe but i am in the san gabriel valley and i gotta say i am not comfortable with a 26-year-old rep to the house. regardless of the great education, my own experience tells me it is not enough real life experience for theories and philosophies and world views to be rooted in. on the other hand, perhaps it can mean less of a likelihood of corruption as our system often tends toward.

Thanks for joining us today, best of luck with your campaign and keep us posted!

Book Salon a couple of flights upstairs Kill Khalid with guest Paul McGeough, hosted by Siun.