Ahead of the March primary, The Orange County Register compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.
MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide
Name: Scotty Peotter
Current Job Title: Architect and small businessman
Political Party Affiliation: Republican
Incumbent: No
Other political positions held: Newport Beach City Councilmember
City where you reside: Irvine
Campaign website or social media: www.taxfighter.com
Gov. Newsom has been front and center lately in global affairs, from a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping discussing climate action to a trip to Israel where he met with victims of the Hamas attack. Aside from the governor’s trips, what do you see as the role California should play when it comes to foreign affairs?
China: Gov. Gavin Newsom has gone out of his way to clean up San Francisco for Xi Jinping. The first question I have is if Newsom can clean up San Francisco for that, why can’t he do it for us?
Hamas: While supporting Israel, he is also using state resources to help Hamas by delivering medical and other aid with California taxpayer-funded supplies. He also has raised over $10 million for the Tides Foundation which is funding pro-Palestinian protests throughout the state.
Buying masks from China during COVID-19: The governor should encourage less dependency on Communist China. As we saw during the COVID scare, Newsom had to purchase billions of dollars worth of personal protection equipment, like masks, from Communist China at greatly inflated prices. He should give tax breaks to businesses that bring these industries back to California.
There have been recent efforts at the local level to change voting requirements — from a proposed voter ID requirement in Huntington Beach to an effort to open up voting to noncitizens in Santa Ana. What changes, if any, should be made to California’s voting laws?
We should make the voting system easier to vote and more difficult to cheat. Without an honest and fair voting system, our republic is in danger of collapse. After all, who cares about voting if their vote doesn’t count because it is overcome by cheating and fraudulent voting?
Solutions:- Limiting ballots that are mailed out to only those who absolutely need them and requiring a witness to sign.- Opening voting centers before Election Day so that everyone has a chance to vote.- Establishing a voter ID system that makes it easy to vote but very hard to cheat.- Cleaning up voter rolls so that only actual voters are on the list.
Cheating: We have tax fraud. We have bank fraud. Of course, we have voter fraud. But we can minimize voter fraud by making it more difficult to cheat and easier to catch evil-doers.
The latest state budget projections show California’s deficit has swelled to a record $68 billion, leading to calls for spending cuts. Give us two specific ways California could address the deficit.
It seems that every year the California Legislature spends more than it receives, even though it violates the California Constitution. You have heard it said that the state has a spending problem; not a revenue problem.
Kill the bullet train: This is wasting taxpayer money that doesn’t help Californians and should be an easy decision. It is an example of government waste at its best. Billions of dollars for a train that goes nowhere fast.
Stop giving free medical care to “illegal aliens”: This would save billions on day one. Stop providing no-cost medical coverage to 286,000 “illegal aliens” over 50. Kill Gov. Gavin Newsom’s expansion of this program that adds more than 700,000 additional illegal aliens ages 26-49 which went into effect Jan. 1.
Speaking of the budget, what are your top three budget priorities?
We need to provide immediate relief to taxpayers from Biden-flation.
We can make California golden again by exciting economic activity by cutting spending and allowing people to keep more of their hard-earned income.
– Cut the gas tax effective immediately. Californians pay at least $1 more per gallon than the rest of the country and the second-highest gas tax in the country. With inflation stealing the budgets of the typical California family, this would provide immediate relief.- Cut the income tax across the board. This would create additional economic activity and slow the exodus of the middle class from our state.- Initiate an immediate spending freeze, followed by an across-the-board 10% budget cut in every department.
The legislature garnered national headlines when an effort to increase penalties for child sex trafficking initially stalled. How would you, in the legislature, balance criminal justice reform with public safety concerns?
Keep criminals in prison.
California retailers are leaving the state because the governor is letting criminals out of prison and not arresting those who commit crimes that the governor deems not worthy of prosecution. Criminal justice reform should not be to release criminals and not arrest others because we don’t have room to incarcerate them. Criminals should know that in California, if you do the crime, you will do the time. Let’s make California safe again and bring retailers back to our neighborhoods.
Sex trafficking originates at the border.
The state decided to increase penalties for sex traffickers after initially defeating the legislation but relented and passed the bill after public pressure. But the increase in sex trafficking is a direct result of our open border policies. This governor should end our “sanctuary” state policy and call out the National Guard to secure our border.
Homelessness continues to be a concern for Californians. While there is no simple solution, what is one proposal you have that could reduce homelessness in our communities?
California has 10% of the population and 30% of the nation’s homeless.
Can’t beat the weather. If I was homeless, I would choose California, too. And the politicians seem to hand out benefits like Halloween candy. Now the politicians have this ridiculous policy that if you just put them in housing, you can then address the other issues. This is called housing first. This is very expensive, slow and it doesn’t work.
Most homeless want to remain homeless because they have drug and/or alcohol addictions, and they do not want to give them up. Since they are fed and taken care of by the public, they do not have to get clean.
Christian organizations have been successful. While there is no easy or simple solution, many faith-based organizations have had amazing success rates with homelessness. These organizations that have proven success rates should be supported and encouraged to expand.
The governor recently signed a law that set a first-in-the-nation minimum wage standard for healthcare workers. Should minimum wage standards vary by industry? Why or why not?
Why not $50 per hour? Why not $100 per hour? Because that goes too far … why? The logic to support $25 per hour is the same that you use for $100 per hour: “They deserve it.” Where do you stop?
Freedom is going away: The entire concept of “free” enterprise is: I am willing to do a job for a certain amount of pay. Freedom. I can choose to work for that amount or not. If the employer cannot find anyone willing to work for what he can afford to pay, either he offers more or goes out of business.
No cell phones: When the government gets involved, the government picks winners and losers, not the market. If the government were in charge, we would still have VHS tapes, CDs and no personal computers or cell phones.
What is one environment or climate policy you’d champion if elected?
I am a champion of low-cost, abundant and reliable energy. After all, we have more and more things that need to be plugged in, not less. We should be as efficient as possible with our use of electricity.
California should not import electricity. We used to lead the nation in energy production. As a result, industry and individuals prospered. Now, we pay more and get less reliable electricity. We have more fires and other environmental disasters.
I believe that the only way to achieve environmentally friendly, low-cost, abundant, reliable energy is with nuclear power. Many countries have successfully implemented nuclear programs compared to the U.S. antiquated nuclear facilities that have not been updated since the ‘70s. Modern nuclear power has no so-called “greenhouse gases,” is inexpensive, reliable and very limited nuclear waste.
What is one capital improvement project you’d like to see financed and completed in your district?
This question is asking what I want to state to do for us by building something. Instead, I want to keep the state out.
We all would be better off if the state stayed out of our district by:- Cleaning up the asbestos mess at the former Tustin Marine Base (this is a federal issue as well).- Giving the OC Fairgrounds to the county.- Stop telling cities to build more housing; instead, reform CEQA to remove bureaucracy from the building process. Let the city councils determine what is best for their citizens.- Giving the Fairview Developmental Center to the city of Costa Mesa. Don’t develop housing as the state; let Costa Mesa do it.
We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much.
The state recently began rolling out the CARE Court program in some counties, the state-funded effort that allows first responders, family and other designated people to petition a court to have someone with untreated severe psychotic disorders receive treatment and services. What other ways can the state prioritize mental health care for its residents, including those with less severe disorders?
Do you trust Dr. Anthony Fauci? Would you trust Fauci for anything again since we now know he lied to manipulate us to do what he wanted, not for our best benefit?
We cannot trust the government to keep proven guilty bad guys in prison. Now are we going to make it easier for government to lock up people who have not broken any laws because they are afraid that they might break laws in the future? Can you imagine the local “Karen” deciding whether you should be locked up because you were “crazy”?
To put it in terms that President Joe Biden has used, would you say that the local neighbor who wears that MAGA hat should be locked up? Biden has shown how he can use the power of government against his political enemies. I think that the potential abuse of any system that is trying to make us “safe” by locking up people they think are “crazy” is asking for trouble.
Protections already exist: Family members can seek the court’s help in “protecting” themselves by locking up relatives. Let’s not make it easier for the government to lock people up who have not broken any laws.
Describe your political philosophy in 10 words or less.
Government should protect our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
What is your go-to campaign trail snack or drink?
Beef jerky.
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