Debbie Tharp is no stranger to the ups and downs of the American dream. For six years, she worked as a driver for a national postal contractor where she eventually became a dispatcher and office assistant. She and her husband Donald Tharp, a lab manager at a national optometry chain, had a beautiful home in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas and 3 beautiful children. However, after her husband’s prolonged illness, the family was forced to move from Texas to California to rebuild their lives. That was in 2004, and now the family would never dream of calling any other place but their beloved California, home.
After earning her Associate’s Degree at College of the Sequoias in the San Joaquin Valley, Debbie is now a senior at UCI’s School of Psychology and Social Behavior. Over the past 6 years in her new home state, Debbie has seen the budget crisis swell to overwhelm local businesses, the water dry up in the central valley, where most of her family still resides, and the funding dry up for the state’s essential public education system. Despite efforts to the contrary, California has fallen behind in business, environmental and educational standards. As the crisis has come to a boiling point in California’s public colleges and universities, she has seen much in the way of misdirected anger and blame, and little true progress toward an effective solution to our state’s woes.
Through her husband’s kidney transplant, Debbie has experienced the state’s public health care system first hand. Through her education, Debbie has experienced the state’s educational system first hand. Her family members are both business owners and blue collar workers. She knows how hard it is to keep a business going, or to hold onto a job in our current perilous times. Debbie is not a career politician. She is an everyday citizen, chasing the American dream, just like every other constituent of the 70th Assembly District of California.
Says Debbie, “I am not running a campaign to win a public office. I am asking my fellow citizens to give the the opportunity to serve them. I will not waste this campaign making speeches that no one wants to hear. I want to hear you. I am here to listen, and I am here to serve, and when I am chosen, I will take your voices with me to Sacramento.”
Let’s start with Sacramento.
Debbie Tharp for State Assembly
votedebbie@yahoo.com
is that a myspace profile picture or her? if so, she’s edgy.
LOL.
Much much more later.
I did have a chance to meet and speak with Deborah Tharp after the UCI debate. She is definitely a breath of fresh air compared to the cliche ridden rhetoric of the Democrats and Republicans there. When the topic of immigration came up, the other four candidates (Wagner, Choi, Fox and Glover) spouted oversued cliches like “secure borders” without giving any specific solutions on how they would go about curbing illegal immigration or admitting what the real cause is. Glover did imply that he was in favor of a national ID card which worries me as a libertarian. Deborah Tharp was the only candidate who had the courage to admit that the problems of illegal immigration are a direct result of the Drug War that both political parties are currently waging and still banging the drum for. She also seems to understand that using the power of the state is not the solution to solving all of our state’s problems. Yet, the other four want to tell us that government has all of the answers to our state’s problems. The message seems to be if we throw more money at the problem, it will be resolved. How’s that working for us now with a Democratic majority in the Assembly and a Republican in the governor’s mansion? A third party seems to be a better alternative at this point.
Don Wagner would have us believe that marijuana legalization is a “gateway” to legalizing prostitution, harder drugs like cocaine and heroin and gambling (all three I favor to legalize) and received a lot of applause that was not supportive of his position. While Fox and Glover did express their support for the legalization initiative (kudos to both), both of them made erroneous claims about marijuana. Mike Glover made the claim that you cannot study stoned. I beg to differ as there have been studies that people who have used marijuana while in college had better than average GPAs than their non smoking counterparts.
Melissa Fox tried to link marijuana to prescription drugs (opiates) implying that marijuana is physically addictive. A colleague of mine tried to explain to her that marijuana is not physically addictive and that its addictiveness is lower than caffiene. (There are studies that have consistenly proven this) Nicotine was the highest on the addictive scale and alcohol was the second highest, both subatances being legal to sell to adults. Fox made a condescending comment to my colleague stating “you know what I mean and I support your cause.” Uh, no we don’t Melissa and you can kiss your potential votes goodbye with that condescending attitude. But thanks for your support to legalize weed, I guess.
It did not look like that Fox was trying to understand a part of her constituency. A certain blogger from an overtly partisan blog, who is known for publicizing her own failed weight loss efforts on a Facebook fan page, would have us believe that Fox is not like that at all and that Fox tries to listen to everyone that approaches her. Words written on a blog about someone may be one thing, but what I saw that night from Melissa Fox told an entirely different story. Fox showed me that she does not have the temperament nor the character to represent this district if she cannot handle questions from her potential constituents in a classy and dignified manner. Neither do Don Wagner, Steven Choi and Mike Wagner who completely ignored us and our request to speak with them. Deborah Tharp is the only candidate for this district who took the time to speak with us and listen to all of our concerns. She will get my vote this November.