Scott Baugh, CA-47 candidate, 2024 election questionnaire – Orange County Register

Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group 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: Scott Baugh

Current job title: Orange County Business Owner

Political party affiliation: Republican

Incumbent: No

Other political positions held: Former Assemblymember; former CA GOP Assembly leader; former OC GOP chairman

City where you reside: Huntington Beach

Campaign website or social media: www.baughforcongress.com

Californians will decide on a proposition this November that would scale back some of Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that reduced penalties for certain theft and drug offenses. What is one way the federal government could help states like California balance criminal justice reform with enforcing the law? (Please be specific with your proposal, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

Soft-on-crime legislators like Dave Min and prosecutors like George Gascón have made our neighborhoods less safe. Smash and grab crimes are running rampant in our communities and recently resulted in the murder of a shopper at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Min and Gascón support letting criminals out on the streets with no bail requirement (SB 262). Min and Gascón support allowing felons to have their felony records hidden from the public (SB 731). When law enforcement and California merchants put Proposition 36 on the ballot to roll back the soft-on-crime provisions of Proposition 47, Min went to work to sabotage Proposition 36 by joining forces with Gov. Newsom to put a competing measure on the ballot. District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Min was using “deceptive tactics to trick voters.” Sheriff Don Barnes said Min’s scheme was “very disturbing and making our neighborhoods less safe.” Dave Min may talk about being tough on crime, but his actions mirror liberal prosecutors in the country. We don’t need more soft-on-crime people in Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “the Squad” to make laws that benefit the accused at the expense of the safety of our communities.

Recent efforts to expand the federal deduction for state and local taxes, called SALT, have failed. What changes would you like to see, if any, to SALT? (Please keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

I support the full restoration of the state and local tax exemption and support offsetting the budget by eliminating the recent authorization of 80,000 IRS agents and rolling back some of the recent inflation-causing provisions passed by Congress. Simply put, I trust the people to spend or save money more wisely than I trust the government to spend money.

President Joe Biden has called for an overhaul of the U.S. Supreme Court, including mandatory ethics rules. What reforms, if any, do you believe the Supreme Court needs, and how would they be enforced? (Please be specific with your proposal, and keep your answer to 250 words or less.)

Reforming a branch of government for the gain of one political party or the other is never a good idea. The Supreme Court has evolved over the life of our country and will continue to do so, as the Founding Fathers intended. While I oppose suggestions that the court should be expanded to achieve political or ideological outcomes, I strongly support the review of and changes to the ethical responsibilities and requirements of justices of the Supreme Court.

Just as we should ban individual stock trading for members of Congress, the laws and rules regarding conflicts of interest, travel, gifts and honorarium for justices of the Supreme Court should be clearly defined and followed. Failure to adhere to the rules should subject a justice to statutorily defined punishment and, if necessary, a constitutionality-established impeachment process.

Should there be an age limit imposed on presidential candidates? What about Congress or Senate? If so, what is that limit?

Although it would be great to see younger candidates run for office at all levels, I do not support age limits for candidates. I trust voters to make good decisions when choosing the candidates they want to serve.

Would you support legislation that protects women’s access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments nationwide? Why or why not? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit your response to 200 words.)

I support access to IVF and believe this should be an issue left to each state to determine appropriate guidelines for health and safety.

The Republican Party’s platform, following the summer convention, calls for the “largest deportation effort in American history.” Is this something you support? If so, what would such an effort look like? If not, how would you assuage concerns about border security? (Please be specific in your response, and keep it to 250 words or less.)

A legal immigration system can only work with a secure border. The “open borders” policies championed by Sen. Dave Min and the far left are leaving our communities unsafe. Those policies have allowed more than 15 million illegal border crossings in the last four years alone. These illegal border crossings have brought with them synthetic fentanyl that has torn apart thousands of American families who have lost loved ones to this insidious drug. I support immediately securing the border and implementing hearings to determine which of these 15 million illegal immigrants have committed crimes or are in our country under a false asylum claim. Illegal immigrants in these categories should be deported immediately. Going forward, these hearings should take place at the border before allowing the immigrant to enter the country. None of this is possible without strong, secure borders and a commitment to keeping human traffickers, drug dealers and violent criminals out of our country. Americans are very generous as we allow more than a million legal immigrants into our country every year, and it’s unfair to hardworking families who have paid taxes to have others tear our systems down.

Cost of living is high on the list of concerns among voters, particularly among younger people. What is one bipartisan proposal you have to alleviate concerns about high prices or cost of living? (Please be specific in your response, and limit it to 200 words.)

Federal spending is out of control and has increased the cost of nearly everything in our lives. $2 trillion in annual deficits and $35 trillion in debt are irresponsible, unsustainable numbers that are driving inflation and increasing the cost of groceries, gasoline, clothing, school supplies and every other family staple purchase. It has caused high interest rates making home ownership an unattainable dream for many. The solution is obvious and should be bipartisan. The federal government needs to spend less money, be less political, work together and adopt a long-term investment and spending reduction plan.

Americans would quickly begin reaping the benefits of the economic predictability of a long-term plan and see the results of a government committed to eliminating its deficit and reducing its debt.

Californians continue to point to housing affordability as one of their top concerns. What is something the federal government could do to lessen the financial burden people feel, whether that’s with renting or buying a house? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit it to 200 words or less.)

Housing affordability mostly comes down to four issues: 1. Supply and demand; 2. Inflation; 3. Interest rates; 4. Regulatory environment.

Low inventory and high interest rates are stifling new building of single-family homes, condominiums and apartment units, leaving a gap between the number of people who need a home and the available number of housing units. This gap has become a crisis.

Worse, inflation has increased the cost of goods and services including the materials necessary to build or renovate housing units. Combined with an increase in food, gas and nearly every other necessary expenditure, there is less money available for housing, fewer housing units available and a shortage of new construction of attainable housing. If the federal government reigns in spending to reduce inflation and interest rates, and California shifts its focus to encouraging, rather than discouraging, builders to invest in residential building by streamlining the permitting process, we can create more supply more quickly. And we will see more housing that Californians can afford — with interest rates that make homeownership an attainable part of the American Dream again. Government cannot buy its way out of this crisis. We must remove government-created impediments.

What do you see the federal government’s role as in helping local municipalities tackle homelessness? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit it to 200 words or less.)

Homelessness is a serious problem without a simple one-size-fits-all solution.

In fact, California has spent $24 billion on homelessness since 2019 and the problem got worse. There are now 30,000 more unhoused than when the spending spree began five years ago.

There is no silver bullet to solve the issue because the root cause varies. That means government can play a role but must be better than simply doling out money or, worse, investing in policies that make the problem worse.

We cannot be afraid to invest in mental health.

We must address America’s addiction problem that is destroying lives, breaking hearts and contributing to the growing homeless crisis.

We must streamline or eliminate regulations preventing or delaying building or renovating housing units.

We must prosecute those who personally benefit from this crisis, especially anyone who defrauds the system or takes advantage of investments in homeless solutions.

We need to attack the homeless crisis both with our collective hearts and minds. Together we can do it but we must be willing to make difficult choices and pursue long-term strategies rather than simply appropriating more money in ways that have thus far failed.

After Tesla chief executive Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video purporting to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice, Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to enact legislation to make it illegal to manipulate someone’s voice in an ad. What is something the federal government could do to protect people from deep-fakes, or false AI-generated images, videos and audio? (Please be specific in your response, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

I support prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law those who use technology to manipulate a person’s voice or image without consent in a way that causes harm.

I support federal laws making it illegal to cause harm to anyone by manipulating their voice or image and support the right of each state to pursue additional remedies under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

While using AI to create false statements and images is becoming more common in politics, I am also concerned about young people becoming victims of deep fakes and other technologically driven crimes. We must craft legislation and punishments that protect our young people from being damaged by bad actors.

What is one local infrastructure project you would push to secure funds for in the federal budget? (Please be specific in your answer.)

If you are looking for a representative in Congress who brings home the most pork, I’m not your guy. We have already spent money that belongs to our children and grandchildren. Enough is enough. If you are looking for a representative who intends to reign in federal spending and get our budgets, inflation and interest rates under control, then I’m your guy.

Earmarks should pass two tests. First, is the earmark jurisdictionally connected to Article 1, Section 8 enumerated powers given to Congress? Second, is the earmark financially prudent in light of our current $35 trillion in debt? If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” then the earmark should not be permitted.

What is one environment or climate policy you’d champion if elected? (Please be specific with your policy proposal, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

There is no doubt that humans contribute to climate change. So do plants and animals. Many programs have been ideologically driven, too ambitious or simply seek to limit progress rather than solve problems. I am an advocate for specifically designed and uniquely tailored programs to address specific problems. For example, several decades ago, the Los Angeles Basin had a major pollution problem that resulted in lungs burning when breathing the air. The cause was identified, remedies created and now the basin is far cleaner than it was years ago.

Further, we should be identifying and rewarding individuals, companies and industries that embrace sustainable and reliable energy production, storage and use. Right in the heart of Orange County is a company called Clean Energy that converts landfills and dairy waste into clean natural gas that is cleaner and cheaper than most other sources of energy. There is no problem that we face that American ingenuity cannot solve as demonstrated by the talented and dedicated folks at Clean Energy. But they did not achieve their success with government mandates, which are always less effective than government encouragement or even simply than government getting out of the way of entrepreneurs.

What’s the No. 1 song on your playlist while you’re on the campaign trail?

“Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger.