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News / With Audio Candidate With "Decline to State" Party Affiliation Surfaces As Potential Challenger To Congresswoman Laura Richardson, Is Collecting Signatures (7,700+ Req'd By Early August) To Have His Name Printed On November Ballot
(July 10, 2008) -- With Rep. Laura Richardson (D., Carson-LB) currently the only candidate whose name will appear on the November Congressional election ballot in roughly 80% of LB plus Signal Hill, Compton and Carson, Nicholas "Nick" Dibs (registered with a "decline to state" Party affiliation) is collecting 7,759 petition signatures of district registered voters that if filed by August 8 could put his name on the ballot in an independent (non-Party) challenge to her.
By happenstance, we spotted Mr. Dibs collecting petition signatures outside LB Veterans Stadium before the July 4th fireworks show. Standing alongside a small card table with homemade signs, he explained the procedure to arriving event-goers, collected some signatures and handed out blank petitions that he hopes will be mailed back to him filled with signatures in the coming weeks.
"I'm collecting signatures to give voters a choice on the ballot and I stepped forward because others didn't," Mr. Dibs told LBReport.com.
No Republican, Green or Libertarian candidate ran in the June primary. Therefore, Democrat Richardson's name will be the only one printed on the ballot unless a non-Party-affiliated candidate submits the required petition signatures by August 8. The minimum number of signatures is 3% of the district's registered voters, or 7,759.
Rep. Richardson was chosen by roughly 75% of the district's Dems over Dem challenger Peter Mathews in the primary election.
Mr. Dibs told LBReport.com that he hopes to collect about 10,000 signatures by the August 8 deadline and acknowledges it's a daunting task...but is undeterred.
"If there are just 1,000 registered voters in the 37th Congressional district who want a candidate choice printed on the ballot, and each of them will just collect ten signatures, we can do it," Mr. Dibs said.
He's established a website -- www.DibsForCongress.com -- that lets visitors download a blank printable petition that can be signed by 37th Congressional district registered voters (voters outside that district don't count) and must be mailed back to him (he hopes by late July) with a filing deadline for him of August 8.
www.DibsforCongress.org
The Dibs website cites "allegations of Rep. Richardson's on-going misuse of taxpayers' funds and her apparent lack of responsibility, lack of integrity and lack of accountability. Voters of the 37th CD deserve to have a choice on the ballot on Election Day, November 4th," it says.
Mr. Dibs was momentarily visible at the July 1 LB City Council meeting, when he tried to announce that he's a candidate and was swiftly ruled out of order by Mayor Bob Foster (citing a prohibition on election campaigning from the speaker's podium)...and Mr. Dibs politely stepped down.
A week earlier, he managed to speak at a meeting of the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency (SH Councilman Ed Wilson presiding; SH Councilmembers are SH's RDA boardmembers).
City of Signal Hill cablecast
Mr. Dibs: I don't live in your city but I recognize that what happens in Washington, D.C. affects our local community, and I want to announce that I'm a candidate for Congress against Laura Richardson, and according to the Constitution of our country, independent voters who are not affiliated with any political party are allowed to run for office for Congress, and since no one had the courage to oppose her in the upcoming November election, I'm putting my name forward and collecting signatures on a petition. So I have a duty of collecting 77-hundred and some signatures between now and the end of July to get my name on the ballot [announces he'll give out phone number]. If anybody wants to call me, I'll be happy to get these petitions to you. [gives phone number] Every city is affected by the federal budget and the problems of the war and so on, so I'm happy to announce my candidacy and I appreciate the time."
Mr. Dibs says he was born in LB, as a youngster had a paper route in NLB and part of Compton, attended LB schools for parts of his elementary, jr. high and high school years...and graduated from Garden Grove's Pacifica High where he was selected to represent the school at the "Presidential Classroom for Young Americans" a week-long program in Washington, D.C.
Dibs says he earned a B.A. (Biology, minor in Chemistry) from CSULB in 1991...and in that year was awarded the [CSULB] "President's Associates Human Service Award for Outstanding Community Service Leadership" commending him for his dedication to community service leadership and charitable/volunteer efforts over the years.
"I have a long track record of helping the homeless and raising money for charitable causes [and] started a food for hungry program to raise money for the hungry and homeless," Mr. Dibs said.
Mr. Dibs earned a Teaching Credential in 1992 and says he's since worked for LBUSD (1992 until Nov. 2007) and two other nearby school districts. He said he's handled some full time and some part time classroom assignments (as a substitute or hourly placement when no full time teacher was assigned) and has been offered full time teaching assignments but hasn't taken them on because our school system [speaking on policy generally, didn't cite specific district] is in need of fixing.
Mr. Dibs said his roots are in Long Beach, although his main residence is now in Garden Grove where he cares for his 88 year old grandmother. He says he's taken an apartment in Bixby Knolls and continues to attend church in LB as he has for years.
We asked Mr. Dibs for his views on a few topics and provide extended audio of his responses below [some edits by us for digressions/repetition but retaining substance]. Some summarized excerpts (with clickable links to full audio):
1. Why are you running? "...We have a president and a vice president and an administration that have lied to the American people, misled this country into a war, basically destroyed or corrupted America's credibility around the world because of their policy of invading a country that never threatened or attacked the United States...And now it's time that there is a change because the Democrats are continuing to vote for the funding of the war, contrary to what most Americans want. Most Americans want this war to end now...I disagree with Laura Richardson who voted $50 billion for the war...Our trade policies are a failure. NAFTA has done more harm than good. Basically it has allowed U.S. farmers to sell corn and other products to Mexico and other countries cheaper than the Mexicans can grow it and therefore all of these Mexican farmers are out of work and as a consequences thousands of people are out of work in Mexico...And then we wonder why we have an immigration problem." To launch audio, click here
2. What would you try to do within your first 90 days in office? "I will not vote for any more funding on the war...We also have a crisis in our educational system...Our schools right now need more money...What I would do as a member of Congress is author a bill to lower the class size...The No Child Left Behind Act is what I would say is a disgrace and it's a plan for failure...[T]here needs to be more money from the federal budget, instead of spending this money on the war...We never got the "peace dividend" [after the Cold War]...Instead we end up in this so-called war on terrorism, which is terrorism. It's state sponsored terrorism around the world caused by the U.S...We need a bill in Congress that's going to put this country on a change of direction towards energy independence...All of this energy from the sun is free...instead we're fighting a war in the middle east and going to all the effort to bring the oil over here when we have plenty of energy here, we just need to harness it...I'm opposed to [drilling for oil off the coast] when we're not developing solar energy...I feel we can put our defense companies to work on alternative energy..."
What would you do about the people who attacked the World Trade Center? "It's been proven...that Saddam Hussein did not have any connection to 9/11...The fact is Osama Bin Laden used to work for the CIA. He was on the CIA payroll as far as I know...him and the Taliban were trained with some of our taxpayer money at the time when the Soviets were in Afghanistan. And so we create a lot of these problems ourselves by our actions..."
...Are we in part responsible for 9/11? [long pause] "I cannot speak to that because I don't have...[reframes] We're responsible [for] anything that we have done as a country or our government has done as far as that violates the Geneva Conventions, and that violates our constitution also, that is the torturing of prisoners and all of this stuff does not create good will. Obviously it's possible that our past failures -- I'm not saying it is what happened but it's a possibility -- that our past failures in foreign policy have created so much resentment that these people wanted to do us harm. Now I'm not justifying what they did. I think what they did was wrong and I condemn the attacks on 9/11. But what I'm saying is we need to have a progressive foreign policy where we're going to be promoting peace and justice and liberty and freedom...and if we carry out policies in that direction then instead of creating enemies we're going to create friends." To launch audio, click here
3. Do you favor pulling the troops out immediately from Iraq, no preconditions? "...The White House and the Congress need to make clear that we're not going to have an open checkbook to continue this catastrophe...
Do you think President Bush should be impeached? "...Based on the truth and the facts that I've seen, he should be impeached...That means that the House of Representatives should have the courage, which apparently they don't...the Democrats apparently don't have the courage at this point, to at least hold hearings of the Judiciary Committee and look at the evidence and say 'is there enough evidence to warrant impeachment.'...The American people deserve to know the truth as to the serious allegations against President Bush, and they deserve to know what the evidence is. And the evidence should be presented in open forum in the Judiciary Committee so that the American people and the Congress for once can...expose the truth, as much as possible, the truth of what has gone on for the last five or six years that got us into this problem..." To launch audio, click here.
4. What should be done about Iran? "...We have a country in the region [Israel] that receives considerable U.S. aid which has approximately over 300 nuclear warheads. Israel refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refuses to allow U.N. Inspectors into their facilities, and yet we have the Bush administration with a huge double-standard insisting that the Iranians allow in U.N. inspectors and the Iranians sign and abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...[W]hy is it that we're allowing Israel... -- why is it the policy of the Congress and the President, many Congresses and many Presidents -- that we allow Israel to have all of these nuclear weapons, and...the U.N. is not allowed to go in and inspect their facilities but yet we insist that Israel inspect the facilities in Iran. And so I can say with confidence that if the Iranians want a nuclear weapon, it's not for offense it's for defense. Because the Iranians would be stupid and dumb to fire off any kind of a nuclear weapon from Iran knowing that both the United States and Israel would retaliate massively...When we start insisting that Israel abide by the Geneva Conventions and international law and U.N. resolutions and treaties, then the other countries are going to be more apt to comply. It's not a guarantee that they're going to comply but it will at least defuse the situation." To launch audio, click here.
5. [Further on should be done re President Bush] ...People are more concerned about Party loyalty than they are about defending the constitution and holding impeachment hearings and getting at the truth. I don't care if Bush is a Republican, a Democrat or an independent. The Congress should be holding impeachment hearings now, not waiting and...the evidence should be brought forth even after he leaves office and he should be prosecuted for war crimes if he's committed war crimes which allegedly he has according to the evidence that I've seen..." To launch audio, click here.
6. What should be done with Bin Laden?... "Bin Laden is a product of the CIA. He was given money and weapons. The Taliban was created as a counter to the Soviet occupation [of Afghanistan] back in the 1970s. So we had a hand in creating Bin Laden in the first place. So if President Bush or the CIA or our government really wanted Bin Laden, they would have had him a long time ago. But it's not to their advantage. If they were to find Bin Laden, then that would probably lead some people to say well maybe we need to stop the war on terror...The extremism of the world, regardless of what religion, is created by policies, U.S. policies, that promote dictatorship, and war, occupation and assassination. And when we have policies that go the other way, towards peace and justice and freedom and liberty, then the extremists are put out of business because they have no standing. And so if we find Bin Laden, I don't think he should be executed. He should be held and there should be a public trial and ask him as to supposedly why did he organize people to go into the World Trade Center? What is his justification? Why did he do this thing? We have President Bush saying that President Bush is behind this, but we also have a President Bush who has lied to the American people to justify invading Iraq...I'm not trying to make excuses for Bin Laden, but I don't think he should just be assassinated." To launch audio, click here.
7. What should we do about immigration here? "Well the first thing we should do is scrap NAFTA...People are profiting at the expense of the illegals...The illegals are just simple people like you and me trying to make a living to support their families. When we have NAFTA, which is a failure, creating more unemployment in Mexico than it's generating, then these people want to come over here to get work because they're starving or they don't have enough money to feed their families...
If people are found to be here illegally, should they be deported? "...In my view, the only people that have the legitimate right to tell anybody to go home are the Native Americans. We invaded their country, destroyed their culture and their way of life, took their land, and signed a multitude of treaties with them and we broke just about every single one of 'em. So we don't have a moral standing as far as fair immigration...America has always been open, whether they're fleeing Cuba, the Soviets or Communist Russia at that time...that if people are fleeing oppression and so on that we've always had a policy of our country of pretty much listening to them and looking at their request. When people are here illegally, they're then oftentimes they're mistreated and exploited by unscrupulous people who know these people can't come forward and complain about bad things that are being done to them because if they complain they'll be deported. And so the first step is to document every one who is here. Everyone should be documented and given some sort of paperwork so that we know who's here..." To launch audio, click here.
Mr. Dibs added:
"Your readers are not going to agree with everything I've said...but I think it's a worthy cause to get an opponent on the ballot, and then we have approximately three more months then to debate the issues, but unless I get the signatures, it's all going to end on August 8th, and she's going to go onto the ballot as the only candidate running and she'll obviously get reelected even if somebody mounts a write-in, because I don't think a write-in is viable..."
The 37th Congressional district (drawn by Sac'to Dems in 2001) includes roughly 80% of LB + Signal Hill, Compton and 100% of Carson (stronghold of former Cong. Juanita Millender-McDonald). It's currently comprised of roughly 156,000 registered Dems, about 46,000 registered Repubs...and approximately 49,000 voters registered as "decline to state."
37th Congressional district
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