Rookie Candidate for Congress

I had a chance to chat with Emanuel Pleitez, a young financial analyst who is another Democratic candiate for Congress in Califoria's 32nd district. Remember that this is the seat left vacant by current Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and the other top Latino candidate is Gil Cedillo, who is also participating in Sí TV's Take the Lead Program.

This congressional race is particularly interesting because this district has been one that is dominated by Latinos and a growing Asian population. The other high profile candidate is Judy Chu, who has considerable support within the Asian community. Some political veterans are of the opinion that Emanuel Pleitez and now, newly declared candidate, Benita Duran (who also served as Rep. Solis's Deputy District Director) are going to split the Latino vote in this district, and end up giving the race to Judy Chu. The candidate who wins the Democratic primary will almost be certain to head to Congress, as this district is traditionally blue. All of these candidates are pretty similar on the policy issues. They are progressive Democrats, but each one is taking a slightly different path toward the special election on May 19. One thing that is very obvious about Emanuel Pleitez is his relative youth (26), his use of social media and web tools to get out his message, and his team of unpaid full-time volunteers.

To make matters more challenging for Gil Cedillo, who many perceived to be "the Latino to beat" has been the subject of some articles in the LA Times about his campaign expenditures. This comes at a time when all Americans, and especially Californians, are pinching their pennies.

But without getting too bogged down in the details, let's get to some of the questions and answers from my session with Emanuel Pleitez:

1. Why are you running for Congress now when you have your whole life ahead of you to do it later or perhaps after graduate school or working more?

This country is ready for a new way of doing politics. My age shoudn't matter. What matters more is that I have relevant financial experience that distinguishes me from my opponents.

2. Some feel that your candidacy could take away votes from Cedillo, the other high profile Latino Democrat in the race. This seat has traditionally been held by a Latino (Solis most recently). Do you think that your candidacy jeopardizes the seat for the Latino community?

We should look at this race by trying to determine who will represent the district the best. I see it that I'm the better candidate because of my financial experience who happens to be Latino. We need to elect a person who will represent everyone. To me, this race is about the voters who we are organizing and meeting every day, which we are doing with local house meetings and on-line with new media tools. Voters want to be represented by someone who will listen to their concerns and who knows about the economy.

3. What do you feel about the situation with the banks, specifically about bank nationalization and how we are going to get credit flowing again?

I don't believe that we should nationalize the banks, but we already own about 80% of AIG and large portions of some of the other larger banking institutions. Nationalization is not out of the picture. The problem is that the most expert auditors will still have a hard time auditing the banks to determine the real value of the banks' assets and probability of defaulting. The government should force financial institutions to claim the losses by allowing the bad assets to be purchased, instead of allowing the banks to cover them up.

4. How will you bring about change in Congress? It is a body politic that routinely gives itself raises, travels on the public dime, and still has trouble steering the country back on course. How does your message of change fit into the old, established Congress?

I would work on changing the culture of Congress and try to get younger people to participate and run, in addition to people who are outside of traditional political networks. I also will bring a bipartisan spirit. I'm bipartisan every day, as my fiancee is a Republican. In the end, I want to be known as someone who gets things done, not someone who just shows up to vote.