Democratic congressional debate features plenty of agreement

By Kyle Roerink

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015 | 10:03 a.m.

The Democratic candidates running for the 4th Congressional District believe in many of the same things: more opportunity in the black community, equal pay for women, a higher minimum wage and ousting Republican incumbent Rep. Cresent Hardy.

At a forum Monday night, what separated was how they talked about it.

State Sen. Ruben Kihuen, philanthropist Susie Lee and retired firefighter John Oceguera participated in a debate hosted by the Clark County Black Caucus, touching on issues of importance to a district in which 40 percent of Democratic voters are minorities and the average income is $50,000. (Former Assemblymember Lucy Flores declined to attend, citing a scheduling conflict.)

Here’s how the candidates positioned themselves in front of 150 attendees at their first debate.

State Sen. Ruben Kihuen

The five-term lawmaker discussed his work in Carson City, including a bill that called for a $15 minimum wage and votes for the laws that increased public school funding in 2015.

Kihuen is a Mexican immigrant who was once on a free or reduced lunch program. His mother is a housekeeper on the Strip. He supports immigration reform and programs that help minorities enter the workforce.

At the debate, Kihuen was the first to mention decriminalizing marijuana and vowed to introduce a campaign finance reform bill if elected. He also discussed a bill he supported in the Legislature that now mandates 25 percent of state contracts go to minority-owned businesses.

“We need to do the same at the federal level,” he said.

Susie Lee

She currently serves as the head of the Communities in Schools program, which serves 56,000 students from 50 schools on dropout prevention and early childhood education.

More than a dozen times at the debate she vowed to stop the “student-to-prison pipeline” and said that black men were three times as likely to be suspended from school and six times likelier to go to prison compared to white men.

Lee, a member of the Clark County Black Caucus, said she supported a $15 minimum wage and equal pay for women. She said there was a “job disparity in the black community,” arguing that “at very early ages we need to train our young people to become entrepreneurs.”

John Oceguera

The former Nevada Assembly Speaker and retired North Las Vegas firefighter called for higher wages and criminal justice reform that would pave the way for less police brutality and more minority judges and public defenders.

“There is a disproportionate amount of police misconduct,” he said. “We got to do something to change that.”

He called for more community policing, which would allow officers to build relationships with neighborhood residents, and said he would fund workforce programs to re-acclimate offenders that exit prisons.