10 questions for state Sen. Dina Titus

LAS VEGAS - Having served in the Nevada Senate since 1988, state Sen. Dina Titus (D-Las Vegas) is challenging U.S. Rep. Jon Porter (R-Boulder City) this year to represent the 3rd Congressional District. Following a week in which we received your questions for Titus, PolitickerNV.com sat down with her Friday to talk about the issues that matter to Nevadans and how she plans on defeating the three-term incumbent.

PolitickerNV: What issues do you want to work on in congress? What do you believe is most important to the people of Nevada? NVGirl

Dina Titus: The theme is going to be about change, changing the direction that the country is going and changing the direction that the state is going because we've been falling further and further behind. Towards that end of change, I will continue to work on things that I've worked on in the state legislature that are also national issues. One of those is certainly gas prices and that means focusing on renewable energy. I've done that in the state senate with portfolio standards, cap and trade on greenhouse emissions, tax breaks for renewable energy development. So I think that's important to do on the national level and I think it will help with the price of gas. A second one that is also important here in Nevada and nationally is the need for health care coverage. Nevada has one of the worst rates of uninsured in the country and I believe we need to move toward some kind of healthcare that is available to all Americans. And then third, of course, is education. I am an educator. I see the value, obviously, in my classes. I've worked in the legislature for smaller class sizes, on the Millennium Scholarship, for funding for education and I'll continue to do that on the national level. One thing I will do is revise No Child Left Behind because I think that's an unfunded mandate on the states, and another thing is I'm a strong supporter of tax breaks for student loans.

NV: The largest spikes in gas prices have come about since Democrats took control of congress. Why don't congressional Democrats deserve the blame for rising gas prices? Voter from a distance

DT: Well, that's ridiculous. You have to go back to the price of gas at the beginning of this administration with a president who is an oil and gas man. Democrats have only been in office for a short time and everything they've proposed has been blocked by the Republicans or has been threatened to veto by the president. So you cannot possibly blame this on the Democrats. Democrats have some good ideas, which I support. One is an investment in renewables which begins to wean the country off of its addiction to oil. A second is a price-gouging bill that keeps gas companies from raising the price at the pump while they're making extraordinary profits already, to be sure those are reasonable. A third thing is, I don't believe the gas companies need those kinds of tax breaks they're getting while they're making those record profits. And that money can be reinvested into other forms of energy.

NV: Last month's Rasmussen poll showed that 18% of voters view immigration as the most important issue this election. Many of those people are angry that citizens have to pay for services that illegal immigrants use like the Millennium Scholarship. How do you think the federal government should handle the problem of illegal immigration? Didi

DT: I agree with people that immigration is a serious problem and the federal government has failed to resolve it. This is something that congress should have been working on and they've not done it. So the number of illegal immigrants has increased considerably over the last administration and the time that Jon Porter's been in congress. So, if you look at my record on immigration, you'll see that I voted for a bill, introduced by Richard Perkins, that said no driver's licenses for illegals. I voted for that bill. I also voted for a bill last session, introduced by Marilyn Kirkpatrick, to fine businesses that hire illegals or undocumented people. That bill has been brought forward at the federal level several times and Jon Porter, who is supported by the chamber of commerce, has voted against that bill, not to penalize businesses that hire illegals. I believe as long as there is a job here, people will come. Also at the federal level, the only thing they've done is start to build a fence, which hasn't made a bit of difference. I've never seen a fence that somebody couldn't climb over or crawl under. You've got to close that border in a realistic way with more guards and better technology if you want to stop the flow. I don't want the services being used either.

NV: What role should the federal government and congress play in education and how do you hope to strengthen education in Nevada? Anonymouss, Independent voter

DT: I think education is better done at the local level then at the federal level. You had No Child Left Behind that set certain standards and penalized schools that didn't meet those standards and often that worked in the opposite way it was supposed to. You don't take away resources from poor schools and expect them to do better. It was an unfunded mandate on the states because they had to meet some pretty unrealistic standards without the resources to provide the equipment or the teachers or the technology to help students meet those standards. I believe in smaller class sizes. I strongly support that, always have, and will continue to. I believe you have to do real funding of education, you can't just say it's a priority and then cut the budget every chance you get as we've seen happening here in Nevada with this governor. I think that it's very important for people to be able to go on to college if they want to, so I support tax breaks and lower interest for student loans for people to be able to go to college. And I think that programs that provide assistance for vocational or career technology training are very important. We tried to do this at the state level, but we can get some federal funding for this because not everybody's going to college. We need skilled craftsmen, artists, chefs, other kinds of professions, so I think those kind of programs need to be supported as well.

NV: Democrats passed a budget resolution earlier this year which Republicans have dubbed the "largest tax increase in history." What do you think of Democrats' efforts to end some of President Bush's tax cuts? CharlesfromVegas

DT: I don't know of any tax increase that national Democrats are pushing. They're looking for tax breaks for the middle class and I certainly support that. Jon Porter has supported tax breaks for the wealthiest 1 percent of the country. He's supported tax breaks for the pharmaceutical companies, tax breaks for the oil companies, tax breaks for companies that take jobs overseas.

NV: With the economy the way it is, how do you feel that the House can help with the credit crisis and housing market? Do you feel it is an issue to be handled at the federal level? Chad from Henderson

DT: I think you need more transparency with LLCs and more regulations of mortgage companies so we don't find ourselves in this position again. Some assistance to people who have gotten themselves in this fix and are losing their homes I think is appropriate, whether it's to help them restructure their loans so they can pay back over a longer period of time or get them a fixed rate for a certain amount of time so they don't lose their homes. Even if you're not sympathetic to the person who got in over his head, you have to realize that when homes are closed down they become a blight on the neighborhood, so everybody's property values are affected. Vandals move in, swimming pools get polluted, so it's a protection not just of the individual but of the community.

NV: One reader wanted to ask you: How do we stand up against Republicans labeling us "tax and spenders" and saying we're weak on defense and national security? Davey Jones

DT: I think we have to ask people to look at the record and see what's happened under our administration and what's happened under the current administration. Bill Clinton left with money in the bank. Now we've spent all that and there's a huge deficit. The war is costing us $5,000 a second. I'm used to operating under a balanced budget at the state level; you can't have these kinds of big deficits. I also operate under a system that requires two-thirds to raise any taxes. You cannot do income taxes at the state level. At the state level, I have a cap on property taxes at three percent. The fiscal policy that I've operated on is much more conservative, if you read Chuck Muth's evaluation of my votes on taxes compared to [state Sen. Bill] Raggio's (R-Reno). So we just have to get people to look at the record and not believe that same tired, old rhetoric of the Republicans. People are tired of that. They used it in races in Mississippi and Louisiana and it didn't work there and I don't think it will work nationally because it's the same old thing. People want a change. New politics and new solutions.

NV: Almost fifteen percent of the voters in CD3 are non-partisans. What will you do to reach out to independent voters?

DT: I think it's very important to talk to independents. We're not just talking to Democrats; I'm also talking to moderate Republicans, especially Republican women. Independents have to pay $4.50 a gallon at the pump too. They also have children who are going to school. They're no different from anybody else and I think if you talk to them and ask them, "Are you better off today than you were eight years ago? Do you like the way things are going or do you want a change?" They're going to be receptive to our message.

NV: There has been talk of an "Obama factor" in house races. How do you expect that will play out in CD3 and are you worried at all about a "McCain factor" for Porter?

DT: I'm going to be running my own race, so I'm going to be focusing on Jon Porter and those are the kind of issues we're going to be talking about. The top of the ticket, I think, is going to be very interesting. The plus is with Obama. He brings out young people, he brings out new people. As a result of this early caucus we had, this district has gone from 2,000 more Democrats to 23,000 more Democrats. That's a sign of how energized people are and I think you are going to see it up and down the ticket.

NV: A Mason-Dixon poll recently put you three points behind Porter, within the margin of error. Do you think that accurately reflects the district's opinion of your race?

DT: No, I think we're doing better than that. That was a poll of just 238 people, six percent margin of error. We were within two points; I say we're ahead. People stop me on the streets, we're walking in the district every weekend, we're phone-banking. The more we talk to people, the more they say they are concerned about the economy and they want a change. So I'm happy with where we are and we're just going to keep working, walking and talking and I believe we'll have a victory in November.