Three San Jose Republicans hope to challenge Congressman Mike
Honda in the upcoming 15th District Congressional race, but they
first must face each other in the June 8 primary. San Jose
businessmen Scott Kirkland, Don Barich and Raymond Chukwu may not
have any political experience, but they all have years of interest
in politics and backgrounds in business leadership.
Three San Jose Republicans hope to challenge Congressman Mike Honda in the upcoming 15th District Congressional race, but they first must face each other in the June 8 primary. San Jose businessmen Scott Kirkland, Don Barich and Raymond Chukwu may not have any political experience, but they all have years of interest in politics and backgrounds in business leadership.
Meanwhile, Honda (D-San Jose) is running unopposed as a Democrat as he finishes up his fifth term as the district’s representative.
Scott Kirkland
Kirkland, 32, was holding his newborn daughter in his arms about five months ago when he saw a Congressional Budget Office report that detailed economic challenges and deficit trends. Although he had always been interested in U.S. government, it was not until then that he sought political office.
“I just felt the need to get involved,” Kirkland said. “I couldn’t bear the thought of handing this off to our children.”
Kirkland works in the Sunnyvale office of Scotts Valley-based Seagate Technology, a company that makes hard drives.
Kirkland wants to give tax breaks to private industry to help spur the economy rather than spending more money on government projects.
While health care reform is needed, the health care legislation that was approved by the House in March has too much government involvement, he said. He expressed fear that increasingly socialized medicine eventually will cause health care to be rationed in the United States.
He also expressed concern about Congressman Honda’s record, saying that he is in lockstep with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has turned a deaf ear to what he called a fiscally conservative district.
Although he has no political experience, he said many people he met on the campaign trail support him for that very reason. Kirkland has met with local Tea Party activists and former 15th District Congressman Tom Campbell among others as he blazes the campaign trail.
He has yet to meet fellow contender Raymond Chukwu, but he said he met his opponent Barich and he liked him. Still, he believes he will be the Republican Party’s best option for making a run against Honda.
“I really like the people in this district,” he said. “I think they deserve better than what they’re getting right now.”
Don Barich
Barich, 56, has maintained a vigorous interest in politics for some time but did not decide to run for office until this year.
“I have always had strong political opinions and I can tell you I’ve ruined a few backyard barbecues,” he laughed.
His top priorities include the economy, immigration, energy independence and troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.
He believes in stimulating the economy by lowering taxes and regulations on businesses rather than through government spending.
“Jobs in my opinion are the no. 1 priority,” he said.
He favors a guest worker program for seasonal and temporary work along with the protection of U.S. borders. He said he strongly supports U.S. troops, but he thinks they have done all they can in Iraq and Afghanistan and that it is time to leave.
He takes the Republican Party under the Bush administration’s leadership as well as the Democratic Party to task for their economic policies, saying that Republicans took revenues from tax cuts to grow government. He also blames government for “forcing banks to give out loans to people that they couldn’t afford.”
Barich is a strong proponent of limited government and opposes current health care legislation.
“Everyone agrees with portions of the health care bill, but there are other parts that cause the government to grow, and we will have to create literally hundreds of agencies to handle this,” Barich said.
He is proud to be the only 15th District candidate to be endorsed by the Independence Caucus, a group that supports limited government and fiscal responsibility and opposes candidates supported by special interests.
Like Kirkland, he has no political experience. However, Barich said his business background has given him team building and management skills.
He keeps busy with three jobs – working in the graphic arts industry, serving as a gym instructor and leading an adult education class for immigrants. He ran his own graphic arts company for many years.
Barich described the 15th District as “entrepreneurial,” and said he did not feel that Honda was looking after its needs.
“He votes pretty much as the Democratic party tells him to vote,” Barich said.
Raymond Chukwu
Chukwu, 56, has a background in aerospace engineering and has run for Congress twice previously. He wants to see more federal vocational training programs, particularly in the technology field, to help the U.S. get through the current economic downturn.
“My main focus is jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs,” he said.
Chukwu, who heads up the San Jose-based nonprofit firm Black Technologies Advancement, was born in Sonoma, but his Nigerian father moved him to Nigeria at age 2 after his mother died. Then his father died in a truck accident shortly after he moved Nigeria. He lived with his grandmother up until age 12, when she died, and he was passed around by different relatives after that. Chukwu dreamed of getting back to the United States and ultimately earned a scholarship that allowed him to attend university in Indiana.
He became a research engineer for Lockheed Martin, and he says he entered politics at the urging of Republican leaders after becoming a finalist for the position of Nigeria’s ambassador in 2001.
“If you really look around at the Republican party, you don’t see too many minorities in the Republican Party,” Chukwu said. “But hey, listen, the Republican Party is very inclusive. They believe in self-made people. They believe in people who try to succeed.”
Chukwu has not raised the $5,000 needed to be considered a candidate by the Federal Election Commission but said he is trying.
In addition to vocational training, Chukwu wants to start a congressional task force to improve academic excellence in science and technology. He is an advocate for energy independence and wants to promote jobs in renewable resources. He wants to launch an environmental summit with manufacturers and environmentalists to find ways to maximize productivity while maintaining a safer environment.
Like his Republican opponents, he takes issue with the current health care legislation and believes Honda has not done much to help local businesses.
Although Barich and Kirkland said they have yet to meet Chukwu at local Republican events, Chukwu said he stays involved with the Republican Party in Santa Clara County.
Mike Honda
While Honda has plenty of opposition from the Republican Party, he stands unchallenged from his own party in the 15th District race.
The 68-year-old former school teacher, county supervisor and state assemblyman from San Jose has been reelected four times since he became a Congressman in 2001.
He sees job creation as the most vital need in the country but advocates for a different approach. For instance, he said the health care bill will create 4.4 million new jobs. He also supports an extension of unemployment benefits.
Congress is doing what it can to correct the errors of the past, he said.
“The financial crisis and job losses were part of the past administration’s way of doing business,” Honda said. “They believed that if you let people go and do their own things that things will be better.”
Congress needs to take a step back and look at what will be needed to balance the budget, he said. Legislators will need to make tough decisions as they seek to accomplish that task, just as former President Bill Clinton implemented welfare reform in the ’90s to help make it happen, he said.
Looking back during his past term, he said he is proud of the health care bill as the 15th District contains about 70,000 people who do not have health insurance.
“That’s not acceptable,” he said.
He took issue with the accusation that he merely toes the party line, saying that the party itself often does not agree on things.
He said he wants to see education and immigration reform as some of the top priorities.
Honda is pleased with the support he has received from his constituents, he said.
“People can say, ‘Yeah, he’s doing OK,'” Honda said of himself. “He is here (in the district) almost every weekend. He’s reachable, if not personally, through (his staff).”
