By Justin Fareed In the height of this presidential election season, it's easy to be blinded by the mud-slinging. The gloves have come off on both sides of the aisle, but one consequential difference in platforms between the Republicans and Democrats is the topic of foreign policy. Foreign policy used to be a bipartisan issue where both sides of the aisle focused on protecting our nation. Today, the Democrats avoid the issue and Republicans focus debates on repairing the damage done by the Obama administration's lack of sound foreign policy. If our leaders can't discuss their plan to keep us safe -- the most essential responsibility of the federal government -- how can we expect them to tackle other serious issues we face as a nation? As a legislative aide to a senior member of Congress, I led an international delegation to the Republic of Turkey and saw firsthand the implications of this administration's failed foreign policy. While President Obama tiptoes around the issues and ignores the rise of radical Islam, the Islamic State proceeds to carry out barbaric attacks on innocent people, beheading them in the streets and selling women and children as sex slaves. It's one thing to ignore the humanitarian component in the region, but to mask the shortcomings for political expediency threatens the livelihood of us here at home. It is undeniable that there is instability in the world with threats to our nation's security both at home and abroad. As we have seen through the tragedies that occurred in Paris and San Bernardino just one week after the president told the American people that they were contained, ISIS is most certainly not a JV team and radical Islamic terrorism is a threat to western culture that cannot be tolerated. Additionally, the Obama administration's refusal to work with Congress on a vital nuclear deal with Iran has put our nation at risk and further amplifies the volatility within the Mideast. The partisan battles in D.C. have hindered our nation's relationships with our most trusted allies, especially our closest ally in the Mideast, Israel. If we are going to defeat ISIS, ensure that Iran doesn't obtain a nuclear weapon, stand up to Russia and China, and restore our standing in the world, leaders will have to put partisan politics aside. When did keeping our families safe and ensuring that future generations inherit a secure nation become a partisan issue? The next president of the United States and Congress have to work together to forge long-range solutions in order to protect our country from radical Islamic terrorism and future threats that we will face as a nation. As your representative, I will work to strengthen our relationships with our allies and NATO partners in the region, show leadership and stand up for America's interests in order to ensure safety for our families and certainty for our future generations.

By Kelsey Brugger In the highly anticipated first debate in the Central Coast's wide-open congressional race, moderator Randol White with KCBX aptly summed up the evening in closing remarks: "It's a crowded table." Vying to replace Congressmember Lois Capps, who has held the seat for nearly two decades, nine candidates separated themselves mostly along party lines while injecting healthy doses of their personalities to attendees at a packed Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo auditorium Thursday. The four front-runners -- Democrats Salud Carbajal and Helene Schneider and Republicans Katcho Achadjian and Justin Fareed -- rarely deviated from their respective blue-red talking points. The district, comprising San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and a sliver of Ventura counties, is one of the most competitive in the state -- with just 3.4 percent more registered Democrats than Republicans. Salud Carbajal, Santa Barbara County 1st District SupervisorThe event initially ran like a forum, with participants allowed 90 seconds to answer four questions drafted by Cal Poly's political science department. The other five candidates -- Steve Isakson, Jeff Oshins, Bill Ostrander, John Uebersax, and Matt Kokkonen -- proved more willing to interrupt the rigid format. Oshins -- frank, funny, and unassuming -- snapped at his conservative counterparts at the table: "I want to ask you if you are going to sign [Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge]." Achadjian rebutted: "Are we going to stick to the questions we have, or are we going to get [off topic]?" White, who seesawed between reeling the candidates in and letting them run wild, agreed to stick to the prescribed questions. The debate drew a sizable crowd to the Spanos Theatre at Cal PolyIn that vein, Carbajal and Schneider -- Santa Barbara county supervisor and city mayor, respectively -- sounded remarkably similar on nearly every issue: college loans, minimum wage, the Affordable Care Act, Big Pharma, climate change, etc. When asked about the federal government's role to improve higher education, both proposed the same list of solutions (albeit in a different order): reduce student debt, increase federal loans and grants, and support President Barack Obama's free two-year community college plan. Schneider added combating sexual assault. She mentioned the state's recently adopted "Yes Means Yes" law, authored by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, who is her key local endorsement. Schneider said her experiences working in human resources at Planned Parenthood and as mayor would be useful on the federal level. Early on, Schneider sought to distinguish herself as the only woman at the table. "I am not a yes man," she said. Her royal blue jacket stood out next to the line of men in gray and black suits. Carbajal, who leads the pack in terms of fundraising and Democratic endorsements, told the crowd his father was a farmworker in Oxnard. He was the first in his family to go to a four-year university and is now a father of two. "I know what it's like to cobble up resources," he said. "The two most pressing challenges [in higher education] are accessibility and affordability." Ostrander -- the self-proclaimed campaign-finance crusader -- asked the audience, "How many people think there is too much money in politics?" Lots of hands went up. He pulled out his iPhone, took a photo of the crowd, and promised to give the picture to whoever wins the election. He deemed reforming political fundraising as the easy fix to end gridlock in Washington: "Most of us are wired to be in the center," he said. "Take the money out of it, and you will not have the polarity." Ostrander made a point to stand up from the table when he spoke: "I feel more comfortable," he said. Santa Barbara Mayor Helene SchneiderAchadjian, who represents San Luis Obispo in the State Assembly, meanwhile, appeared less than enthused. Putting on reading glasses, he simply read from notes several times during the two-hour event. He acknowledged he was a little "wobbly," as he arrived just an hour before the debate after driving from Sacramento. (Achadjian, who owns several gas stations in the area, has pointed to his busy assembly schedule as the reason he lags in campaign fundraising.) Still, his home-court advantage was clear. When asked if he wanted to rebut Ostrander's assertion that health care should be a right -- "not a privilege" -- he said, "No, I want to give him my applause for pronouncing my name correctly." The audience laughed. The crowd booed, however, after Republican Kokkonen said the United States has the best and most sophisticated medical care in the world. Defensively, he said, "I stand by that." Kokkonen, a San Luis Obispo-based financial adviser who emigrated from Finland in 1945, has run a number of times for federal and state offices. For the most part, Republican Fareed -- a young, ambitious, second-time congressional candidate -- stuck to his narrative. "I'm running for congress because career politicians have broken this political system," he said, "and it doesn't work for you." He worked as an aide for Kentucky Congressmember Ed Whitfield from 2012-2013. Fareed, who works for his family's Montecito sports medical device business, noted more than once he wanted to "reduce the bloated size of government." "I've seen regulation … that made it difficult for businesses like ours to survive, let alone thrive," he said. He proposed to "get bureaucrats out of the way" to promote business owners. "When they succeed, we succeed," he said. Ostrander swung back: "That is the Republican playbook we've heard for the last 34 years, and it has not worked very well, has it?" Fareed and Ostrander also got into a testy back-and-forth over the Affordable Care Act, which Fareed called "the largest federal boondoggle," adding, "Most people literally passed it without reading it," he said. Oshins got the last word, standing up and walking to the front of the table. "Students, I'm doing this for you guys." He promised to organize meet-ups for parents about loan debt and to keep talking until the issue takes off. The group is expected to debate again soon; exactly when and where has not been decided.

By: Matt Fountain 4th District congressional seat found common ground on the issue of higher education and student debt during their first debate this week. But that was largely the end of the road for bipartisanship. The other four questions they fielded -- on the economy, sustainability and the environment, health care, and political and social polarization -- split mostly along party lines in the debate among four Democrats, three Republicans and two independents on the stage at Cal Poly's Spanos Theatre on Thursday night. In the often colorful debate, moderated by KCBX-FM's news director Randol White, the candidates differentiated themselves from their rivals on nearly every issue. Each is seeking to succeed Democratic Rep. Lois Capps, who has announced she intends to retire at the end of her term, kicking off what could become one of the most-contested congressional races in the state. The 24th District, which sprawls across all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, as well as a wedge of Ventura County, is closely divided in voter registration, with Democrats at 37 percent, Republicans at 34 percent and an unpredictable 23 percent of voters with no party preference. So far, the candidates are Republicans Katcho Achadjian, Justin Fareed and Matt Kokkonen; Democrats Salud Carbajal, Jeff Oshins, William Ostrander and Helene Schneider; and independents Steve Isakson and John Uebersax. Posing the first question, White asked candidates to define the greatest challenges facing higher education and the role of the federal government in meeting those challenges. Overwhelmingly, the candidates said student debt was a massive problem that ripples across the entire U.S. economy. Oshins, a retired contractor who has made student debt his top issue, said the high cost of education has created a "generation of indentured servants" who postpone their contributions to society because they can't earn a living while paying off student loans." To combat this, most candidates agreed that some form of restructuring or refinancing student debt was needed, along with incentives for families to invest in their loved ones' higher education. "It's ridiculous you can refinance your mortgage but you can't refinance your (student) debt," said Carbajal, a third-term Santa Barbara County supervisor. He added -- though it was not met with enthusiasm from the Republican candidates -- that he supports the expansion of federal financial aid such as Pell grants. Achadjian, the 35th District assemblyman and former San Luis Obispo County supervisor, suggested incentivizing financial institutions to provide no-interest student loans. Fareed, 27, also mentioned the promotion of 529 savings plans, state or institution-sponsored investment plans that assist in saving for tuition and other education costs. Schneider, the mayor of Santa Barbara who previously worked for more than a decade with Planned Parenthood of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, broadened the student debt issue to discuss campus safey. "We need to stop the epidemic of sexual assaults and rape," Schneider said, promoting measures such as last year's SB 967, known commonly as the "Yes Means Yes" law, that redefined sexual consent in California. Moving on to a question on how to stimulate economic growth in the district, Fareed called for abolishing regulations that stymie economic growth. "We need to get public bureaucrats out of the way," he said. The statement prompted the first off-script exchange of the night, with San Luis Obispo rancher and campaign finance reform candidate Ostrander replying: "That is the Republican playbook we've heard the last 35 years, and it hasn't worked very well, has it?" Achadjian pointed to audience members, many of them Cal Poly students, as the future of the economy. Kokkonen, a San Luis Obispo financial planner, took that a step further, saying vocational training should be promoted as an alternative to college and proposed doing away with income tax for people 25 years old and younger. Carbajal called for raising the federal minimum wage and ending investments in "frivolous wars." Schneider proposed federal investments in renewable energy, equal pay legislation, and promoting paid family leave and sick time. "No one should work a full-time job and still fall into poverty," Schneider said. Uebersax, a self-employed statistician, tried unsuccessfully to build a consensus among the candidates, declaring that the pursuit of happiness should not equate to a pursuit of money. Asked about environmentalism and federal policies for sustainable water use, Achadjian brought up his tenure on the California Coastal Commission and his support for desalination plants. Most candidates agreed that desalination represented one possible strategy for expanding water supplies. Carbajal and Schneider said the federal government should step in to provide more funding to state and local governments for conservation, storage and aquifer recharging efforts. That idea was rejected by the Republicans, with Fareed again suggesting the end of regulations that he said hinders development of desalination plants and other alternative technologies. Ostrander, the rancher, said reform was needed in the agricultural industry and its overuse of scarce water. "Eighty-five percent of all water use goes to agriculture," he said, adding that the industry needs to embrace dry farming. "We continue to till up the soil and actually repel more water than we can (store in aquifers)." Ostrander also chastised the other candidates for not mentioning global warming. On the issue of social and political polarization, two of the Republicans said the political establishment has let the American people down. Fareed said it was time to "clean house" in a dysfunctional Congress. Achadjian agreed, suggesting legislators shouldn't be paid unless they can compromise on issues such as passing a budget on time. "It's obvious that Congress forgot who elected them and sent them to Washington," Achadjian said. Most of the candidates pledged to work with those across the political aisle. Schneider said lawmakers also need to engage the disenfranchised who are economically and politically marginalized in society. "We need to listen to people across the country when people are saying their voices aren't being heard," Schneider said, pointing specifically to the Black Lives Matter activist movement formed last year to protest police brutality incidents that have disproportionately affected ethnic minorities. Ostrander said he believes society is actually not as polarized as the question suggested, but that big money in the political process promotes extremism. Both independent candidates, Uebersax and Isakson, said the 24th District needs someone without major party affiliation to help ease the gridlock. The irony of the discussion wasn't lost in the theater when the next question -- posed by an audience member -- asked the candidates' opinions on the Affordable Care Act and no one reached across party lines. Republicans across the board responded that the federal government has no place requiring health insurance. "The American people were told that the (ACA) would save everybody (money). … Those were boldfaced lies, not true," Kokkonen answered. "When the government controls health care, they control you." "I don't believe it's the job of the federal government to tell me what kind of insurance I should have," Achadjian said. "This policy is like a Rubik's Cube," Fareed said. The Democrats and independents, on the other hand, said they supported the law and cited the benefits it's held for millions of Americans, although work remains to be done to improve the ACA. More emphasis needs to be placed on mental health and breaking the stranglehold that pharmaceutical companies have on the cost of health care, they said.