Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.
MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide
Name: Sade Elhawary
Current job title: Community Organizer/Educator
Political party affiliation: Democrat
Incumbent: No
Other political positions held: n/a
City where you reside: Los Angeles
Campaign website or social media: sadeforassembly.com
It’s no secret that California will play an outsized role in AI development and regulation. That was a big topic for the legislature this year, but what is one way you’d like to see the legislature tackle concerns about bias or transparency in the AI space or encourage innovation and start-ups? (Please be specific in your response, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)
My priority is protecting our people and our civil rights. This year, the Council of Europe adopted the first ever international, legally binding treaty on artificial intelligence and its effects on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Our government should ratify the treaty and work on implementing its tenets in federal law. We need immediate guardrails on the technologies that threaten human rights, such as facial recognition and the generation of child pornography. I urge the Governor to sign the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act (SB 1047, Wiener), which requires all companies that spend a certain amount on training an AI model to test if the model will also aid in the creation or distribution of chemical or cyber attacks. The State of California must take the next step in carrying out the research needed to effectively regulate everyday violations that accompany AI. I support the newly introduced Social Media Harm Reduction Pilot Program (AB 2390, Arambula), which bans the use of discriminatory AI in economic sectors, such as housing, finance, insurance, and health care.
Before California voters this year is a proposition to increase the state’s minimum wage to $18 per hour, the nation’s highest, by 2026. Do you support increasing the minimum wage in this way? Why or why not? (Please keep your answer to 150 words or less.)
Yes. I fully support Prop 32—which increases minimum wage and also tries to mitigate the effect on small and medium-sized businesses by creating a longer timeline for those companies—because, in my district, at least 80% have an annual household income of no more than $50,000. According to the LA Times, 2 million Californians would receive a wage increase: from restaurant and grocery workers to child care providers and school staff.
This year, California faced a large budget deficit that put a strain on lawmakers’ ability to fund certain programs and projects going forward. What is one thing you believe the state should do to avoid such large deficits in the future? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit it to 150 words or less.)
The Legislature needs to pass budgets that prioritize working families and those facing poverty. The May Revise reflects a challenging puzzle to solve. And while we must first address the essentials in the short term—health care and affordable housing—we should be looking at longer term solutions, such as closing Proposition 13 loopholes that give corporate and commercial property owners huge tax breaks while working families struggle to survive.
Speaking of the budget, there are multiple proposed bond measures before voters this year. Is the state in a good place to issue bonds for state programs and infrastructure projects? Should certain programs or projects be prioritized over others? (Please be specific in your response, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)
Yes, the state is an appropriate pipeline to issue bonds for needed programs, and we must always prioritize projects. We have to prepare for the future. I support, in order: Prop 5, opening up paths and resources to fund more affordable rental housing and homeownership programs; Prop 4, to create clean air and clean water projects in low-income communities that bear the heaviest burden of climate change: and Prop 2, to build new or renovate existing public school and community college facilities, because we need to invest in schools not prisons.
Cost of living is high on the list of concerns among voters, particularly among younger people. What is one bipartisan proposal you have to alleviate concerns about high prices or the cost of living in California? (Please be specific in your response, and limit it to 200 words.)
While there is disagreement across the aisle on tax policies or how to combat crime, I think there is one thing we agree on: the need to increase housing supply. I want to reduce the required minimum lot size and increase the maximum percentage for the size of all buildings or structures on a lot. I will work on policies to limit single-family zoning and increase the development of multifamily, mixed-income housing in residential communities. And I want to remove barriers to subsidized and social housing.
The legislature this year considered recommendations from a first-in-the-nation task force that considered how California could atone for past racism and discrimination against Black people, including potential compensation. What do you believe is the role of the state in atoning for the atrocities committed against Black people? (Please limit your answer to 200 words or less.)
Reparations are about the dismantling of policies, social norms, and economic practices that have made Black people in California an afterthought. I support the findings submitted by the California Reparations Task Force and the method devised to calculate lost wealth. I agree with the movement to identify land stolen through the racist application of eminent domain from Black and Indigenous people and return it to the descendants of the dispossessed.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently ordered state agencies to remove homeless encampments on state property and urged cities to follow through. What else do you propose the state do to help eradicate homelessness? (Please limit your response to 200 words or less.)
The state has a responsibility to increase our housing stock and also to prevent people from becoming unhoused in the first place. I believe in the Housing First model and will fight to work in close collaboration with City and County governments to ensure the most effective use of resources, developing non-market housing, subsidized housing, community land trusts, housing cooperatives, social/public housing that is protected in perpetuity from being sold within the private housing market, increasing adaptive reuse zoning, passing iron-clad rent control, protecting and extending access to state resources for kids in the foster care system, and expanding access to comprehensive mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Similarly, Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged county leaders to take advantage more of a new state law that makes it easier to place someone with severe mental health or substance abuse issues into conservatorships, an effort to keep more people out of homelessness. But local leaders in Southern California have said they need more time and resources to build, fund and staff more mental health facilities. Is there anything the legislature could — or should — do to aid communities struggling to find the resources to properly provide this type of mental health support? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit the response to 200 words or less.)
As someone who advocates for understanding and addressing the root of systemic problems like houselessness and inequality, I want to acknowledge that counties and providers need support. With SB 964 (Weiner), which provides comprehensive incentives for people joining the behavioral health care workforce, the legislature has the opportunity to build up our behavioral specialist workforce and fully fund these services. I support expanding Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) that provide care for a comprehensive number of mental illnesses and substance-use disorders. There are fewer than 20 CCBHCs in the entire state and only one in South LA: the South Central Family Center, in my district, which employs more than 250 people, dozens of whom are clinicians. We need a statewide push for funding—federal grants, state budget allocation, and health care legislation—for these types of clinics to give patients a place to go that specializes in supporting their needs and also give behavioral health care specialists good, high-paying, and high-impact jobs. We also need to forge strong partnerships with nonprofits that have the training and infrastructure to help counties build something that lasts. Opening up funds for these organizations will generate scores of good-paying jobs for working-class, highly specialized Californians.
What’s the No. 1 song on your playlist while you’re on the campaign trail?
Freedom by Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar
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