Wide range of concerns discussed during Thompson, Huffman Santa Rosa town hall

Concerns raised ranged from the Ukraine war to tax relief. More than 100 residents were in attendance Wednesday night.

April 12, 2023

A Wednesday night town hall featuring Sonoma County’s two congressmen, U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, was animated by a broad range of constituent concerns that ranged from gun violence to the war in Ukraine, the health of the salmon fishery to tax relief for victims of wildfires.

On the topic of gun control, one person in the audience asked the Democrats to “get a little stronger to get automatic weapons off our streets.”

“It’s an absolute epidemic and you’re correct, there’s a lot more that we could do to deal with it,” Thompson, a St. Helena Democrat who has pushed for universal background checks for gun purchases for a decade, said.

“Problem is there’s a big math problem in the U.S. Senate,” he said, noting that it would take nine GOP votes to get Thompson’s background check bill onto the Senate floor for a vote.

Asked about how to improve the region’s coastal economy — with a backdrop of a salmon season shutdown due to historically low salmon forecasts — Huffman criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom for suspending environmental laws and pushing to waive state rules that require the releases of water to protect salmon and other endangered fish. That meant more water was sent to the cities and farmers that receive supplies from the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta.

“He put his thumb on the scale politically for Central Valley irrigation interests and against salmon,” Huffman, D-San Rafael, said. “We’ve got to work on that longer term water management and the political state of play, as well.”

An audience member who criticized U.S. arms shipments in support of Ukraine said she was “looking for a hero” who would bring an end to that country’s war with Russia. Her comments sparked the event’s only pointed exchange, and elicited perhaps the most definitive statements from the two Democrats.

Thompson replied, “If we weren't helping them and their other allies (weren’t) helping them. Russia would have wiped out that country.”

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By:  Jeremy Hay
Source: Press Democrat