04:31 PM PST on Thursday, March 11, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

CORONA – Balancing California’s budget on time, creating jobs and preserving funding for education and public safety are top priorities for four of the seven candidates vying for the state Senate’s open 37th District seat.

Voters head to the polls April 13 to pick a replacement for former Sen. John Benoit.

Benoit resigned from the seat late last year after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to a position on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. Benoit replaced the late Supervisor Roy Wilson, who resigned shortly before his death.

Four candidates gathered Thursday at a forum sponsored by the Corona Chamber of Commerce. They fielded questions from the chamber and those submitted by the public to the chamber’s Web site.

Former Assemblyman Russ Bogh, one of three Republicans in the race, said California is experiencing a “crisis of hope” and touted his record during his time in the Legislature from 2001 to 2006.

“I won’t cut in the area of public safety,” said Bogh in responding to a question about the top three areas he would trim to overcome the state’s estimated $20 billion budget shortfall.

“Criminals don’t take furloughs.”

Bogh, who ran for the 37th Senate seat in 2008, said state government is too large. He said he would work to lower taxes and help protect funding for local government. And, Bogh said, he supports a shift to a part-time Legislature.

“It will be the first bill I introduce,” Bogh said.

David Peters, a former Hemet school board member and another Republican in the race, said balancing the state’s budget on time should be the top priority for the next senator. Local governments and residents need to know how much money will be coming their way, he said.

The state must maintain funding for prisons and boost road construction to put people back to work, said Peters, who unsuccessfully ran for the seat in 2008.

Peters also said he supports school choice and opposes same-sex marriage. “If the law passes gay marriage and you speak out against gay marriage once it is the law, you are going to be retaliated against,” he said.

The other Republican in the race, Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, was in Sacramento on Thursday for an Assembly session and did not attend the event. Emmerson, whose Assembly district only includes a small portion of Riverside County, registered to vote in Hemet last year to run in the election.

Justin Blake, a Palm Springs school board member and one of three Democrats in the race, said he is running to protect education.

“Education is the engine that drives economic recovery,” he said.

Blake said he didn’t know whether state government was too large, but said it certainly is dysfunctional. “I always advocate quality over size,” he said.

“I will change by sitting down with people, whether they are a Democrat like myself or not and look for rational, sound solutions,” Blake said.

Blake stressed his skills in helping the Palm Springs district balance its budget amid cutbacks in state funding.

The other Democrats in the contest are Arthur Guerrero, a Beaumont educator and businessman, and Anna Nevenic, a Palm Springs nurse and author. Neither was at the chamber’s forum.

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