By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Incumbent Mike Thompson is being challenged by Randy Loftin for the Fifth District of the U.S. House of Representatives to be decided Nov. 6.

For the first time since 1975, Benicians won’t be voting for George Miller, the Martinez Democrat who, like many other elected officials, are running in different districts drawn by a citizens panel to assure voter equality after the 2010 U.S. Census indicated how the state’s population shifted.

Thompson represented Benicia at the state level before being elected to Congress in what had been the second district seven terms ago. And if Benicia is new to the Fifth Congressional District, Thompson was born and reared in Napa, where he still lives.

“I will consistently have one agenda,” he said, describing it as “taking the opportunities and challenges we face in Northern California to Washington, coming up with solutions, and returning home with results.”

He is on the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Health and Select Revenue subcommittees, and is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence.

Thompson is the first Vietnam veteran elected to the California State Senate. He was wounded in the war, where he was a sergeant and platoon leader with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and he was awarded a Purple Heart.

In Congress, he has focused on job creation, health care and veterans issues, and is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition made up of moderate Democrats that try to address problems in fiscally responsible ways.

He has built a reputation for reaching across the Congressional aisle to find bipartisan solutions.

At one time, he was the maintenance supervisor for the Beringer Winery, and takes pride in being a member of Congress who knows how to repair a tractor. He is a small vineyard owner.

He is an advocate for education, having taught at the U.S. Army Airborne School as well as at San francisco State University and California State University, Chico.

He has expressed concern that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan isn’t based on sound science.

Thompson said that plan puts the interests of water contractors living south of the Delta ahead of the interests of area farmers and the fishing community and the welfare of the Delta’s wildlife.

He said he believes federal fiscal responsibility needs to be reached through a balance of spending cuts, fair taxes and the creation of jobs.

The national debt, he said, is more than just a financial burden, he said.

“A national debt of more than $15 trillion is a serious problem,” he said. “The interest alone on the debt is more than $200 billion a year. This is more money than the federal government spends on transportation, education and veterans combined.”

He said such a debt threatens not only such programs as Social Security and Medicare, but also national security. “Much of our debt is held by foreign countries who do not share our values.”

While he supported the health care reform often called “ObamaCare,” he said “there is still more to be done,” particularly strengthening Medicare and Medicaid and assuring access to affordable quality health care.

He called the current housing situation “this mortgage nightmare,” with nearly 34 percent of California homeowners’ loans greater than their homes’ worth.
“All homeowners should have the opportunity to refinance their mortgages at today’s historically low rates,” he said.

He also has called for comprehensive immigration reform that rewards those “who play by the rules,” and provides a guest worker program for those willing to accept jobs “Americans don’t want to do.”

On the other hand, he said the United States needs to invest in infrastructure, education and other areas that will put back to work those who were hit by the recession.

“Jobs are my number one priority, and the best way to get our economy going is to put Americans back to work fixing our schools, roads and bridges,” he said.

Among those endorsing him are U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Reps. George Miller, John Garamendi and Lynn Woolsey, State Senators Mark Sesaulnier, Noreen Evans and Lois Wolk.

Several Assemblymembers, including Mariko Yamada and Susan Bonilla, also have endorsed him, as have Solano County’s Sheriff Gary Stanton, District Attorney Donald DuBain, Supervisors Linda Seifert, Barbara Kondylis and Jim Spering.

Also supporting him are Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, Councilmember Alan Schwartzman and Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees member Andre Stewart and Solano Community College District Governing Board President Rosemary Thurston.

He also has the backing of American Nurses Association, several firefighters organizations, building and trades councils, California Farm Bureau Federation and law enforcement associations.

Opposing Thompson is Loftin, 69, who attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Butler University, Indianapolis, Ind.

He then served seven years as a finance officer for the First Brigade, 101st Airborne and the Fifth Special Forces Group, concluding his military career as the U.S. Army War College’s finance and accounting officer at Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

As a civilian, Loftin became the founder of a successful tax and financial planning business in Napa, where he also became an advocate of client education.
He is a registered Enrolled Agent, and is permitted to represent clients before the Internal Revenue Service.

His business experience has led him to conclude the current tax system is cumbersome, expensive to operate and out of date. Loftin supports the Fair Tax proposal.

The Fair Tax proposal would replace all federal income tax, payroll taxes, gift taxes and estate taxes with a single retail sale consumption tax.

It also would provide a monthly advance rebate payment to U.S. citizens’ households that earn up to the poverty level.

The tax would begin at 23 percent the first year, then adusted annually based on the previous fiscal year’s federal receipts.

Advocates say the proposal would increase government transparency, encourage savings and investments and ease tax compliance as well as have a positive influence on civil liberties and the environment.

Opponents say it would raise less money and would increase the federal deficit and drop tax advantages to state and local bonds. The two sides disagree whether the Fair Tax proposal would cause greater or lesser taxation of those with larger incomes.

Loftin said he prefers smaller government, saying that is what the country’s founding fathers envisioned.

“The Federalist papers and other documents of the time reveal that the Founders correctly anticipated most of the problems that an intrusive, all-powerful, central government would present,” he said, explaining that the U.S. Constitution vests power to citizens, not government.

“We have strayed from our founding principles, and have willingly relinquished our power to larger government and progressive politicians,” he said. He said government control is “strong-arming its free and gifted people,” through what he called unreasonable taxation, overbearing regulations and reckless government spending.

He said California and other Western states are in financial crisis, in part, because 50 percent of their lands are federal property, in contrast to 4 percent in states east of the Rockies. Those holdings impact public education funding, because the federal lands can’t be taxed, he said.

“We do receive Payment In Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, what the eastern states consider welfare to the western states, $1 per acre that is scheduled to end in a year or so,” he said.

He endorses the Action Plan for Public Lands and Education (APPLE), an initiative that would let Western states select 5 percent of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands to be sold or leased, with generated revenue dedicated to public education.

He advocates managing environmental assets for a sustainable future, saying that bans on thinning and salvage harvests have left forests vulnerable to fires, disease, insects and wind damage.

He prefers that citizens retain the opportunity to make health care choices, and said competition would lead to greater efficiency and innovation.
On housing, Loftin said he supports smart growth based on environmental good practices and the right to choose whether to live in cities, suburbs or rural areas.

“Today, 84 percent of Americans live on 10 percent of our land, 16 percent live in rural areas in the remaining 90 percent of our lands. We need to maintain diversity and the property rights of Americans.”

On immigration, he advocates a clear procedure for visas and citizenship, guest worker programs, and the opportunity for immigrants who serve in the military to become citizens. Those who come to the United States for higher education should have the opportunity “to contribute to our economic growth.”

He favors recognizing the Michewal Wappo Native American tribe, whose language gave Napa its name.

He also is calling for Social Security reform through gradually increasing retirement age by three years.

Among his supporters are the California Republican Assembly, the California Republican Party and the Napa, Solano Contra Costa County and Lake County Republican central committees.

He also is endorsed by the Eagle Forum, the Frederick Douglass Foundation of California, Napa Republican committee chairperson Kevin Hangman, Jeanette McFall, Napa Tea Party

Campaign websites for the two candidates are mikethompsonforcongress.com and loftinforcongress.com.