Mike Thompson has been serving in the U.S. Congress since 1999 and representing Benicia since 2013. (File photo)

Rep. Mike Thompson has been serving in Congress since 1999. Following redistricting in 2013, Thompson has been representing California’s 5th district, which includes Napa County and parts of Contra Costa, Lake, Sonoma and Solano counties, including Benicia. On Friday, Thompson stopped by the Herald offices to discuss his upcoming election and vision for the district.

1. What is the most important issue this election?

I’ve represented the district for some time now, and I’m a very district-centric person, so I believe that the most important thing for me is to work closely with my constituents here and take their concerns and their issues to Washington and try and bring back results. I spend a lot of time (here). I come home on the weekends during the district work periods. I work closely with the elected officials, I work closely with constituents throughout the district and listen to their concerns and try and figure out how to deliver those results. I think that the economy is still a looming issue. We need to make sure we create an environment in which people can get jobs, work and have every opportunity. Part of that is making sure we have good infrastructure, we have good schools so everyone has an opportunity to do the best they can. In doing so we can help close the economic gap between the working folks and those who want to be working folks, and the wealthiest among us are critically important.

2. What do you see as the biggest areas of growth for the district?

In our district, the big area of growth is Mare Island Naval Shipyard. As you know, historically it’s been a place where there’s a lot of jobs. When the base closed in the Base Realignment Act, we lost all those jobs. As it started to grow and come back, we went into the recession, and that set things back a lot. We’ve seen a lot of positive growth over there. There’s new businesses coming on line almost daily and big interests for the area. That’s probably the area of biggest opportunity in Solano County. It’s important to make sure that existing businesses have opportunities to expand, and I spend a lot of time in the Industrial Park area here in Benicia. I have a rule in our office that when I’m home for any length of time, I try and get out and see a small business. So I spend a lot of time working with Benicia’s economic development coordinator, Mr. (Mario) Giuliani to get out and visit those businesses so I can hear what’s important to them, what they need to succeed, what they need to expand.

3. What are the obstacles needed to overcome to reach that growth?

One of the issues right now is the whole issue with rail expansion. I was out here about a week ago meting with some local businesses who were concerned if a rail expansion isn’t done correctly, it’s going to hurt their access and their consumers’ access to their places of business. We need to make sure our growth is measured and smart and that we take everybody’s concerns into consideration. Also, I was just out at the Makerspace here in Benicia, and it’s pretty clear to me that we need maybe more opportunities for folks to be entrepreneurial and to be innovative. I was out there because I invited them to a seminar I had of business leaders from throughout our district, Marin and the other part of Sonoma County that I represent. We had an innovation roundtable and listening to businesses to try and figure out where they could be more productive and they could grow and experience good economic conditions. That’s why I met Makerspace. A lot of the issues people talked about were the things Makerspace addresses: access to places where they can work, create and be innovative. We went through a whole afternoon of ideas that folks brought forward that we’re going to consolidate and hopefully advance those in Congress.

4. How did you get involved with the viticulture industry?

It’s a big part of our district, and it has been for as long as I’ve been in public office. The wine community is not only an important economic engine for our, but they’re also a $160 billion economic engine, and that’s important for the entire country. If you’re growing grapes, you’ve got agriculture. Agriculture is good for our community, and they create a lot of jobs, have an incredibly important tax base, and generate a lot of economic opportunities for our district, state and nation.

5. What are your thoughts on the crude-by-rail issue?

I believe it needs to be done safely. About a year ago, I convened a meeting with all the rail folks in all the cities and counties and rail safety people from throughout our region to discuss this. As a result, we came away with some ideas that I put into legislation and introduced them to Congress, a rail safety measure. We also lobbied the administration. Many of the components of my rail safety bill were put into regulation. Safety is incredibly important, and the idea of being preventive is most important. We need to be able to respond if there’s an accident, or more importantly we need to make sure we avoid accidents. That’s what my legislation was focused on doing. Subsequent to that, I hosted in Hercules a rail safety seminar. The rail companies came in and worked with public safety folks and first responders on issues of rail safety and how to respond. It was a full day of class for first responders from the local area, and there was turnout from every agency in the district, I think.

6. No matter what happens this election, America will have a new president. How do you plan on working with that new president?

We’re gonna have a new president, you’re absolutely correct. I think she’s gonna be fantastic. (Laughs) I have to work closely with everybody, and my way of business has always been ‘I’ll work with anybody who’s willing to work with me to meet the challenges that face all Americans.’ I have a good track record in that regard, and I don’t plan to change my ways.

7. What economic or social changes would you like to see take place in the next few years?

I’d like to see more jobs. We’ve been on an incredible run. We’ve had about 48 or 62 consecutive months of private sector job growth. That record has held up even last month, and we had over 160,000 private sector jobs in April, down a little bit from what was anticipated. But the quality of those jobs are good, and as I understand it, listening to the secretary of labor speak, there seems to be a trend of the long-time unemployed breaking through and becoming employed. In his remarks, he stated that that was pretty clear in this last jobs report, so that’s very important. We need to keep that going. I think a great way to do that would be to continue to invest in infrastructure. There’s not a city or county in our district that doesn’t need infrastructure investment, and that’s all money that’s spent locally. As far as social change, I wanna see everyone have an opportunity to succeed. That’s very important. It starts with education, and you’d have educational opportunities for folks. Folks have to have access to quality affordable health care. You can’t be healthy and you can’t be successful if your health security is in jeopardy. We need to have a strong retirement security as well, and that’s why protecting Social Security and Medicare are top priorities of mine.

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