Rep. Mike Thompson, Benicia’s congressman, visited the Benicia Public Library on Tuesday for a “Coffee with the Congressman” event. (Photo by Nick Sestanovich)

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Benicia in the House of Representatives, paid a visit to the Benicia Public Library on Tuesday for a “Coffee with the Congressman” event in the Dona Benicia Room. Attendees enjoyed coffee and pastries and got to ask questions of the Democratic congressman. Below are excerpts of some of his responses:

On the Democrats’ prospects of winning the House election

“I don’t think you can look at it through the lens of just what happens in the House. I’m pretty conservative in regards to the outcome of the House elections, so I’m pretty comfortable in saying we the Democrats pick up maybe 15 seats. Some are much more hopeful. Some think we can pick up 15 at the low end, and depending upon how well Hilary Clinton does or how badly Donald Trump does, some folks are saying we could pick up 50 seats. I can’t imagine that happening, especially with redistricting in the Southern states. I don’t see how you can get there, but I think we can pick up 12 to 15 seats. That alone is not enough to do much because as you know, the party in power controls the House, and no bill goes up for a vote unless the party in power pulls it up for a vote.”

On social media misinformation and government trust

Councilmember Christina Strawbridge mentioned that in walking precincts for her campaign, she had come across an elderly couple who had heard through either email or Facebook a false report that Gov. Jerry Brown had purchased the proposed Northern Gateway property and was going to use it to house Syrian refugees. She expressed concern that this level of misinformation was creating a lack of trust in government that citizens would not be able to recover from after the election.

“I think that’s an accurate concern, and I think we do have to figure out how to get over that bump. I think there’s some things we probably could do, and I think there’s some things we probably should do. Something I’m trying to put together right now— and I don’t know where we’ll do it, maybe we should put it together in Benicia— but I want to have a series of, for lack of a better term, town hall meetings, all government. It would be me, state senator, assemblymember, mayor, councilmember, board of supervisor people and all the agencies: Social Security, Medicare, you name it. Have them set up tables and (say) ‘Here we are, what are your concerns?’ I think people need to get more connected with their constituents, so when you’re knocking on the door, (someone) says ‘I heard a good one the other day, they wanna bring Syrian refugees in, but I called Ralph who I know, and they told me it wasn’t true.’ There’s a lot of value of knowing the people that are working for you. That’s what we’re doing, we’re working for our constituents.”

On providing opportunities for veterans and women

“I know there is money in regard to small-business opportunities, and women have some advantages in that arena. There’s ethnic programs as well, but I think we should look at all of that. It works. I started this veteran’s caucus a number of years ago with (former Florida representative) Mike Bilirakis, who was a great member of Congress and we did it in a bipartisan way. The theory was there are fewer veterans working on Capitol Hill, and veterans working and serving in Congress is a good thing because it brings a veterans’ perspective, not dissimilar to the issue of women. The more women you have, the more of a women’s perspective you have.”

On civic education

“When I ran for the State Senate, I made a campaign promise that I would visit a school a month while I was in office. Some months I would miss, but other months I’d do four or five. If you went back and checked, I probably upheld that campaign promise to try and get out.”
“I spend a lot of time in schools and classrooms, and I think there’s three junior highs I visit every year and a whole bunch of high schools, and I talk about civics and government to them. There’s some schools that have real good programs. They have political clubs, they have good government classes. Probably the one ingredient that is most important is a dedicated teacher, and a really good teacher can make a class.’
“The whole idea about politics is what we do every day. If you have a grievance or want something changed, you gotta go to somebody, present it and know how things work. I don’t think high school is too soon to start.”

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