From Deseret News archives:

Habla Espanol? Candidates do — at forum

6 address issues of importance to Utah's Hispanics

Published: Saturday, Oct. 23, 2004 7:15 p.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
WEST VALLEY CITY — With Election Day just around the corner, five candidates for state office spent Saturday afternoon doing what they've been doing for months: talking about education, economic development, health care, immigration and gun control. But this time, they were speaking in Spanish.

About 150 members of the Salt Lake area's Hispanic community gathered at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, to listen to three gubernatorial candidates and two attorney general candidates address issues important to Hispanic Utahns. Though the forum did not include a spot on the agenda for the county mayor's race, Democrat Peter Corroon also made an appearance and spoke briefly.

All six candidates incorporated some Spanish into their remarks. Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff was the most fluent, giving all of his opening remarks and answering most of the questions entirely in Spanish — even after organizers told him that some of the audience didn't understand Spanish.

Democrat Scott Matheson Jr. and Republican Jon Huntsman Jr., vying for governor, both praised the state's Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) but said it needs to be expanded so more families are eligible for either it or Medicaid.

Story continues below
"More children could be getting health care from CHIP if we managed the program a different way," Matheson said. Among his suggestions was better use of federal funding, which matches state funding for the program at a rate of 400 percent.

Huntsman said he also suspects the program could be better funded — though he left himself some wiggle room, saying he would need to look into its current funding situation to determine whether it's adequate. His guess, however, is that CHIP would be one of the top funding priorities in his administration, especially given estimates for a budget surplus.

Most questions posed to the candidates dealt with immigration. Both Matheson and Huntsman said immigration reforms are needed but that legal immigration should be embraced.

"I don't care what your nation of origin is," Huntsman said. "I don't care how you got here. What I care about is us all banding together and helping Utah grow."

The attorney general candidates also dealt mostly with immigration. Democrat Greg Skordas said immigrants — both legal and illegal — are often mistreated by law enforcement officials who mean well but need to be better educated on diversity.

He said racial profiling is a problem he would work to stop.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

previousnext

Latest comments

re: One Human Family | 7:51 p.m. Nov. 10, 2009 [The church representative...

Middle linebacker Micah Anderson missed the first 5 games with an injury and...

"Is a landlord going to be unable to evict a GLBT renter just because they...

Nice job Mackenzy! We ALWAYS knew you were going somewhere to play ball! Glad...

Finally, Something other than Fossil fuels! Thank You!!!

Great accomplishment Shay! Your Sports Psych classmates will thank you for...

Where's 'Tag when Utah needs him?

so far tonight Erick Dampier has 14 points and 19 rebounds vs Houston He is...

Whats wrong with Fes and Koufos? Jerry couldn't coach Ostertag either? DUH!

Letters: Will wrong on warming

Yep

Gays get Mormon support in SLC

With the LDS church professing to be THE Church of Jesus Christ on the earth...

Advertisements
Advertisement