Libertarian: Ray Strong

Strong offers a unique voice in Assembly race

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This is the last of six profiles on candidates for the 24th Assembly District.

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By Kara Chalmers

Ray Strong, running for the 24th Assembly District seat as a Libertarian, describes himself as economically conservative but liberal in terms of personal freedoms. He says that as a member of the Assembly, he would never vote for new or increased taxes, and he believes in a true "free market" society with minimal government interference.

"I will always favor a free-market solution over a coercive, forced solution," he said, adding that he would like to see governments at all levels have much less power than they do now.

Strong would alleviate the traffic problems in the Santa Clara County area by freeing up regulations. He would vote for any legislation that would allow a private service, like a jitney (a cross between a bus and a taxi) service, to take care of overflow commuters. He would like to have more toll roads built by private companies, so people willing to pay extra could experience less congested roads and thus free up existing roads. Money from the tolls would go toward building more toll roads.

"Again, it's putting the free market in the position of serving the people," he said.

Strong does not believe in the "one size fits all" philosophy of education. He said children learn in different ways and are ready for things at different times. His daughter, Alissa, attended private, cooperative and parent-participation schools while growing up, including home schooling through the Loma Prieta school district. Although Strong and his wife, Gloria, have lived in the Almaden Valley neighborhood of San Jose since 1978, Alissa never attended a San Jose school.

His daughter's best educational experience of all, Strong thought, was the Christa McAuliffe Elementary School. McAuliffe, a unique alternative school located in Saratoga, but part of the Cupertino school district, is a K-6 charter school. It is a public school but is different in that parents volunteer in classrooms; classes are multi-age and children help chart their own goals and curriculum. When his daughter attended McAuliffe, Strong taught math to a small group of students, one morning a week.

Strong is a great proponent for creating more charter schools like McAuliffe, which don't have to meet the same standards set by the state. He would also propose giving families vouchers for private schools' tuition, so parents wouldn't have to pay double (tuition and taxes). He said the ideal situation would be a complete separation of school and state, but admits that will take a long time.

As an Assembly member, he would try to keep the government out of areas where intervention is likely to do more harm than good, a prime example being health care, he said. He would vote against any attempt at further "socialization" of medicine and would also try to remove some restrictions the government has in place, he said. For example, Strong is an advocate of medical marijuana use and said he would have voted for the initiative as a legislator.

"I would support any kind of legislation that would allow people more choice in how they medicate themselves and that's an example," he said. "Being 'tough on drugs' sounds good, so it's a position that lots of politicians don't dare deviate from."

Strong also said that HMOs were designed to be cheap medical care and government mandates to improve them will just pass the costs on to consumers, which he opposes.

"We have lots of legislators in Sacramento who try to submit legislation that sounds good, not understanding that, in fact, the costs will be passed on to the consumers," he said. "It will raise the cost of cheap medical care, so it wipes out the reason that HMOs had for existing in the first place," he said.

The same goes for affordable housing, according to Strong. There is a desperate need for more affordable housing in the area, he said, but would not back legislation that would force a community to build more. Rather, he points out the adverse consequence to communities, such as not getting the best people to work there. He said strict zoning regulations provide further disincentives for developers to build affordable housing, but he would not force areas to get rid of such regulations.

His minimal government approach extends to gun control, as well.

"I think that guns should be treated like any other dangerous piece of equipment and they shouldn't be singled out for any special treatment," he said. "I completely support the Second Amendment."

The right to own and bear a gun is just like the right to have a power saw, he said.

Strong, born and raised in Dallas, Texas, is a computer scientist in the research division of IBM, where he has worked for the past 32 years.

Strong has been a member of the Libertarian Party for more than 25 years. In 1980, he ran as the party's candidate for the District 15 Congressional seat. In 1998, he ran for the Assembly District 24 seat. Strong has not raised any money for his campaign and does not plan to raise or spend any more than $1,000.

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