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Conservationist: Suzanne Jackson
Republican Jackson hopes to continue moderate style
The Saratoga News will profile all six candidates for the District 24 Assembly seat before the March 7 election. --Editor
By Nathan R. Huff
As an "outspoken advocate of the middle," Monte Sereno Mayor Suzanne Jackson often finds herself at odds with certain aspects of the Republican platform. But that's exactly why she believes she is the right candidate to represent the 24th District in the state Assembly.
As a registered nurse, Jackson said she believes strongly in a patient's bill of rights and differs with the Republican Party in her support of the medical use of marijuana. Jackson also likens herself to current 24th District Assemblyman Jim Cunneen in her support for some gun control measures and in holding polluting companies accountable for environmental damage they cause.
"One of the precepts of the Republican Party is conserving our natural resources. I am a conservationist," Jackson said. She points to her efforts to establish an open-space commission in Monte Sereno as an example of her committment to preserving the environment.
If elected, Jackson said she believes one way to avoid suburban sprawl into the few remaining open-space areas is to revitalize inner-cities, creating mixed-use housing that draws people back into the urban centers rather than pushing them out. She said higher-density housing with as much greenery as possible is the only real answer to the valley's growing housing crisis.
According to Jackson, the fear of lawsuits prevents developers from producing apartment and condominium complexes and instead encourages the building of single-family homes. If elected, she said she would pursue limits on how long after occupancy tenants can bring suits against developers over defects in housing projects.
Yet Jackson acknowledged little could be done at this time to encourage affordable housing in areas like Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno. "In our city, it is almost impossible because of the zoning," she said. "The only thing we can do is encourage secondary dwellings."
Jackson also noted that while the West Valley cities' educational systems may be solid, the same is not true statewide. She said she believes the overly complicated State Education Code should be replaced with simple, clear statewide standards. State education money should be concentrated on school safety, materials, compensating "gifted" teachers and finishing construction of new facilities, she said.
Jackson said she also favors increasing the pace of road construction and improvement projects. Saying the traffic in Silicon Valley is "unconscionable because of who we are," she supports the idea of using existing train lines to create a Bay Area mass-transit system that would be far cheaper and more practical than extending BART to San Jose.
Although she finds the two-thirds "supermajority" required to pass tax increases for transportation too extreme, she isn't convinced that a simple majority is right, either. SCA 3, the Senate Constitutional Amendment on the March 7 ballot would lower to a simple majority the votes necessary to continue the half-cent transportation sales tax.
"The supermajority is too much, especially with our small voter turnout; it becomes the tyranny of the minority. I'd favor a 60 percent majority," she said.
She also thinks a Republican proposed constitutional amendment that would have funded transporation projects by using 5 percent of the interest from the budget surplus was a better approach than SCA 3; that proposal did not make it to the ballot, however. "I think there were flaws in it," Jackson said, "but taking the money from the surplus is a better approach than taxing people."
Jackson also follows the Republican Party line on crime and taxes. "The penalties have to be carried out," Jackson said. Convicts should work off their debts to society while incarcerated, but the state should look more closely at how perpetrators of victimless crimes like simple drug use are penalized, she said.
While Jackson's fairly short political career would not qualify her as an insider, her involvement in the Republican Party during the past six years has been extensive. Jackson, who is serving as Monte Sereno's mayor for the second time, was elected to the County Republican Central Committee in 1994, the same year she was first elected to the Monte Sereno City Council.
Jackson is part of the Committee for Electing Responsible Republicans, which has successfully elected 23 "mainstream" Republicans to the Central Committee. She is vice-chair of the Central Committee, chairwoman of the Local Agency Formation Committee, a self-described "rabble rousing" delegate for the California Republican Party Platform, and a board member of the California Republican League.
She also serves on several other non-partisan boards and committees, including the county Police and Fire Commission, the League of California Cities and state Domestic Violence Committee.
Jackson has been married for 25 years and has a daughter and several stepchildren. She and her husband run health and medical education seminars. Jackson said that, back in the days when she had free time, she enjoyed skiing, tennis, music, singing and sewing for theater productions. She said she accepts that those days are gone.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
