Melissa Toomim, Congress District 36 candidate, 2024 election questionnaire

Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.

MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide

Name: Melissa Toomim

Current job title: Investigative Journalist

Political party affiliation: Republican

Incumbent: No

Other political positions held: None

City where you reside: Santa Monica

Campaign website or social media: toomim4congress.com

Californians will decide on a proposition this November that would scale back some of Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that reduced penalties for certain theft and drug offenses. What is one way the federal government could help states like California balance criminal justice reform with enforcing the law? (Please be specific with your proposal, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

The people of California are desperate for a return to safe streets and neighborhoods. Like so many policies plaguing the state, Proposition 47 was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Overturning this ill-conceived proposition is necessary for a return to balance. Prop 47 does not allow for aggregation of offenses. In other words, criminals can shoplift up to $949 in merchandise over and over again, without risking felony prosecution. I stand with District Attorney Candidate Nathan Hochman on this badly needed reform. I also agree with Candidate Hochman on the need to prosecute misdemeanors that are currently on the books. Police have become reluctant to arrest criminals, who are immediately released. We are sending the message that crime pays. As a consequence, looted businesses are closing shop and leaving the California en-masse. In other words, our local businesses and neighborhoods suffer the consequences of crime, but not the criminals.

Federal criminal justice reform was enacted with the passage of the First Step Act in December 2018. As a result, thousands of prisoners received early release based on good time credit and sentence reduction.

Recent efforts to expand the federal deduction for state and local taxes, called SALT, have failed. What changes would you like to see, if any, to SALT? (Please keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

The idea behind the SALT deduction is to avoid double taxation. The $10,000 cap on the SALT deduction affects different communities in my district differently. For example, the median home price in Santa Monica is $1.7 Million. At a property tax rate of 0.59%, only about half the homeowners in Santa Monica will be able to deduct their full property tax bill from their federal taxes. However, in Beverly Hills, the median home sale price is $2.8 Million. The property tax bill at that value is over $16,500. In other words, a typical Beverly Hills resident is missing out on about $6,500 in federal tax deductions. In my view, this is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution. If the idea is to avoid double taxation, then the federal deduction should not have a cap. Rich people deserve equal protection under the law, too.

President Joe Biden has called for an overhaul of the U.S. Supreme Court, including mandatory ethics rules. What reforms, if any, do you believe the Supreme Court needs, and how would they be enforced? (Please be specific with your proposal, and keep your answer to 250 words or less.)

It’s simple: we don’t need new rules. We simply need to enforce the ethics rules already in effect, with the understanding that no one in this country is above the law. Because the Supreme Court is a co-equal branch of government, it is incumbent upon Congress to investigate and possibly impeach Supreme Court Justices who violate standards of professional ethics.

Should there be an age limit imposed on presidential candidates? What about Congress or Senate? If so, what is that limit?

I oppose agism. Let the voters decide if the candidate is physically and/or mentally fit for office.

Would you support legislation that protects women’s access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments nationwide? Why or why not? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit your response to 200 words.)

Yes. Children are our future.

The Republican Party’s platform, following the summer convention, calls for the “largest deportation effort in American history.” Is this something you support? If so, what would such an effort look like? If not, how would you assuage concerns about border security? (Please be specific in your response, and keep it to 250 words or less.)

Currently, entry to the United States via our southern border is completely uncontrolled. Police departments in Los Angeles, New York and Boston have all observed a large influx of young Middle Eastern, Russian and Chinese men. Officers with whom I have spoken concur with my belief that these men are here, not to pursue the American dream, but rather, to destroy it. I support the plan to round up and deport them. The border wall must be completed, and these men (many of whose locations are known) must be deported.

Cost of living is high on the list of concerns among voters, particularly among younger people. What is one bipartisan proposal you have to alleviate concerns about high prices or cost of living? (Please be specific in your response, and limit it to 200 words.)

Restoring the gold standard would stop inflation. Simply printing billions and billions of dollars causes the value of those dollars to diminish. This is inflation. Giant financial give-aways, such as the proposed $25,000 housing down payments ($150,000 in California) will trigger hyper-inflation and make the dollar as valueless as the old Italian lira, leaving this candidate wondering if that is the goal.

Californians continue to point to housing affordability as one of their top concerns. What is something the federal government could do to lessen the financial burden people feel, whether that’s with renting or buying a house? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit it to 200 words or less.)

Over 2 million Californians have left the state to pursue their dreams in other states, yet California officials constantly tell us there is a housing shortage. One reason for the high cost of living in California is housing market manipulation. Everywhere my team and I block-walk in coastal LA County, we encounter an unusually high number of empty houses and apartment buildings. It appears that they are being kept empty on purpose in order to keep housing prices artificially high. Democrats and Republicans alike should want to see the cost of housing commensurate with market demands. Therefore, I would support a bipartisan measure which would penalize companies that keep large numbers of houses and/or apartments off the market for more than a few months without a compelling reason. This would bring prices back into balance.

What do you see the federal government’s role as in helping local municipalities tackle homelessness? (Please be specific in your answer, and limit it to 200 words or less.)

Over half of California’s homeless are former prison inmates. Upon release, they are given $200 and a ride into town, where they are dumped on the sidewalk. The current strategy of taking over hotels is an old Stalinist trick to restrict movement of the population and diminish the number of mom-and-pop small businesses. Instead, I propose that the government lease empty office buildings and convert them to half-way houses. Half-way houses are structured environments which have proven to be effective at helping former inmates make a successful reentry into society. Currently, the number of half-way houses in Los Angeles County is woefully inadequate. The federal government can provide the finances needed to lease and convert distressed office properties. This will compassionately and effectively lift thousands of people out of homelessness in a far more effective way than warehousing them in hotels, where far too many simply overdose on street drugs and die alone.

After Tesla chief executive Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video purporting to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice, Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to enact legislation to make it illegal to manipulate someone’s voice in an ad. What is something the federal government could do to protect people from deep-fakes, or false AI-generated images, videos and audio? (Please be specific in your response, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

Deep fakes are fraud, and fraud is already a crime.

What is one local infrastructure project you would push to secure funds for in the federal budget? (Please be specific in your answer.)

I would fund improved sewage treatment at the Hyperion facility which would end the dumping in Santa Monica Bay.

What is one environment or climate policy you’d champion if elected? (Please be specific with your policy proposal, and keep your answer to 200 words or less.)

I would fund improved sewage treatment at the Hyperion facility which would end the poisoning of Santa Monica Bay.

What’s the No. 1 song on your playlist while you’re on the campaign trail?

Queen – We are the Champions