Habla Espanol? Candidates do — at forum
6 address issues of importance to Utah's Hispanics
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.
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.
"Police have to rely on their instincts," he said. "They have to rely on what it is that makes them uncomfortable." But too many officers find it is race and ethnicity they are responding to. He said that could be solved with a more racially diversified police force.
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