Kristie Bruce-Lane, 53, a Republican and nonprofit leader, is running for state Senate in District 40, representing San Marcos, Escondido, Poway, Santee, northern San Diego neighborhoods and unincorporated areas such as Fallbrook and Ramona.
Read more Q&A: Meet Edward Musgrove, candidate for California State Senate District 40
Bruce-Lane, a San Diego native, lives in the city’s 4S Ranch neighborhood.
The San Diego Union-Tribune emailed a series of questions to Bruce-Lane and other candidates to help inform voters about their positions, priorities and plans if elected.
Bruce-Lane said she did not use any AI tools in responding to the Union-Tribune’s questions.
1) Why are you running, and what makes you the best candidate? (150 words max)
Millions of Californians have fled our state over the last five years because California’s career politicians from BOTH political parties have failed us. The supermajority party has terrible and extreme policies, and the superminority party has been weak. People want common-sense policies that reduce their cost of living, stop tax hikes, stop wasteful spending and keep criminals and sexually violent predators out of our communities. People want to feel safe in their neighborhoods and communities. I am running for California State Senate District 40 because I want to give our families a brighter future. I understand the value of having a strong representative who reflects the voices of the district in Sacramento. I am the only candidate in this race that has not increased taxes and who supports voter ID.
2) What are the top 3 issues facing this district? (150 words max)
Cost of living: Oppose every tax hike — like the crazy new mileage tax. Stop utility and insurance rate hikes by reforming costly mandates.
Combat illegal immigration: We need to get known criminals out of our communities and off our streets. We also need to stop spending taxpayer dollars on freebies and welfare to people that aren’t legally supposed to be here. Those tax dollars need to go to tax-paying citizens. We need to pass voter ID and require citizenship verification and ID to vote.
Stop wasteful spending: California has a spending problem. Audit every program to uncover fraud and waste. Use the savings to improve core services.
3) What are the first 3 things you would do in office if elected? (150 words max)
Cost of living: Oppose every tax hike — like the crazy new mileage tax. Stop utility and insurance rate hikes by reforming costly mandates.
Combat illegal immigration: We need to get known criminals out of our communities and off our streets. We also need to stop spending taxpayer dollars on freebies and welfare to people that aren’t legally supposed to be here. Those tax dollars need to go to tax-paying citizens. We need to pass voter ID and require citizenship verification and ID to vote.
Stop wasteful spending: California has a spending problem. Audit every program to uncover fraud and waste. Use the savings to improve core services.
4) What should California do to solve its shortage of affordable housing and curb homelessness? Which existing efforts do you believe are working, and which aren’t? (150 words max)
Reduce regulation and permit fees on builders. Every regulation and permit fee gets tacked on to the sale price of a house.
Homelessness in California is now a humanitarian crisis. There are many profiles of homeless people: mentally ill, drug/alcohol addicted, foster children who have termed out, domestic violence victims, human trafficking victims, and for the first time we are seeing elderly out on the street because they cannot afford the high cost of living.
Shelters should be used as a “tool,” not the goal. Leaving people in shelters with no wraparound resources does not work. My organization, the Thumbprint Project Foundation, strictly focuses our resources on homeless children who are severely under-resourced, and they are our next generation of homeless if we do not address them early. California spent $24 billion on homelessness from 2019-2024, and an audit revealed that there was little to no improvement. This can never happen again.
5) This district and its neighbors are vulnerable to climate change impacts like wildfires, rising seas and extreme heat, and to the health effects of climate-warming emissions. What should California do to improve climate resilience and reduce emissions and fire risk? (150 words max)
California needs to get back to responsible forest and brush management. The government requires citizens to maintain their property or they get fined for negligence. The state and federal government need to maintain their properties and open space as well.
I will continue to advocate for policies that prioritize diversified renewable energy, investment in sustainable infrastructure, long-term water capture and storage capacity and conservation to lead California’s transition towards a sustainable and more resilient future.
6) Laws enshrined in California’s Constitution that protect residents from tax increases have also painted local governments into a corner as they seek to fund basic services and have led to chronic underfunding of schools. What would you do about this? For instance, would you support changes to Proposition 13 to remove its protections for commercial properties? (150 words)
Read more Q&A: Meet Sergio Farias, candidate for California State Assembly District 74
I reject the inherent bias in your question that suggests somehow Californians aren’t taxed enough. The simple fact is Californians pay the highest tax in the nation across all categories, and it’s crushing them. We do not need another tax of any form or of any kind. The real problem is rampant wasteful spending by politicians at the state and local levels.
California ranks at the top as far as statewide spending in public schools. We spend $23,000 to $25,000 per student in K-12 public schools yet are at the bottom as far as test scores in basic core classes like reading, writing, and math. I do not believe schools are underfunded. I believe their priorities as far as what they spend the money on are wrong. Let’s get back to basics and master the core competencies: reading, writing, math and science.
7) In light of those constraints, along with federal funding cuts, how should California balance its budget and fund basic services? Where would you seek new revenues or savings? (150 words)
California needs to audit every state government department, every state program and state contract to ask a simple question: “What is the return on investment?” Audits uncover inefficiencies, fraud, waste and abuse. The money we save from the audits will improve core services for our hard-working taxpayers.
8) Speaking of spending, Californians consistently rank the cost of living as a big concern. Recent jumps in the costs of fuel, food and other goods — combined with federal cuts to safety-net programs, new limits on certain federal loans and more — are further squeezing residents who were already struggling. What relief would you seek to offer, and how? (150 words max)
To cut our costs of living, I want to pass a law that mandates every government agency to benchmark all its regulations and mandates to the lowest cost state. In addition, I would repeal the cap-and-trade program.
California’s cap-and-trade program along with low carbon fuel standards add an estimated 30-50 cents per gallon. Repeal those two requirements, and you will see cheaper fuel prices and lower prices of food and goods on the shelf.
9) President Trump has made cracking down on immigration a cornerstone of his administration, ordering widespread arrests and detentions of immigrants nationwide and directing military resources to a new military zone along the U.S.-Mexico border. What impact have these actions had on this district? What are your goals on immigrants, immigration and the border, and how would you pursue them in the Legislature? What is your message to constituents who are immigrants? (150 words max)
I reject the inherent bias in your question because President Trump is targeting illegal immigrants and targeting those with criminal records, not legal immigrants. Securing our border has been a good thing for our district and nation. Illegal immigration costs taxpayers billions each year and deprives us the chance to vet people coming into our county. My message to legal immigrants who are my constituents is simple: Thank you for following the law and like all other Americans, I will fight to protect your rights, enhance your prosperity and reduce your cost of living.
10) Health care costs for many Californians are rising — some because of new federal eligibility requirements, some because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moves to limit Medi-Cal coverage for some immigrants. How would you rein in costs? Would you vote to reverse the governor’s cuts to immigrant health care coverage? (100 words max)
Medi-Cal coverage should only be going to help our citizens and immigrants who are here legally.
11) Among the many ballot measures being pursued by lawmakers and citizens for the November ballot are a handful that have drawn much attention and money. Should each of the below measures qualify for the November ballot, would you personally vote for measures that would do the following? (50 words max per measure)
— make ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft liable for sexual assaults committed in cars?
Now is not the time to be adding more regulations to kill jobs in California. I will work with all stakeholders to address this in a more appropriate way.
— require voters to provide a government-issued ID each time they vote?
Citizenship verification and ID should be required to vote. I proudly serve as the regional co-chair for the voter ID initiative. We need to make sure you are who you say you are and that no one is taking your right to vote away from you by casting a fraudulent ballot in your name.
— levy a one-time 5% wealth tax on people with over $1 billion in assets?
No, this initiative contains language that would allow the same savings tax to be applied to the middle tax. We don’t need more tax increases.
— pass $10 billion in bonds to fund affordable housing development?
Borrowing $10 billion doesn’t solve the problem, instead we should slash red tape and regulations to make housing more affordable.
Read more Q&A: Meet Darshana Patel, candidate for California State Assembly District 76
