Robert Canales was born in Whittier, California in 1973. He group up in the Whittier area. He attended many of the public schools in the district as he was growing because his family did a lot of moving around. He attended Ocean View and Mulberry Elementary Schools in Whittier and South Ranchito in Pico Rivera. He also briefly attended schools in Norwalk and Inglewood. He then attended Los Nietos Middle School and East Whittier Middle School in Whittier. He briefly attended California High School in East Whittier and graduated from Whittier High School in 1992. Growing up, Mr. Canales was active in the Whittier Boys and Girls club. 

Mr. Canales became active in his church in 1991 and was ordained a deacon in early 1992 at the Whittier Seventh Day Adventist Church. His religious beliefs are a very important part of his life and color his views on issues ranging from religion to politics. He is not afraid to admit that the Bible shapes many of his political views while recognizing that some people disagree with him and that some of these people have valid arguments. Hence his strong opposition to partial birth abortion, support for religious freedom, the right to choose, individual choice and responsibility, and his opposition to Proposition 187 which he believes violated God's law which gives everyone the right to seek emergency medical treatment. He also believes that Prop. 187 was a threat to the stability of the American family. Something which the supporters of the initiative apparently did not look at. 

After he graduated from Whittier, he enlisted in the Army for a very breif period. After serving for only five months, he was given an uncharacterized discharge. In 1993 he began attending Rio Hondo Community College where he obtained an Associates Degree in Business Administration in 1999. While attending Rio Hondo, Mr. Canales ran for Whittier City Council twice. He also began a major study of the abortion issue and its affects on American society. This research sidetracked him from his studies at Rio Hondo. He read many articles presenting both sides of the debate, listened to television and news reports and discussed it with a couple of hundred women. During this research, Mr. Canales realized that there were several things people on both sides of the debate agreed on although the politicians used the issue to divide the people and for their own selfish political gains. He realized that the best way to start resolving it was to take the federal government out of the issue and out people's bedrooms. He drafted a constitutional amendment to do this, ban public funding of abortion, and allow the states to regulate abortion as they deem to be in the best interests of  their citizens. He believes that we need to committ funds and other resources to determining the personhood of the fetus which he believes science is close to doing. The reason he researched it, was because abortion is just another way of asking the age old question, asked by the Psalmist, "What is man that thou art mindful of him".  How do we define man. He made a discovery which when released has the potential to dramatically alter how we view ourselves as a species.

He also has drafted a religious freedom/equal rights amendment to protect the right of students to pray in school, let states implement voucher programs for poor families, and to ban denial of equal protection under the law on the basis of religion, gender, national origin, ideology, age, disability, and sexual orientation. This comprehensive amendment also addresses other important issues. If it is introduced into the Congress, it will be the most comprehensive amendment so far, clarify the religious freedom and church state seperation, and will be the first amendment to propose constitutional protections for the elderly, the disabled, and people with diverse sexual orientations. He beleives this amendment is important in light of the fact that the US Supreme Court virtually ruled recently that neither the Congress nor the President had any constitutional authority to protect the rights of the elderly and disabled. 

He also drafted a amendment to ban all partial birth abortions except in emergencies. His amendment would also bar clinics and doctors from billing the woman, her family, the father, her insurance company or the government for any emergency abortion. If an abortion is absolutely necessary it must be done for free. No one should be allowed to take advantage of a life and death situation.

He has worked at various jobs. He worked at Rio Hondo as a student assistant for a couple of years. He worked for brief period at an AM/PM minimart in Whittier. He worked for the Salvation Army in 1998. And his last job was when he worked for the US Census Bureau to verify addresses as they prepared for Census 2000. While he was working at these places, he met many people from diverse walks of life. He learned that one of the biggest problems faced by the nation is the breakup of the family and the decline in moral values. 

In January of 1999, he began pondering a run for the US House of Representatives when he realized that the Senate would acquit Clinton just to save their political hides. In the wake of Littleton, and Clinton's blatantly unconstitutional seizure of private land in several states, to create federal parks, without consulting the states nor Congress, he came closer to deciding to run. When Clinton began the unprovoked attack on Yugoslavia, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and openly defied the Congress and American people, Mr. Canales decided that he would seek to represent his district in the US House of Representatives.

 
An Independent Minded Republican

"The number of people registering as Republican or Democrat in the district has declined significantly over the past two years.  The number of decline to state has already reached the 12.9% level and is increasing at the expense of both parties. It seems to me that this shows the voters are simply tired of the partisan bickering, finger pointing, and blame game which both of the major parties have engaged in."

- Robert Canales

My fellow Americans I'd like to talk to you about education. For the last few weeks, I have been going door to door, holding townhalls, and sending out emails and letters to get feedback on what we can do to improve our schools. Some of the proposals I talked about raised controversy. As of today, Sunday July 30, 2000 I have chosen two proposals which will become part of my campaign. One is what I call voluntary national standards. This is different from the NAEP proposed by both Gore and Bush. With all due respect to Gov. Bush, although he and Gore both claim the NAEP is not a national test, I have to say that NAEP is indeed a national test. There is nothing wrong with national academic tests. The problem is who chooses what you put on the test. I favor a national standard in which the 50 states each choose their own standards and their own tests. The Congress would work with the states to ensure that these standards and tests are comparable to the standards and tests used in each of the 49 other states. The other proposal is represented by Proposition 38 and its courageous supporters. I have chosen to endorse Proposition 38 because it is the best way for Californians to reduce class size, recruit quality teachers, and close the gap between rich urban neighborhoods and poor inner city ghettos. The gap between the academic performance of children in rich suburbs and minority children in East Los Angeles is a great evil that must be and will be completely eliminated. If you want to save California's schools, the best you can do is to support Proposition 38. The opponents will try to tell you that Prop. 38 violates the seperation of church and state. I want you to know that this false argument contradicts a recent June 2000 decision by the US Supreme Court in which the Supreme Court ruled that school vouchers did not constitute a church state violation. The only reason the CTA and school boards would oppose Prop. 38 is pure greed.

Robert Canales on Education
We need to improve the academic performance of our nation's children.  We also need to recruit better quality teachers and reduce class size. It is my position, that no politician has the answer to this problem although there are many who claim to and there are many who wish the politicians did. I believe the voters can come up with a better solution to the problems with educational acheivement than Republicans and Democrats put together. This is why I am holding townhall meetings to discuss education. This proposal is explained below in the list of proposals I have restoring our schools. Remember, we can't restore our families unless we restore our schools and vice versa. The two are inseperably connected. 

Here are my proposals for education: 
1. Shorten summer vacations to one month (July). This would allow children enough time to make for courses they didn't do so well in. 

2. Work with states to require that all teachers take basic competency tests every 4 years. 

3. Reduce the cost of college for American families. We might consider imposing a temporary cap on the increasing costs that most colleges are charging now.

4. Congress should work with the states to establish National Academic Standards to improve the performance of our nation's schools. The states would set their own standards and Congress would work with them to ensure the standards in one state are comparable to the standards used by each of the 49 other states. The federal government would not set these standards, this would be left solely to the states. The job of the Congress would be to help them where they request it. 

5. We should provide subsidized child care to women who agree to finish their education and to working mothers. 

6. I strongly support Proposition 38 which would provide scholarships to allow thousands of low income California families the 
right to choose what schools their children go to. It would allow them to take their children out of failed schools. I have been looking for a way to restore education in California. We spend over 70% of our state's income on our public schools. This has not worked. Although the performance of children in public schools has shown improvement, the gap between California's white wealthy children and its poor minority children remains at tragic levels. This gap must be closed. We also need to address the problems that there are not enough classrooms to implement mandatory class size reductions. We cannot find qualified teachers to teach our children. Many communities such as Whittier are forced to raise property taxes to unbearable levels to build and repair classrooms. I believe the best way for Californians to reduce class size, get quality education children, recruit quality teachers, and close the gap between whites and minorities is to approve proposition 38.

I propose using $200 billion dollars of the federal surplus to help local communities build new schools to alleviate overcrowding.
This would help alleviate the property tax burden and ensure that everyone pays their fair share in the education of our children. For too long, the property owners have been stuck with the burden of paying for other people's children. Another problem is when you have bond on the ballot, the property owners can be easily outnumbered and ganged up on by nonproperty owners. Many people register to vote who don't own property or live in the district. This system denies property owners their constitutional right to equal protection under the law. I oppose Prop. 39 for this very reason. If there was a requirement that you had to be a property owner to vote on bond measures then I would support 39 but there isn't. Prop.
39 is another attempt by the unions to deprive people of their constitutional rights. 

My proposal would enable districts to build the needed campuses without raising property taxes. It is paid for out of taxes that you already pay. These are taxes you pay to Washington every time you get your check at work. What this proposal does is give you back some of that money in the form of funding for your local school districts so you and your
neighbors don't have to pay higher taxes. Here are some facts about the federal government and education:

1. The federal government spends over $100 billion each year on public schools.

2. California's could lose up to $4 billion in federal education dollars depending on how Prop. 38 is implemented when it is passed. 

3. Public school enrollment is actually declining nationwide. 

4. Private school enrollment has been increasing. 

5. Public school: 1997=29,281 children 1998=29,096 

6. Private school: 1997=3,054 1998=3,447. As you can see from the numbers, private school enrollment is going up fast while public school enrollment is showing signs of decreasing. This shows the public is losing faith in our public schools. 

7. Over 88,233 children attend public schools in the 34th Congressional District, according the information on the US Census website. 

8. According to a 1999 Gallup Poll: 
Most people support school vouchers to help parents send their children to private or religious schools.  Seventy five percent of voters would vote for a voucher initiative only if private schools were required to abide by the same or better standards as public schools. 

9. 40% of 4th graders read below their grade level.

10. 58% of city children can't read at all.

11. Over 1/3 of college freshman must take remedial courses before they can take normal college courses. 

On American Families
This is my platform for restoring American Families:

1. Men should have a federal right to bloodtest if a woman wants a court to force them to 
involuntarily pay child support. This right would not apply if the man waves it. 

2. Regarding child support, I favor allowing nonmonetary child support. Under this proposal, 
the parent paying the support would have the right to make nonmonetary child support in the form of 
paying the rent, paying utilities, buying food, clothing, etc. if such arrangement is court approved. 

3. Require men and women who have to pay child support to spend at least 2 days a week with their 
children unless special circumstances make this impossible. For example, the father lives in New York while the mother and child live in Los Angeles, or if the father molested or abused the child. 

4. I support allowing both parents to claim the children on their federal tax returns whether they are married or not. Even if the woman is working and already claims the child. Both should be allowed to claim the children. Allowing a a father to deduct child support from his taxes will encourage deadbeats to start paying up. This also means bigger tax savings for American couples. 

5. Everyone should have the right to sue third persons who destroy their families by engaging in adultry with their spouse or being a bad influence on their children. 

6. We ought to make marriage counseling tax deductible. 

7. We ought to have a National Day of the Family added to our calendar. 

8. There ought to be subsidized child care for women who agree to finish their education and for working mothers. 

9. If a man or woman chooses to stay home and take care of the kids, that family should be given a bigger deduction on their federal taxes. We should not punish people who make this decision, we should help them. We could give them a $50 dollar deduction if one spouse chooses to stay home. 

10. I support requiring parental consent for girls under 18 to get an abortion unless one of the parents has abused or molested her.

On Abortion
1. I oppose taxpayer funding for abortions. Using taxpayers money to force people to pay for other people's abortions violates their inherit right to freedom of conscience. Women may have the right to abortions, but they do not have the right to force other people to pay for them. 

2. I will vote to for an amendment, if necessary, to ban partial birth abortions. I will make exceptions in cases where the life of the woman or baby are in physical or psychological danger. This will have to be certified by three independent doctors, at least one of whom does not work for the clinic performing the abortion. 

3. I want to make contraceptions tax deductible for low income people. So as to encourage their use. 

4. I support parental consent laws. Girls under 18 are not entitled to the same rights as women over 18 who are also out on their own. It is wrong to perform an abortion on somebody's 15 year old daughter without their consent and then turn around and force that parent or parents to pay for the abortion. If one of the parents abused the daughter, the decision would be left solely to the other parent. If the other parent covered up the abuse, the decision rests with the extended family. If the extended family defends the abuser, then the courts shall decide. 

5. I believe that young women who are abused by their parents ought to have the right to seek emancipation in a federal court.

6. We need to promote better male responsibility and male celibacy. Male celebacy is the best form of natural birth control for those who have the guts to practice it.

7. Remove the federal government from having any role in abortion. Bar both the President and Congress from banning or promoting abortion.

8. Ban abortion litmus tests for aid to the states. 

9. Give power over abortion back to the states where it belongs. 

10. I propose the following amendment to accomplish some of these goals:

THE CANALES AMENDMENT 
SECTION 1: CONGRESS SHALL PASS NO LAWS FAVORING OR PROHIBITING ABORTION. 

SECTION 2:CONGRESS SHALL NEITHER FUND ABORTION NOR WITHHOLD FUNDING FROM STATES OR INDIVIDUALS ON THE BASIS OF WHETHER THEY SUPPORT OR OPPOSE ABORTION.

SECTION 3: THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET SHALL NEITHER ISSUE OR ENFORCE ANY LAWS OR REGULATIONS REGARDING THE PARTICIPATION BY ANY AMERICAN CITIZEN IN THE ABORTION PROCEDURE.

SECTION 4: THE STATES SHALL HAVE THE POWER TO ENACT AND ENFORCE ALL NECESSARY LAWS ENCOURAGING OR RESTRICTING ABORTION WIHTIN THEIR BORDERS, AS SHALL SEEM TO THEM TO BE IN THEIR BEST INTEREST. 

SECTION 5: THIS ARTICLE SHALL BE INOPERATIVE UNLESS IT SHALL HAVE BEEN RATIFIED AS AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION BY CONVENTIONS IN THREE-FOURTHS OF THE STATES, WITHIN ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM THE DATE OF THE SUBMISSION HEREOF TO THE STATES BY THE CONGRESS.
 

Canales for Congrees Survey
Let Mr. Canales know which issues are of concern to you in this election.

What is your name? 
Email Address: 

Name the most important issue in this election for you:
Families Taxes Education Religious Freedom Campaign Finance Reform Environment Abortion Crime National Defense Other