Gerrie Schipske: Challenging the incumbent

RACE FOR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE 46TH DISTRICT

NAME: Gerrie Schipske

AGE: 52

FAMILY: Single, with three children

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Teaches classes at Cal State Long Beach in

municipal law and women’s health. Practices labor law in Long Beach.

Registered nurse who worked in the neo-natal unit at UC Irvine

Medical Center in the early 1980s.

EDUCATION: Associate’s from Fullerton Community College;

associate’s from Golden West College; bachelor’s from UCI; master’s

from George Washington University; doctorate from Pacific Coast

University’s law school.

SCHIPSKE ON:

* REP. DANA ROHRABACHER:

“There’s got to be some temperance in his remarks.”

Schipske said she is bothered by Rohrabacher’s outspoken and often

controversial public statements. She has criticized the congressman

for taking trips to Afghanistan, Qatar and other Middle Eastern

countries to meet with Taliban and moujahedeen leaders.

* FUNDING FOR PUBLIC HEALTH:

“We need to commit more resources to public health and

communicable diseases.” Schipske wants to beef up funding for county

hospitals and clinics to eradicate outbreaks of tuberculosis and

other diseases.

* EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS:

“We need to educate those kids. We need to be able to make certain

the people we are going to Disneyland with are healthy.”

Schipske said she was opposed to Proposition 187, the 1994 Orange

County-born state initiative that attempted to drive out

“undocumented aliens” by denying them healthcare and education.

* IMMIGRATION:

“We need to enforce immigration laws against employers.”

Schipske wants the federal government to enforce laws prohibiting

employers from hiring illegal immigrants for cheap labor.

* PRESCRIPTION DRUGS:

Schipske supports lowering the cost of prescription drugs for

needy seniors and lowering the cost of designer drugs for other

people who need them. She supports more regulation on drug

advertising.

“Take the purple pill off the CBS advertisement and you can cut

the cost of that purple pill.”

* WAR ON IRAQ:

“I don’t want our country to become the aggressor.” Schipske

supports special operations missions in Iraq and diplomacy as an

approach to dealing with Saddam Hussein. She also supports

humanitarian aid to the country.