Tijuana, B.C. – Tonight, the candidates for the governor of Baja California, Francisco "Kiko" Vega de la Madrid (PAN), Fernando Castro Trenti (PRI), and Felipe Ruanova Zarate (Citizens Movement) all came together to debate for the second time and talked about their proposals and solutions to three issues: Social Development, Unemployment and Vulnerable groups.

In the introductory portion of the debate, there was no surprise to what happen and is in a way something that is almost customary, in which the candidates began to attack each other and pull out skeletons from each other's closets like missing money from budgets, projects that were never finished, and promises that were made and never kept. Ultimately, they all gave reasons of why their opponents were not fit to govern the state.

In the topic of "Social Development", Castro Trenti (PRI) spoke about combating against unemployment so that the citizens of Baja California can improve their quality of life. By this he meant that a job will provide an income that will help the head of a household afford basic necessities. Parents will be able to afford to pay their bills and have more money left to spend on their families. Kiko Vega (PAN) on this issue proposed to improve the education. He believes that by improving education, it will lead into improving other areas in an individual's life. Vega proposed for year around schooling instead of children having to take turns in different shifts to learn at a school. He proposed to create government assistance programs for school materials to help out low-income families.

Last up to speak on this topic was Felipe Ruanova Zarate (Citizens Movement), who throughout the debate expressed his point of views with very strong words, and said that "Social Development has been corrupted by the traditional party's (PAN/PRI), by taking advantage of the necessities of the people. The solution is not to hand out money or things. The solution is to teach people to improve their lives by making them valuable and giving them the tools to succeed."

On the issue of unemployment all of the candidates had very different opinions on how to resolve this matter. Kiko Vega (PAN) proposed to promote the state for foreign investment, so that more jobs can be created. While Castro Trenti (PRI) highlighted education to be the key to reduce the unemployment rate. He believes that education will help prepare both men and women, along with changing the attitude of politicians and those who govern, as the key that will be needed to help resolve this problem. And on the other hand, Felipe Ruanova Zarate (Citizens Movement) said:

"The solution to this problem was lost years ago. Many jobs have disappeared over the last few years. We cannot compete against slave wages. We have to do bigger and better things to compete, especially with China. We have to industrialize many processes in order to compensate for some our difficulties and be able to compete. We cannot hand out our ports to foreign investors. We cannot sell ourselves. We have to change these things to make this situation better."

When it came to talking about vulnerable groups, both Kiko Vega and Castro Trenti agreed on the same ones which are young single mothers and children. They both spoke about creating and reinforcing government assistance programs to improve their situation so that a single mother can go to work comfortably knowing that their child is safe. A 24/7 daycare was proposed by Vega who claims that previously under his government admistration, he was able to open up 2,300 free daycare centers. Trenti added to this that education would be emphasized as well under his administration if he becomes the next governor of Baja California.

Closing on this issue of vulnerable groups was Zarate, but in a different manner when mentioning women. Zarate highlighted that women are a vulnerable group because they are not free to choose, which to this he referred to abortion. He believed that women should have the choice to "interrupt their pregnancy" and that here in Baja California, "same sex marriages should be allowed".

"We all belong in different vulnerable groups for one reason or another", said Zarate.

Although there are still a few more debates to come, if you lived in Baja California, who would be winning your vote so far?

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Omar.Martinez@Sandiegored.com