Congressman Paul Cook, who himself was once the mayor of Yucca Valley, as well as an assemblyman in Sacramento before being elected to Congress in 2012. Managing editor Tami Roleff touches on some of the highlights of Cook’s speech to the audience…
Congressman Paul Cook of Yucca Valley talked about what motivated him to get into politics after he retired from the Marine Corps.
“I think you have to have that fire in the belly. You want to change something or make it better.”
After Cook explained he first ran for office to help veterans and senior citizens, and to improve military readiness, he talked about political philosophy and compromise.
“I ran because of the veterans and the military situation, where people would go into veterans homes and die. I thought I could make a difference on that… I’m probably as not as conservative as some people in this room want me to be. And I’m not as liberal as some people want me to be.”
Cook talked a lot about compromise.
“It’s a compromise. Our whole system is built on compromise. As a Republican you have to talk to the Republicans, you have to talk to the Democrats, and most of the Democrats will talk to us, but certain groups on both the left and the right, forget it, they are not going to budge on anything.”
But it’s not just compromising with members of the other party.
“Even in my party there’s going to be friction, because they don’t have the same sense of urgency. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to send young men
and women into harm’s way because I didn’t have the courage of my convictions to stand up in Congress.”
He briefly spoke about the race for his seat in Congress.
“I think I represent the community. If I lose the next election, so be it… We’re different and we have a different approach.”
He then returned to the topic of compromise.
“Do I talk to the Democrats? Yes. You have to have those relationships. Even though you have different political views, you have to have those conversations and respect across the aisle.”
After Cook’s speech, Mayor Rick Denison introduced a video featuring each member of the Yucca Valley Town Council that gave a snapshot of all the activities in the town over the year. Some of the items discussed on the video were the Measure Y and Z sales tax measures and how they have benefited town residents, the sewer project, new hires at the Sheriff’s Department, and a new employee and longer hours at the Yucca Valley Senior Center.
The State of the Town address was videotaped and is available for viewing on the town’s website, yucca-valley.org.
