Ricky Castaneda – candidate for Elizabeth Board of Education

Candidate information:

Email: rickybcastaneda@yahoo.com
Phone number: 908-370-8995
Date of Birth: 01/29/1998
Social media: Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ricky4eboe/ Personal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rickybcastaneda
Education: Graduated from Elizabeth High School ’16, currently at Rutgers-Newark
Occupation: Sales Associate
Public/Party service: Publicly advocated and protested for many civil rights issues around locally

Position on good government initiatives:

1. Would you support reinstituting the statewide public advocate and making it a directly elected position? Yes.
   
2. Would you support measures to increase voter participation (eg. same-day registration, early voting, vote by mail)? Yes. All are needed in order to increase voter participation and to make voting easier with less obstacles. It’s surprising how with all this technology, we (NJ) are still behind. We need to have online voter registration. We need open primaries.
   
3. Would you support ethics reforms that would require broader disclosure on financial information and the release of income taxes by candidates for public office, as a means for regulating campaigns and limiting corruption? Yes.
   
4. Would you support changing the nominating process for members of state-wide Commissions and Boards to have panels of nonpartisan experts nominate candidates, with full public disclosure of the candidates’ credentials, and to have the legislature vote on the nominations? Yes.
   
5. Would you support placing a nonpartisan commission in charge of the legislative redistricting process? Yes.
   
6. Would you support public funding of campaigns for all statewide offices, including the legislature? Yes.
   
7. Would you support making the state legislature full-time and prohibiting simultaneous holding of other paid positions? Yes.
   
8. Would you support reforming New Jersey’s Primary electoral ballots to give all candidates an equal chance of being elected? Yes. Voting for “party lines” has to stop and must let the voters decide who the best candidate is, not the county party organizations.