The University of Guam’s Public Administration capstone project is to question the candidates for Guam delegate this election.

Darren Pangelinan was the moderator for the assembly and he said, “It is vital that we understand where you stand on a local level before you choose to stand before we choose to have one of the running candidates represent us on Capitol Hill.”

Government transparency, housing, transgender issues, and crime were all among the line of questioning.

Each candidate got two minutes to answer questions created by the students themselves.

Democratic candidate Ginger Cruz was asked about the increase of illegal drugs.

She said, “We have to build stronger families; we have to strengthen behavioral health because we also need to treat the problem that causes people to turn to drugs. So if we do both things simultaneously and we actually look at the future, it’s going to be a technological future so let’s harness that.”

Republican candidate Ken Leon Guerrero was questioned on the best solution to address the power gap until the new power plant is built in 2025.

“What we need to be doing is we need to be building up our local infrastructure at the village level, we need to provide more incentive for solar energy because we are in one of the best places in the United States to harness solar energy. The technology has come down in costs dramatically,” said Leon Guerrero.

Former congressman Michael San Nicolas, a democrat, was questioned on repairing the existing hospital.

He responded, “We need to pass the politics. Our people are all in agreement that the hospital needs to get addressed, it needs to get fixed. We have the resources to do it. Let’s put those resources to work but we have to get pass the politics. So how do we do that? We speak up.”

And Senator Amanda Shelton, also a democrat, was questioned about raising the minimum wage.

“More important than raising the minimum wage at this time is raising the quality of life and raising the minimum wage to a living wage. So in the last Guam Legislature, we raised the minimum wage and we were able to do that with the support of so many working people,” said Shelton.

Students also asked each candidate about the Jones Act and whether or not they would rescind or revise it.

The incumbent, a republican, Delegate James Moylan was also invited but did not attend.