POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE : How Business Views the Election

To monitor business’s pulse on politics, The Times will present California executives’ and business owners’ opinions about the presidential election. This is one in a series of snapshots.

Name: Jack DuBeau

Company: Champion Chevrolet/Buick/Geo, Firebaugh, Calif.

Position: Owner

Registration: Independent

Q. Who are you going to vote for?

A. I am undecided.

Q. Why?

A. It’s tough to say right now. There are too many things up in the air. When Perot started off he had the ball rolling pretty good. It would have really shaken up the United States. Perot is not a career politician, he’s a businessman. . . . Politics is like, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. They owe everybody if they make it to the top.

Q. What are the main issues for your business?

A. Employment and how the water gets divided up in the state. Water is used to grow cotton for clothing. If Northern California doesn’t get water, we’ll have to buy our clothes out of state, which will make clothes more expensive and our economy will get worse.

Q. What other issues are of importance to you?

A. Who’s going to stimulate the economy and get the country back on track. We need to get back to where the United States is a strong nation that doesn’t owe everybody in the world.

Q. What needs to be done to right the economy?

A. Whoever wins will probably have to raise taxes. They’ll have to make it beneficial to make investments in the United States. All you’ve got to do is watch TV--everything’s (businesses and the economy) dropping right and left.

Q. How have you voted in previous elections?

A. Republican. I think things have gone downhill. I think it’s time for a change. It’s not that if you bring in Clinton things are going to be any different. I think the President has had his hands tied with a Democratic Congress.