By James Burger, Californian staff writer

Tuesday's forum for California Assembly candidates at Cal State Bakersfield focused on the issues -- from water and off-shore drilling to Cal State student fees and sewage sludge.

There were no fireworks and only a few polite barbs at the event hosted by California Women Lead and the League of Women Voters.

Pete Parra, running for the 30th Assembly seat, opened the forum with the evening's only reference to the very public turmoil brewing in the 32nd Assembly race between Ken Mettler and Shannon Grove.

"I want to thank the 32nd Assembly candidates for taking us off the front page with recent incidents," he said.

From there on out, however, it was a fairly calm hour of questions from the audience and answers from the candidates.

Both Republicans and Democrats running for seats in the two districts called for more water to be brought to Valley farmers and the workers they employ.

But they disagreed on how best to do that.

Mettler slammed the water bond on the November ballot which would raise $11 billion to fund repairs to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and a way to divert water to Southern California without destroying the protected delta smelt, a small fish.

"It's filled with pork. It's not a good bill. We need the water but it's been porked up to the max," Mettler said.

But dairy farmer David Valadao, running against Stephanie Campbell for the 30th Assembly District's Republican nomination, said the water the project will bring is critical to the Central Valley.

"I am a reluctant supporter. I'm disgusted with the amount of pork," he said.

Democratic 30th Assembly candidates Parra and Fran Florez both agreed the bill wasn't perfect but said it was the best solution the state has at this time and it was supported by farmers and other traditionally conservative groups.

The Democrat-Republican split was more defined in the discussion of off-shore oil drilling -- an issue thrust into the headlines by the massive leak from a BP drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

The forum's Republican candidates said the technology is sound and drilling should take place.

"There were mistakes made in the Gulf," Grove said, discussing off-shore drilling in California. "But it doesn't mean we shouldn't get that oil off that shelf."

Her opponent, Mettler, said it was ludicrous not to do off-shore drilling.

"We have a resource available to us and we're not tapping into it," he said.

But Parra and Florez both advocated for providing incentives for local oil companies to explore existing oil reserves available on land.

And all the candidates agreed that schools and universities should be supported and higher education students should not have to face higher fees. They all opposed the importation of sewage sludge to Kern County from Southern California.

And all of them, when asked to raise their hands if they would do the Assembly job for free to save taxpayers money, launched their hands skyward.

Moderator Lois Chaney ended the event by thanking the candidates for taking the initiative to participate in government.

"People say these awful things about politicians but they are very dear to my heart," she said.

For more information, please contact Barbara Lomas, Kern County Chapter Board Member at (661) 565-5435.