Two locals vie for seats in Congress
The U.S. 9th Congressional District and the California 9th and 12th Assembly districts will be up for grabs during the 2018 primary election, set for June 5. Three candidates are on the ballot for both District 9 races, and two candidates are on the ballot for the District 12 seat.
9th Congressional District
Two Lodians have thrown their names in the hat for the U.S Representative race. Lodi grape grower and businessman Mike Tsarnas and Lodi public policy professional Marla Livengood are both challenging incumbent Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton).
Tsarnas said he will prioritize constituents and issues over party politics if elected.
“I’m very fed up with politics,” he said. “I’m fed up with the left. I’m fed up with right. I’m fed up with the fighting. My platform is Valley before party: not left, not right, but in the middle.”
Tsarnas is running as an American Independent, and if elected he hopes to enact term limits in the House and Senate and push for campaign reform. He also thinks Congress should receive the same health care as its constituents and would also like to see Congress take a pay cut.
“If you do three terms in Congress, their salary is $174,000 a year. They serve less than only 200 days in Washington D. C.,” Tsarnas said. “After three terms, they get 80 percent of their salary for the rest of their lives, plus free health care. There’s not a job in America that pays that, and the 435 jobs in Congress ... keep making themselves better, bigger and fatter.”
Tsarnas said he is running for Congress because he can’t tolerate the political gridlock any longer.
Tsarnas grows grapes in Lodi and is working to add a winery. He also owns Waterloo Catering and Events. He and his wife, Amber, have two daughters, Ellie, 10, and Alexis Jaden, 7.
Livengood decided to run for Congress because she feels that the district isn’t getting the representation that it deserves.
“I’ve worked on policy my entire career more behind the scenes, and I just saw a need. I thought ‘you know what, this is something I can do.’ I don’t see the level of representation that I’d like to see, so I decided after lots of prayer and convocations with family and friends that I was going to step out there, and I was going to make a bid for the district.”
Livengood is running as a Republican and said if elected, she would like to bring a voice back to the district — especially its agricultural community, which she said has not been properly represented. She said she’d advocate for lower tax rates and put an emphasis on bringing more jobs back to the community.
“We need to put the right focus on the district and work with our Congress and other members to see how can we improve legislation to bring a benefit back to the district,” Livengood said.
Livengood has spent her entire career in public policy, working on Capitol Hill making her way up from staff assistant to legislative director, handling ag issues and transportation issues. She and her husband have been married since 2005 and have been living in Lodi since 2006. Together they have three children — Hunter, Emiline, and Elise. She continues to work in federal public policy and is currently working for the California Strawberry Commission, representing farmers, processors and shippers of California’s strawberry industry.
McNerney, a six-term incumbent, said he is seeking reelection in order to continue delivering results that strengthen middle class families, keep children healthy, protect Medicare, Social Security and ensure a clean environment for future generations. He was inspired to run for Congress after his son joined the military after Sept. 11, 2001. Since coming to Washington D.C., he has been committed to fighting for veterans, writing a law that requires the Veterans Administration to improve care for veterans with traumatic brain injuries and securing the funding and placement for a new VA medical clinic in San Joaquin County.
McNerney said he is also focused on bringing jobs with good pay to the region, and has introduced bills to incentivize small businesses to hire unemployed workers and to close tax loopholes for corporations that ship American jobs overseas. He has also worked to secure money for job training and educational programs to keep young people off the streets and to hire more local police officers. Protecting the Delta and the farmers, businesses and families that rely on it is also a priority for McNerney.
He and in his wife, Mary, have lived in California for nearly three decades.
State Assembly 9th District
Galt resident Mario Garcia, along with Harry He of Sacramento, will be challenging incumbent Jim Cooper. All three candidates are Democrats.
If elected, Garcia said he will work to make sure all Californians have equal representation. According to Garcia, millions of residents are excluded from the political process by politicians who practice extreme partisanship, favor special interests, and use their positions for personal gain. In 2016 alone, Garcia claims on his campaign website, California lawmakers accepted more than half a million dollars in gifts, many of which came from individuals, organizations, and corporations that employ lobbyists.
With Californians facing the largest gas tax increase in the state’s history, there is a need for more transparency in government, Garcia said on his site. According to Garcia, California’s government spending data is more inaccessible than any other state in the country.
“A lack of transparency equates to a lack of accountability. We deserve to know where our money is going,” he said on his site.
He plans to develop a comprehensive and interactive website where the public can keep track of government spending.
Garcia grew up in Galt and is a a graduate of Galt High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science, with a specialization in American politics from the University of California, Berkeley.
After seeing several areas where he thought the incumbent wasn’t doing a good job, Harry He decided to run for Congress. According to He, there is a structural problem within the political system that allows special interest groups and money to wield too much influence.
“The voice of individuals are overrun by the voices of big money donors and special interest groups, and Jim is like the poster boy for special interest groups and big money in politics,” He said. “That’s was really the main motivator for me to run against him. I saw that he was everything that we hated about politics personified.”
He said he is an advocate against sexual harassment and claims Cooper has been silent on the topic.
“He’s been totally silent on sexual harassment, whereas I’ve been out talking to people. I’ve been writing about it on my social media and on my web page,” He said.
In the aftermath of Stephon Clark’s shooting by Sacramento police officers, He said he wants to mandate statewide deescalation training for all police officers in every law enforcement agency.
Other issues He wants to tackle include affordable housing, environmental protection and health care.
He describes himself as a regular working man and that’s why he is perfect for the job.
“You don’t have to vote for somebody that’s been in politics forever,” He said. “Not everybody is a career politician. I think individual citizens that work and live in the communities can do a better job than career politicians. At this point, the voters are hungry for change, and it’s time for people to step up and start running for elections.”
The child of Chinese immigrants who have owned businesses in the 9th District, He hopes to advocate for the small business community. He is an IT manager and resides in Sacramento.
If elected, it will be Cooper’s third term representing the 9th District. Providing education and training are top priorities, he said, noting that early childhood education, vocational education and job training for students and adults are essential.
“We need to make classes smaller and college more affordable,” he said on his campaign website.
Cooper also feels that small businesses are the key to the local economy and said he wants to help expand business loans, cut unnecessary red tape and make it easier for local businesses to secure state contracts. If elected, Cooper said he will also continue his fight for cleaner air and water, and work to increase public safety.
Cooper was elected to the office in 2014 and resides in Elk Grove. He has been active within the 9th District for a number of years, having served as the founding mayor of Elk Grove as well as a sheriff ’s deputy.
State Assembly 12th District
Democrat Robert Chase is challenging Republican incumbent Heath Flora.
Chase decided to run because he saw that Flora was running unopposed.
“In my mind, it is not good for democracy when candidates run unopposed. They need to be opposed so that we can find out more about them,” Chase said.
If elected, he would like to work towards getting more infrastructure upgrades in Stanislaus County.
“We’re not getting the things we need to have done,” Chase said.
Education is something else Chase would like to focus on if elected.
Chase has been working as a trial attorney for more than 40 years and also practices dependency law, representing children who have been abused and parents accused of child abuse. According to Chase, dependency law is grossly underfunded in California. With his law background, Chase is confident in his ability to represent the district.
Chase is a veteran and was a captain in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He and his wife, Elaine, reside in Modesto. He is the father of two children — Jessica, a international law accountant living in Oregon, and Martin, a veteran with disabilities who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and is currently working on his Ph.D.
If re-elected, Flora will be serving his second term. Flora has been strongly opposed to the Delta tunnels and would like to see money being spent on building dams at Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flats, according to his campaign website. He said his focus is on ensuring water, property and privacy rights are respected. Flora would also like to grow the economy by creating more jobs. He also wants to make sure education is fully funded, giving everyone a chance to succeed. He also wants to keep firefighters safe, fight corruption, keep taxes down, increase transparency in the state government and fight for veterans.
Flora is a farmer and businessman and also spent 15 years as a volunteer firefighter before taking office. He resides in Ripon with his wife, Melodie, and their two daughters, Lacy and Paris.