Five vie for 16th District seat in state Senate
Residents of the 16th Senate District will have a handful of choices to choose from on the ballot June 7.
A farmer, a pastor, a pair of politicians who consider themselves bipartisan, as well a progressive small-town mayor, represent more variety than most races see.
Similar to the San Joaquin Valley’s 12th District, there’s a significant difference in voter registration between Democrats and Republicans — but not quite as big, and in reverse, for an area that includes east Bakersfield, northwestern Kern County and portions of Kings and Tulare counties.
In the 16th, the voter registration ratio is 41.2 percent Democrat to 28.3 percent Republican, which might explain why there are three viable candidates with political experience from the same party. (Those numbers in the 12th, according to the California Secretary of State’s most recent report, favor the GOP by almost 17 points.)
Much of the Republican support seems to be galvanizing behind one of the two GOP choices, but in a free-for-all “jungle primary” system, it’s tough to tell which two candidates in the race will have the easiest path to November.
Former Assemblywoman Nicole Parra noted state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, seems to have much of the Sacramento establishment supporting Hurtado as a sitting senator for the 14th District, but Parra said she was more focused on making her case for why she should run for the 16th, with a campaign that’s garnered bipartisan endorsements.
Parra, 52, is running as a Democrat but described herself as a “Valleycrat” — someone who puts the SJV first — a term she holds near and dear, which she says
she picked up from former Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamente.
“It would be so hypocritical of me to knock on someone’s door in Hanford or … Wasco, and say, to a Republican household, ‘I hope you would consider supporting and voting for me’ — and they have — and then when they run for local office, say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. I can’t, you’re a Republican,’” Parra said. “I vote for the best person for the job.”
For her part, Hurtado, 34, also doesn’t consider herself “political,” she said, although some people do because of her approach.
“I’m one of the most business-friendly Democrats in the state Senate, and I’m very much friendly to agriculture and all things Central Valley,” Hurtado said. “I don’t do things based on politics or where the power lies, I do things because they’re good for my district, because they’re good for our state of California and they’re going to benefit people.”
Hurtado said she doesn’t want to see the Central Valley left behind, so while she considers herself a supporter of agriculture and oil workers, she also thinks the story of Kern’s state-leading efforts on energy innovation is one that needs to be more widespread and a model for the future moving forward.
Parra is also familiar with the dynamic of energy politics in Kern and Sacramento as a former legislator and someone who most recently worked in government relations in Sacramento for Marathon Petroleum, the nation’s largest refiner of crude. She listed her top priorities as continuing the state’s efforts to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing concerns with how the state manages and controls its water supply.
Speaking from the perspective of someone running an ag business, EW Merritt Farms, which has been family-owned for generations, Republican David Shepard has garnered a number of GOP-friendly endorsements he’s proud of — notably the sheriffs of all three counties the district touches — with his threepronged platform. He’s for increasing state access and storage capability for water, addressing a crime rate he described as “skyrocketing” and “reviving the American dream and reviving the California dream.”
Shepard, 29, said he was “befuddled” as to why Sacramento has failed to look at desalination methods to increase its water supply, why the state has continued to reduce penalties for convicted criminals and why the state draws up regulatory policies for businesses that make it harder for people to achieve self-sufficiency the way his forefathers did.
“There’s other reasons why I’m running, but the specific reason that was the catalyst for me running was specifically my family’s legacy of farming and seeing our water situation and how I cannot in good conscience say … I’m gonna be able to pass down this family business down to my children, because of the water situation,” Shepard said.
Delano Mayor Bryan Osorio, whose Democratic policies tend to lean more toward progressive side of the political spectrum, shared in Shepard’s desire to see farmworkers be able to achieve a better lifestyle for themselves and future generations, the way Osorio’s parents did. However, he takes a slightly different view on how to achieve that.
As the son of Mexican immigrant farmworkers and the first in his family to graduate high school and college, the 26-year-old credited governmental programs for playing a role in his ability to succeed.
“I’ve seen the sacrifices that my family has made for me to have the opportunity that I’ve had, and also the investments that my communities and the state have made into programs for me to succeed,” Osorio said. “I want to give back to my community and give back to the Central Valley because my story should not be the exception.”
The other Republican vying for the seat, Pastor Greg Tatum of Change Community Church in Bakersfield, said he’s making his second run, after an unsuccessful bid for the 16th District in 2018, because he’s tired of the “lip service” communities like his have received from Sacramento. Tatum, 62, also noted that there needed to be action at the state level to address the region’s water issues.
“When I was working with Safe Streets and the Bakersfield Police Department, I recognized that it lacked a lot of power,” Tatum said, “and in some of these underserved areas, especially with people of color, I felt that the people that were over these areas and districts were mostly giving them lip service and not really giving them all of the benefits they deserve to empower them so they can get a job, help with home ownership and all those things.”