Lodi Chamber weighs in on local elections
Over the course of the last week, the Lodi District Chamber of Commerce has interviewed candidates for local, county, state, and congressional elections. The goal of the candidate endorsement process is to question all candidates in selected races and choose the candidate who best reflects the business values and polices of the Lodi District Chamber of Commerce.
For Lodi City Council District 4, the Lodi District Chamber of Commerce endorses incumbent JoAnne Mounce for the 2020 election. While her challengers showcased passion, innovative ideas, their view of the district was different in degree of need from Ms. Mounce. They just may give her a close race for her council seat. After much discussion, the panel agreed experience will be greatly valued during uncertainty. They believe full effects of the 2020 pandemic and economic lockdown will have impacts for one or maybe two years. Mounce’s financial background, familiarization with city financials and experience tipped the scale in her favor.
For Lodi City Council District 5, candidate Mikey Hothi received the endorsement. He bridges the generational gap between council and younger members of the community. His experience working with the city helped — homeless issues, helping secure a milliondollar grant to bolster the lake shoreline from erosion working for Assemblyman Cooper — and has given him a working knowledge others just don’t have, setting him apart for the endorsement. We want to say again thank you to all the seven candidates who took the time to speak with us. We also encourage you to try again as few council members make it on their first attempt.
Of those interviewed vying for three seats on the LUSD School Board and the seats for the Delta Board of Trustees, we saw no one with the experience or platform that was more persuasive than that of the current board members. Therefore, continuing with Gary Knackstedt, Ron Freitas and Joe Nava for another term seems a reasonable approach for LUSD. Teresa Brown, Van Ho To-Cowell, and Stephan Castellanos for the Delta School Board of Trustees.
For State Assembly District 9, the Lodi Chamber endorses incumbent Assemblyman Jim Cooper over his challenger Eric Rigard. The panel believed that Rigard is vastly knowledgeable on the issues facing the district. Assemblyman Cooper has done much for our Lodi community and will hopefully continue to do so in the Legislature as an often lonely moderate in the Democratic Party. A moderate gives us some hope in a very leftleaning Legislature. If the Legislature were balanced party-wise, Rigard would have made the race “interesting.”
The Lodi Chamber endorses Robert Rickman for County Board of Supervisors and Tony Amador for U.S. Congress District 9. Mr. Rickman’s experience as the Mayor of Tracy, as well as the work he has done with local transportation, infrastructure, addressing homelessness, and innovative tax-sharing ideas led the panel to choose Mr. Rickman, who will represent the Tracy area. Since the Tracy representative votes on Lodi issues like wine and wine tourism taxes, it is important he knows about us.
Incumbent Congressman McNerney was not interviewed, although invited. We went off his last voting record. He has continually voted with the new socialistic direction of his party. There is no way that is good for free enterprise and many other elements of freedom loving people. Mr. Amador, unlike his opponent, is a free enterprise vote and will work to bring economic growth to the district.