Hasn’t directly sued Trump
website claims that he has “sued Donald Trump 100 times.”
“I am the only candidate in this race Fighting President Trump,” his website states. “I’ve made it possible for California to sue the Trump Administration 100 times!”
Hueso was not available for an interview. His campaign issued a statement saying the state senator can take credit for the lawsuits because he supported budgets that fund the attorney general’s office.
“The Attorney General has asked Sen. Hueso to support and help ensure Senate approval of funding for a legal strategy to f ight Trump on several occasions,” the statement said. “With that funding, the Attorney General has f iled more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump Administration on behalf of his ‘client’, the people of California and their representatives, the state Legislature.”
While it is true that Becerra has sued the Trump administration on behalf of Californians, there is no indication that Hueso had anything to do with those lawsuits. As a state senator, he has no official say over what cases the attorney general decides to pursue.
The mailers also attack Hueso’s opponent, Southwestern College Trustee and former Planned Parenthood executive Nora Vargas, because she didn’t mention Trump’s name in her ballot statement.
Vargas called Hueso’s mailers “laughable” during a phone interview.
First, Vargas said, Hueso is trying to take credit for something Becerra did.
“He is touting the attorney general’s work as his own,” she said. “I checked into it and understand that the state Legislature has nothing to do with the attorney general’s work or the lawsuits he’s filed on behalf of California.”
Second, Vargas said, she has a strong record of fighting Trump’s policies both through her work for Planned Parenthood and by participating in local protests in San Diego like the Woman’s March.
“The whole purpose of the Woman’s March every year has been to stand up against Trump’s policies,” she said.
Why didn’t she write Trump’s name on her ballot statement?
Vargas believes the goal of a ballot statement is to tell voters about herself, what issues she’s focused on and what she plans to do about them.
She said she wanted to use the ballot statement as an opportunity to let the public know about her platform on things that a county supervisor has direct inf luence over, such as the pandemic, homelessness, housing, health care, air quality and water pollution in the Tijuana River Valley.
“People don’t want to hear empty promises; people want to know what you’re going to do,” Vargas said. “People are dying in our district and all this sitting senator can do is talk about Trump?”
Although Hueso has not personally sued President Trump or his administration, he has introduced legislation that directly responds to federal policies and addresses long-standing problems in San Diego County, the Voice of San Diego reported Tuesday.
Notably, Hueso introduced a bill to create a legal defense program for immigrants facing deportation as long as they did not have a violent felony in their records.
Hueso also introduced legislation that diverted state funds to infrastructure projects that would address cross-border sewage f lows along the Tijuana River Valley.