TWO CHALLENGERS FACE MAIENSCHEIN IN RESHAPED 76TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT
Democratic incumbent now in new area with more Republican voters
Incumbent Brian Maienschein, a Democrat, faces two Republican challengers in his June 7 primary bid for a sixth two-year term in the state Assembly.
Maienschein served two terms on the San Diego City Council before he was first elected to the Assembly’s 77th District in 2012. He’s been re-elected to the seat ever since, although this year, after redistricting, he’s running in the 76th District.
The two districts essentially swapped places, with the 77th becoming more coastal and the 76th going more inland. As a result, the two elected representatives, Maienschein and Tasha Boerner Horvath, traded districts without changing their residences. However, the change boosted the percentage of Republican voters in the 76th, which could mean trouble for Maienschein.
June Cutter, a business owner and attorney, returned to the campaign after running unsuccessfully against Maeinschein in 2020, getting 44.22 percent of the vote.
Taxes and affordability lead the issues facing the district, Cutter said in an emailed response to questions from The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“There is no question that Californians are over-taxed,” Cutter said. “We have the highest income tax rates in the nation and our gas prices are 133 percent of the national average. In the Assembly, I will oppose all tax increases and propose a middle-class tax cut that exempts the first $50,000 earned by an individual and the first $100,000 earned by a couple filing jointly from California’s state income tax.”
Climate change is second on her list. California’s environmental policies are short-sighted, she said, and businesses are forced to navigate excessive regulation and scrutiny under clean energy and “cap and trade” policies.
“I will partner with industry leaders, environmentalists, and
scientists to ensure access to diversified energy is reliable and affordable, and that climate policies are based on real science and economics,” Cutter said.
Education rounds out her list.
“California’s public education system has been broken for decades,” she said. “I support a school choice system that will incorporate charter schools, and the utilization of educational savings accounts so that working and middle class families have access to private schools.”
Maeinschein’s other challenger, Rancho Bernardo resident Kristie Bruce-Lane, is a director on the board of the Olivenhain Municipal Water District, and founder and president of the Thumbprint Project Foundation, a nonprofit that helps homeless children who have been hurt by domestic violence.
Homelessness, public safety and children’s schools are the top three issues of the campaign, Bruce-Lane said in response to the UnionTribune’s emailed questions.
“I am the only elected official in this race that has experience working to address our homeless crisis that is now a humanitarian crisis,” Bruce-Lane said.
“The bad policies stemming out of Sacramento and the indirect consequences have fostered our next generation of homeless,” she said. “Our most vulnerable, our children were exposed and caught in the cross-fire of these bad policies and will suffer the ramifications for many years to come.”
The solution to homelessness requires partnerships, teamwork and a communitydriven process, Bruce-Lane said.
“My work on behalf of child crime tells me that our criminal justice system is failing,” she said. “The reclassification of felonies to misdemeanors has contributed to soaring crime rates. Sexually violent predators are allowed to reside in our communities where there are schools, parks and community centers full of children.”
As for schools, her work as a board member on the San Diego Council on Literacy has shown her that children need safe learning environments and protection outside the campus from bullying and antisemitism.
“Our children should be thriving, not surviving,” she said.
Maienschein was the only candidate to include reproductive and abortion rights on his list of important issues.
“A woman’s right to determine her own health care choices is under attack,” Maienschein said. “With the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, now more than ever we need elected leaders who will protect and defend a woman’s right to choose. I am proud to have a 100 percent voting record with Planned Parenthood and I will continue to fight against the erosion of a woman’s basic human rights.”
Homelessness was No. 2 on Maienschein’s list. His work with Project 25 to house chronically homeless people helped make it one of the most successful programs in San Diego history, he said, and he supports continued state funding to local agencies that combat homelessness.
His third issue was gas prices. He stands by his vote against the gas tax in 2017, he said.
“There are a lot of solutions on the table right now, and I am in full support of whatever puts the most money back into San Diego taxpayers’ pockets,” he said.
The district’s top two candidates in the June primary will face off again in the November general election.