INCUMBENT JONES FACING DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER ROCHA FOR STATE SENATE
Redrawn 40th District covers broad chunk of central San Diego County
A veteran state legislator is taking on a political newcomer in San Diego County’s newly redrawn 40th Senate District, which covers a broad swath of central San Diego County.
State Sen. Brian Jones, a Republican who currently represents the 38th Senate District, which covers roughly the northeast quadrant of
San Diego County, faces a challenge by Democrat Joseph Rocha, an attorney and former U.S. Marine officer.
Along with other legislative districts in San Diego County and across the state, the 40th was recently redrawn as part of the redistricting process following the 2020 census. Jones, a Santee resident, now lives in the 40th District.
The two candidates are running in a Senate district that covers University City, Sorrento Valley, Sorrento Mesa, Miramar and Mira Mesa in San Diego, along with Santee, Lakeside, Alpine, Pine Valley, Ramona, Poway, 4S Ranch, and north to the county line including Fallbrook, Escondido, San Marcos and Valley Center.
Under California’s open primary system, the top two vote-getters in the June 7 primary election, regardless of party affiliation, go on to face
each other in the November general election. In the case of a primary with only two candidates, such as this year’s 40th District Senate seat, both candidates will go on to a fall rematch.
Voter registration in the district is evenly split, with 34.4 percent Democrats and 34.3 percent Republicans, according to data supplied by the California Secretary of State’s Office. About onefourth of the district’s voters listed no party preference.
Jones, 53, served as a Santee City Council member before being elected first to the California Assembly and then the state Senate. Before his career in politics, he worked as a commercial real estate agent. Jones attended Grossmont College and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Diego State University.
Rocha, 35, an Escondido resident, served in the Navy
as a bomb dog handler in the Persian Gulf, and was discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gay service members. While he was out of the service, he graduated from San Diego City College and the University of San Diego and earned a law degree from the University of San Francisco.
After “don’t ask don’t tell” was repealed in 2010, Rocha enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he attained the rank of captain and worked as a prosecutor before getting out of the service in 2021.
Both candidates, in separate interviews, responded to questions regarding economic development and job creation, education and tax policy.
Rocha said he would work to bring well-paying jobs to the state in such areas as building infrastructure, much-needed new housing and addressing climate change. He also said he would push for policy changes that would make it easier for the spouses of active-duty
military members to get good jobs, by allowing professional certification from one state to be recognized in others.
Providing more economic opportunities to service members, veterans and their families, he said, would lead to reduced food insecurity and lower suicide and homeless rates.
Jones said his family moved from Colorado to California when he was a child because his father saw the state as “the land of opportunity.” Today, he said, there is an exodus of California residents due to high taxes and onerous regulations on businesses.
Workers and their employees need more flexibility to set work schedules without the interference of stateimposed rules, Jones said. He also advocates for legal reforms that would make it harder to sue a business for making a mistake on a paycheck or other minor transgression.
The state should also do more to prepare students for
jobs in the trades, such as plumbers and electricians, because those jobs offer a good living and not every high school graduate wants to go to college, Jones said.
On the subject of education, Jones said he wants more control over school operations to be returned to local school boards, which are more responsive to parents than legislators and the governor in Sacramento.
Parents should be given the choice of whether to send their children to public, private or charter schools, or to home-school them. Jones said vouchers, which parents could use to send their students to private schools, have worked in other places and would offer more choice to parents and create more healthy competition among schools.
“When schools are compelled to compete, they do better,” he said.
Rocha said he wants to see the state better prepare students for all levels of education by focusing on pre-K through grade 14, or two
years of community college. Rocha said teachers should be better paid, and the state should boost per-pupil spending in public schools, because California lags behind many other states in that category.
“This state relies on brainpower to lead the way in science, technology and medicine, and invests the least per student in education. That’s nonsense,” Rocha said.
The state’s tax rules are also on the minds of voters, as legislators and the governor grapple with the best uses for a state budget surplus that could reach $97 billion.
“Some want to cut checks from the surplus till it’s gone. That’s just not responsible,” said Rocha. Instead, he said, the money should be used for education, climate action and a rainy-day fund to bolster state finances in an economic downturn. A targeted gas tax rebate to those who need it most, rather than a blanket rebate to all households, makes more sense, he said.
“The wealthiest class in our state is not being impacted by gas prices,” he said.
Rocha also said he would like to see the state eliminate taxes on military pensions.
Jones said he would use the surplus to pay down debt, build infrastructure, suspend California’s gas tax and give rebates to taxpayers through a credit on their income tax returns.
Suspending the gas tax, he said, would provide relief to his constituents who drive 15 to 35 miles each way to work daily.
The state should not impose a per-mile fee on motorists, as is being considered by state and local leaders, Jones said. The state is already facing a net population loss as residents leave California for places with lower taxes and fewer regulations. The exodus recently caused U-Haul to run out of trucks, he said.
“That mileage fee is going to cause even more people to move out of California,” he said.