Crowded race for Assembly position

Redistricting turns GOP colleagues into rivals

When the nonpartisan California Citizens Redistricting Commission redrew legislative districts in December, lawmakers across the state found themselves sharing a district with another colleague.

In the High Desert, two prominent Republican legislators find themselves sharing the newly formed 34th Assembly District. Neither wants to concede the seat.

So on June 7, primary voters will have a choice between two incumbents — Assembly members Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, and Thurston “Smitty” Smith, R-Apple Valley — or one of four other challengers.

If no candidate gets 50% of the vote, plus one vote more, the top two finishers will advance to the Nov. 8 general election.

The new 34th District includes part of the High Desert in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Kern counties and includes Apple Valley, California City, Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Twentynine Palms and parts of Hesperia, Highland, Lancaster, Palmdale, Victorville and an uninhabited portion of Adelanto.

The contest for the open seat presents an unusual situation, according to Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne.

“There are not a huge number of strong Republican districts and

many of those are in less densely populated, spread out districts where incumbents are unlikely to overlap after redistricting,” she wrote in an email.

In April, the California Republican Party released a list of endorsed candidates, notably not endorsing anyone in the 34th District.

“Voters in Assembly District 34 understand what's at stake in the midterm elections,” California GOP spokesperson Ellie Hockenbury wrote in an email. “We need strong conservative voices in Sacramento, ready to stand up to Gavin Newsom and California Democrats' failed one-party rule that is responsible for a homeless crisis, surging crime and soaring gas prices. We look forward to a Republican leader winning this important seat who will help put our state back on a pathway to success.”

So the two incumbents are more or less on their own.

In addition to facing one another, Lackey and Smith take on challengers Rita Ramirez-Dean, Paul Fournier, Raj Kahlon and Roger LaPlante in the June 7 race.

The incumbents

Tom Lackey

Lackey was first elected to the state Assembly in 2014, having previously been a member of the Palmdale Elementary School District board and Palmdale City Council.

He says he's at peace with having to run against another Republican incumbent.

“We both believe in being gentlemen, but we want to represent, so we'll put our case to the people and let them decide,” Lackey said.

A former special education teacher and California Highway Patrol officer, Lackey had to figure out how to succeed in Sacramento, where Republicans are outnumbered by Democrats 60 to 19, along with a single independent.

“It's important to establish personal relationships and a reasonableness standard,” Lackey said. “I believe in conservative values, and I believe there's a strong way to communicate

Lackey them.”

But even if getting legislation to the governor's desk is difficult for Republicans, Lackey said his office excels in “constituent services,” helping residents navigate the California state bureaucracy, which he said is “every bit as important” as passing legislation.

Lackey specifically pointed to how he and his staff helped residents of the former 36th Assembly District get unemployment money they were owed during the coronavirus pandemic. The state's Employment Development Department was buried in requests, including many fraudulent ones, leading to general chaos and months of delays in getting needed payments to state residents.

“Even with our efforts, it took us way too long to get funding to our constituents,” Lackey said.

He's also working to strengthen DUI laws to deal with motorists driving while impaired by cannabis and providing better mental health services to those who need them, especially those without permanent homes.

“Right now, law enforcement is the mental health delivery system,” Lackey said. “We need to fund other approaches to get mental health services to the people who need them.”

And addressing the ongoing housing crisis in the state starts with reforming burdensome regulations, he said.

“Everybody knows that the gorilla in the room is” the California Environmental Quality Act, which, Lackey said, has “been manipulated as a weapon.”

As of April 28, Lackey has raised $83,250 since the beginning of the year, according to the California Secretary of State's office, and has $93,328 on hand.

Thurston ‘Smitty’ Smith

Smith was first elected to represent the former 33rd Assembly District in 2020, after having previously served as the mayor of Hesperia.

Although Smith describes himself as a “constitutional conservative” on his website, which also blasts the “radical left's jobkilling agenda,” he said during his time in Sacramento, he's worked across the aisle to get things done for his constituents.

“I spent all last year in relationship-building,” he said. “We might not have gotten along on everything, but I think 50% is stuff that we all agree on, Republicans,

Democrats and independents. And that's the stuff we need to work on.”

Smith says he's “batting 500” with the 12 bills he's introduced so far this year, and he hopes to get some legislation passed.

Among those bills is one that would lower the costs for veterans to get certified in various trades in the state.

“We all say we support our veterans, so let's support our veterans,” Smith said.

Like other California politicians during the 2022 campaign season, Smith wants to see mental health, drug and alcohol interventions for homeless residents. Smith, who owns a concrete pumping business, blames state regulations for making it more difficult to build more houses.

“Solar is a great idea. Sprinklers are a great idea,” Smith said. “Making it mandatory is the big problem. It should be a choice.”

He also wants to crack down on illegal marijuana farmers.

“Right now, it's a $500 fine,” Smith said. One of his surviving bills raises the fines based on “the number of plants and how many times we've raided your illegal grow.”

As for the situation he finds himself in with Lackey, Smith is optimistic.

“I've got 65% of the (new) district,” he said. “Name recognition always takes effect in any election.”

As of April 28, Smith has raised $151,875 since the first of the year and has $218,362 on hand, according to the California Secretary of State's office.

Smith

The challengers

Rita Ramirez-Dean

San Bernardino County residents have likely seen Rita Ramirez-Dean's name on the ballot before.

Ramirez-Dean previously ran for Congress in 2012, 2016 and 2018, along with the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in 2020. She was elected to the Victorville City Council in 2018 but was ousted in 2021 over questions about whether or not she lived in the city.

“Perennial candidate Rita Ramirez-Dean has the endorsement of the California Democratic Party,” Godwin wrote. “The turnout projected for a midterm election means she is about even odds of advancing to the general election as long as the two Republican incumbents both vigorously compete.”

Ramirez-Dean, a retired college professor, is optimistic about her chances.

“I've been a resident of the Low Desert, Twentynine Palms, since 1972,” she said. “I can hold my own, to be honest, because they don't know this area whatsoever.”

Ramirez-Dean wants to see broadband internet infrastructure put in place across rural California, to create job and educational opportunities for rural residents.

“It means keeping our rural values without having to move,” she said. “Being in the desert, one of the major laments is ‘I want to go to school but I can't.' … They have jobs that don't give them enough time to go down to San Bernardino.”

Ramirez-Dean also is concerned about the few hospital beds available in rural areas, especially with the continuing threat of COVID-19.

Ramirez-Dean would also like to see more solar power projects in the desert, more work on water preservation and an international airport built somewhere in the 34th District.

As of May 6, she does not appear to have filed any campaign finance paperwork this election cycle, according to the California Secretary of State's website and the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters' website.

“I can only go by my name, by my background and the fact that I have run in the regional area,” Ramirez-Dean said. “If you want to be heard, I'm one of you.”

Ramirez-Dean

Paul Fournier

The two incumbents aren't the only Republicans in the District 34 race.

Lake Arrowhead resident Paul Fournier most recently worked for the Mountain Homeless Coalition but was ready to call it quits on California.

“I thought about moving

Fournier to a red state, and I tossed and turned all night, but came up with the overwhelming thought, that ‘nope, you have to stay and fight,'” Fournier said. “And if I thought anybody would vote for me, I'd stay and run for office. And the next day, the phone rang and it was a political action committee looking to put together a slate of candidates.”

It was LaRouchePAC, which is carrying on the work of the late presidential candidate and fringe political figure Lyndon LaRouche.

“Ending tyranny is my mantra,” Fournier said. “The thing that motivates me the most is all forms of tyranny that have grown out of COVID, from the business closures to the mask mandates to the vaccine mandates.”

Even as the pandemic subsides, Fournier said he's alarmed by bills making their way through the state Legislature that would impose further restrictions in future pandemics, or if the current one worsens.

Democrats are “still trying to push vaccine mandates for kids, they're still trying to lower the age of consent to vaccines to 12, they're still trying to give unfettered medical access to records,” Fournier said. “As soon as the election is over, if they're still in power, they have tasted blood and they're coming back for more.”

As of May 6, Fournier has not filed any campaign finance documents, according to the California Secretary of State's office.

Raj Kahlon

There's a second Democrat in the race: Palmdale real estate agent Raj Kahlon.

“Lots of things need to be done in our community, which people in office are ignoring or don't think it's their responsibility to do,” he said.

If elected, he says he'd focus on illegal trash dumping, homelessness, addressing climate change at the county level and blunting inflation's impact on seniors on a fixed income. His biggest concern is the region's water supply and its impacts on farming and real estate development.

He previously ran for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2016.

“People need change in

Kahlon the community, so I am standing firm for the community,” Kahlon said. “I will be 100% open to the public and listen to their concerns.”

As of May 6, Kahlon has no campaign finance documents on record with the California Secretary of State's office. He said his campaign will be “100% self-funded.”

“That's why I can listen to the public better,” he said.

Roger LaPlante

And finally, there's a candidate not affiliated with any political party in the race. Apple Valley resident and retired Army veteran and defense contractor Roger LaPlante wants to be the voice for veterans like himself.

“That's my primary job,” he said. “There's not enough veterans being represented in local politics.”

There are seven military bases in the 34th Assembly District, LaPlante said: “That's my community of interest.”

He's previously run for the Assembly in 2018 and 2020.

Like many Californians, he doesn't identify with either political party, although he previously voted for both in the past, he said.

“I love democracy. I fought on the battlefield for democracy. I feel that the voters in the 34th Assembly District should have a choice for someone who's not partisan, not bickering, someone who's going to work for working families and not be up there to complain about what (Gov. Gavin) Newsom is doing,” LaPlante said.

If elected, he wants to bring high-paying jobs to the High Desert, improve local infrastructure, get the High Desert Corridor completed and get Metrolink passenger rail running up the Cajon Pass to the Victor Valley.

“My son used to work in Santa Monica,” LaPlante said. “It would take him six hours to get back from work.”

As of May 6, LaPlante had no campaign finance documents on record with the California Secretary of State's office.

LaPlante