Two members of San Fernando City Council vie for state Assembly seat in November
They both sit on the San Fernando City Council. And they both are running for the same seat in the state Assembly this November.
That may be where the similarities end. The two candidates share very different views.
In the race for Assembly District 43, Mayor Celeste Rodriguez, a Democrat, is pitted against fellow council member Victoria Garcia, a Republican. Their approaches to issues are quite different.
For example, Rodriguez, supports gun-control measures, while Garcia advocates tougher sentencing laws. On climate change, Rodriguez wants to pass legislation encouraging renewable energy while phasing out fossil fuels in cooking systems. Garcia will encourage planting more trees for shade. On education, Rodriguez wants to reduce student debt and for schools to hire more diverse faculty. Garcia wants parental rights strengthened.
This seat is held by Luz Rivas, a Democrat, who is vacating the seat to run for Congress. This is one of two open state Assembly seats in the San Fernando Valley. Rivas has endorsed Rodriguez.
Assembly District 43 has a high Democratic registration and a large demographic of Latino residents and it includes the communities of Pacoima, Mission Hills, Sylmar, Arleta, Sun Valley, Panorama City, Lake View Terrace, Valley Glen, Van Nuys and the city of San Fernando.
As of July 5, 2024, the numbers of registered voters equals 251,206. Of those, 136,135, or 54.19%, are registered Democrat; 37,483, or 14.92%, are registered Republican; “no party preference” voters equal 61,001 or 24.28%, according to the latest numbers available from the California Secretary of State’s website. Those who don’t belong to a party are almost double the number of Republicans in the district.
Though the district has gone through boundary changes, it would be considered a “safe Democratic Latino seat,” Mark Gonzalez, chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, said on Jan. 31, before the March primary.
In the primary, only the two top vote-getters advanced to the general election on Nov. 5. Out of six candidates, Rodriguez garnered the most votes, capturing 20,485 for 43.5%, while Garcia was second, with 11,077 votes for 23.5%.
Garcia beat out Walter Garcia, a Democrat, by 3,007 votes. Garcia also won a seat in November filling the remainder of the City Council term of Cindy Montanez, who passed away.
Garcia is now running for a full, four-year term on the City Council, as well as the Assembly seat. She can run for both seats at the same time, according to the law, but cannot serve in both. She would not say which seat she’d keep if elected to both: “I will let the voters decide where they need me most,” she said.
Rodriguez is not running for City Council.
The two candidates provided written answers to a questionnaire sent out by this newspaper on key topics. Their views, received in late August, are summarized below:
Candidate backgrounds
Garcia is a construction law attorney. She graduated from Poly High School in Sun Valley and earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Chicana/o studies from UCLA.
She received her law degree from Stanford Law School. Committees: Served as a commissioner on the city’s Transportation and Public Safety committee and as a board member of the Community Police Advisory Board for LAPD’s Foothill Division. She and her husband have three young children.
Rodriguez was first elected to the City Council in November 2020. She graduated from James Monroe High School in North Hills and received an associate’s degree from L.A. Mission College, a bachelor’s degree in economics from San Diego State University and a master’s degree in social work from USC.
She worked for the city of Los Angeles on homelessness policy and community development. She also worked on L.A.’s guaranteed basic income and children’s savings account programs. On Jan. 1, she walked the Rose Parade alongside the OneLegacy float as a living donor, having donated a kidney to her brother Ruben 10 years ago. She and her husband Robert have two children.
Crime and public safety
Rodriguez said helping with public safety also means providing better access to food, shelter and education. In response to law enforcement, she recommended better relationships between sworn officers and the communities they serve.
“I support more community policing where relationships with businesses and residents are built on trust and not just enforcement,” she wrote. She worked to obtain an $800,000 grant for the city of San Fernando for adding more mental health workers to emergency response teams, she added.
Garcia wants to see the repeal of Propositions 47 and 57, both passed by California voters.
Prop. 47 changed some crimes from potential felonies to misdemeanors. making some nonviolent property crimes and simple drug possession offenses into misdemeanors.
Prop. 57 gives certain nonviolent offenders consideration for parole.
“I also want to make the sale or purchase of children for sex (rape) a serious, violent felony,” she wrote. “Violent crime has increased in our community; that is horrific and unacceptable.”
Homelessness
Garcia called for L.A. County to prioritize program results, emphasizing best practices for providing housing, especially for children and veterans. She’d like to see statistics on permanent housing placements, availability, substance abuse programs and “removal of encampments and RVs.”
If elected to the Assembly, Rodriguez would work on helping prevent people from becoming unhoused through emergency rental assistance, rent control legal aid and increasing access to mental health programs.
She has worked on this issue as part of the L.A. Mayor’s Homelessness Services Team.
Housing
“I support rent control as a necessary measure to address California’s escalating housing crisis because rents rising faster than incomes is a recipe for disaster,” Rodriguez wrote.
She also wants to incentivize more housing developments, such as mixed-use projects near transit hubs, while providing state funding for affordable housing.
Garcia noted that multi-salaried families still can’t afford to buy a home or pay high rents. “The state needs to allow more housing to be built — not just high density apartments in already congested communities, but single family residences in unoccupied spaces.”
She stopped short of supporting rent control. She said a one-size-fits-all state law would not work because different regions of the state have different costs of living and varying housing inventories. “I am definitely open to discussing any ideas that would help our residents,” Garcia added.
Gun violence
Garcia would like to see stiffer penalties for using a gun in the commission of a crime. “Not only does this discourage the use of guns, it also removes those violent actors from our streets who choose to engage in gun violence,” she wrote.
Rodriguez is in favor of advancing gun-control measures if elected and working with first responders.
She noted in San Fernando some recent gun violence incidents. “Unfortunately, gang-related shootings have been increasing; a young girl was grazed by a bullet in a retaliation shooting, another person was murdered due to their gang affiliation, and our local middle school reported shots fired after school at a local park,” Rodriguez wrote.
Climate change, environment
Rodriguez would support bills that encourage use of renewable energy both in residential and commercial buildings. She said the state should invest in water recycling as well as upgrade aging water infrastructure.
She would promote green or energy-efficient buildings by requiring retrofitting of existing buildings with greener technology and phasing out fossil fuel-based heating and cooking systems “in favor of cleaner alternatives.”
Garcia wants to broaden the district’s shade canopy by planting more trees. She also said she would encourage replacing plastics in parks with natural materials.
Whiteman Airport
While some Pacoima residents have called for Whiteman Airport to be shut down, Garcia noted the majority of residents support it. She said despite complaints of noise, lead contamination and safety, airport officials have “taken the right steps to address these complaints.”
She supported the airport going to a voluntary curfew of flights from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. She wants to see the airport increase youth programming, “so that our youth can obtain jobs as pilots and engineers.”
Rodriguez wants to see more accountability from the airport. “The residents living near the Whiteman Airport are impacted by air pollution and noise all hours of the day. Crashes in their neighborhoods have also impacted them,” she wrote.
A fatal crash in November 2020 killed the pilot of a small plane, burned front lawns and parked cars. In January 2022, the pilot of a Cessna 172 made an emergency landing on the railroad tracks next to San Fernando Road, nearly missing being killed by an oncoming Metrolink train.
“I will work with our LA County supervisors to determine what is best for the future of this airport,” Rodriguez added.
Education
Rodriguez listed the following reforms she’d seek in Sacramento: increased funding for K-12 schools and public universities; reducing student debt and decreasing the cost of attending public colleges and universities; adding more diverse faculty in schools and developing “community-based, restorative approaches to campus safety.”
Garcia would expand parental rights. She is opposed to laws that block parents from obtaining their children’s medical records and also school records.