BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The primary election is less than a month away and 23ABC wants to highlight those running for office.
There are 26 candidates running to become the next governor of California.
23ABC was able to speak to some of the candidates about why they believe they should lead the golden state.
After defeating the 2021 California recall attempt current Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is seeking reelection.
He became governor in 2019 after serving as lieutenant governor and mayor of San Francisco prior to that.
Shawn Collins, Senator Brian Dahle, David Lozano, and Jenny Rae Le Roux are the four candidates 23ABC was able to speak with to learn more about who they are and the policies they hope to implement if they are elected.
“Right now, California is dealing with some very difficult circumstances, and we need a leader of this state that is going to be resilient,” said Shawn Collins.
Shawn Collins is one of the Republican candidates and is a Navy combat veteran who served in Afghanistan and is currently in the navy reserve.
When it comes to California’s ongoing drought affecting farmers, Collins hopes to re-introduce legislation that will ultimately assist growers.
“Another big important thing that we can do, is sigmate reform, the strategic groundwater management act, right now that law is being used to abuse farmers, we need to reform that law so that it actually helps farmers.”
Senator Brian Dahle who currently represents the northeast part of the state is also a Republican. He’s served for 16 years on the Board of Supervisors for Lassen County, he spent six and a half years on the State Assembly, and now nearly four years on the State Senate.
“I’ve served in the legislature for the last 10 years, and we’ve had 25 years quite frankly of one-party control in California and it's led to the highest taxes and the highest poverty rate in the nation," said Senator Dahle.
When it comes to homelessness throughout the state, Senator Dahle said solutions start with getting people the services they need.
“We also need to deal with the drug addiction issues that we have on our streets, and then also felons that we let out of prison are living on our streets as well, so we’ve had rampant crime in California, and those all go with homelessness.”
David Lozano is a practicing attorney for 28 years in the federal court and a former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy. Lozano said his background as a deputy in the late 70’s, can help him be a role model for current law enforcement.
“What I can see instantly when they approach these various citizens or slash potential criminals so to speak, what I see is an intense escalation of the problem, rather than a de-escalation of the problem.”
Lozano, a Republican Gubernatorial Candidate, adds that his solutions for homelessness and affordable housing go hand in hand. He wants to create housing for those who will help get the homeless population off of the street.
“We have to build houses, homes for these support staff as well as the homeless, so we’re going to be building literally thousands upon thousands of brand-new homes, upper class, middle class, and moderate class homes for all the support staff: university professors, teachers, grammar schoolteachers. Thousands and thousands of homes.”
Jenny Rae Le Roux is an entrepreneur a businesswoman and has been a director in corporate America for 10 years. While Le Roux is running as a Republican candidate, she said she is a political outsider and is looking only toward the future of California.
“I want to run the state really well. I want to leave it much better than I found it, and then I want to turn it over to other great forward-looking leadership.”
As crime continues to increase across the golden state, Le Roux said the rise came from three things: the closing of prisons, rethinking the rehabilitation of those prisoners, and juvenile detention.
“Repealing Prop 47, changing back to AB109, supporting what our law enforcement are doing, and getting really innovative in the way that we think about the future, I think all of those matter here.”
There are several more candidates that we didn’t get a chance to speak with, for a full list of the gubernatorial candidates that are on the ballot for the primary election, head to their website.
