With Assembly District 35 up for grabs, 3 candidates are hitting the campaign trail across Kern County tackling hot-button issues \u2014 housing, cost of living, and jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish them well but I\u2019m the best candidate,\u201d said McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon.<\/p>\n
From improving the city’s finances to bringing in three new water wells to the city, McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon, a Republican, says it\u2019s this kind of experience that sets him apart in the race for Assembly District 35.<\/p>\n
And if Ayon wins the seat, he\u2019s already got a list in mind to take what he\u2019s done locally to the next level.<\/p>\n
\u201cCut down on these regulations, for the oil industry, housing, streamline permits to build homes, bring down city fees in order for people to get into their first homes,\u201d said Ayon.<\/p>\n
Assembly District 35 is entirely within Kern County, covering cities like McFarland, Delano, Shafter, Wasco, Lamont, Arvin, and parts of Bakersfield.<\/p>\n
Also in the race \u2014 Democratic Bakersfield City Council member Andrae Gonzales. He says he\u2019s running to bridge what he calls a disconnect between decisions made at the Capitol and the needs of local communities.<\/p>\n
With 16 years in local government, Gonzales points to rising living costs across the county \u2014 and if elected, he plans to tackle high electricity prices, calling for changes to the state\u2019s climate credit system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pay more in the summer months than most other parts of the state, we should receive a higher credit in order to offset the increased cost in utilities,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n
The third candidate is Ana Palacio, a registered Democrat and healthcare worker with Kern medical who has no* political experience.<\/p>\n
Spending her days in the emergency room, Palacio says her biggest focuses are healthcare, education, and the cost of living.<\/p>\n
Palacio says she doesn\u2019t see her lack of political experience as a fault, but rather, as her superpower.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we’re not investing in those programs or we\u2019re not putting resources into prevention, it shows up in the ER and so I see how that affects our community every single day whether its addiction, mental health, public health things like that,\u201d said Palacio.<\/p>\n
All three candidates bring in different perspectives from local government, to city leadership, and healthcare, but each say they\u2019re running for the same thing, to improve life for families across Assembly District 35.<\/p>\n
The two candidates who win the most votes in the primary will then run against each other in the November general election.<\/p>\n
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Assembly District 35 up for grabs, 3 candidates are hitting the campaign trail across Kern County tackling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[118179,151,153,152,952,118180,989,76533,162,972,955,100,118181],"class_list":{"0":"post-272515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-assembly-district-35","9":"tag-bakersfield","10":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","11":"tag-bakersfield-news","12":"tag-delano","13":"tag-delano-news","14":"tag-elections","15":"tag-june-primary","16":"tag-kern-county-news","17":"tag-local","18":"tag-mcfarland","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-november-general"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}