In 2022, Kern County voters approved Measure J, limiting members of the Kern County Board of Supervisors to a maximum of two four-year terms.<\/p>\n
That means 3rd District Supervisor Jeff Flores, who was first elected in 2022, is not only running for reelection, he\u2019s running for his second and final four-year term as supervisor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to do this job effectively, for the long haul, you really need more than one term,\u201d Flores said. \u201cI have begun a lot of projects and I have completed a lot of projects, but some are still in the queue, and I\u2019d like to see those come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flores, a Republican, is facing challenger Johnny Olaguez, an independent and business owner who has previously run for Bakersfield City Council.<\/p>\n
Born in Modesto, Olaguez was still a child when his large family moved to Kern County. He attended Palla Elementary, Greenfield Middle and Golden Valley High School before studying at UC Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left to pursue business, and I\u2019ve basically been in business since then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Flores was born in Los Angeles County and moved to Bakersfield when he was a teenager. He earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science from the University of San Diego and a master\u2019s degree in public administration from Cal State Bakersfield. He completed post-graduate work in public relations from the University of Queensland in Australia.<\/p>\n
Flores was elected to the Kern High School District Board of Trustees in 2014, and served as a Kern County planning commissioner.<\/p>\n
He worked as chief of staff for 12 years in the office of the previous 3rd District Supervisor Mike Maggard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of the support I\u2019ve received from all the cross sectors of Kern County, from small business, from individual donors, from ag, oil … a good representation of Kern County,\u201d Flores said. \u201cI\u2019m proud of that, that people have confidence in my record and in my future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flores has received endorsements from a wide range of elected Republicans, including Rep. Vince Fong, state Sen. Shannon Grove, Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, Assemblyman Stan Ellis, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood and a number of other individuals and organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been talking to voters and working hard to get my message out,\u201d Flores said.<\/p>\n
Neither candidate will likely have to wait until the general election to determine the election result. That\u2019s because Kern County elective offices are not subject to the top-two vote-getter rule that automatically requires a runoff in the general election.<\/p>\n
County offices can be decided in the June 2 primary by a candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n
As the chance of an exact tie between Flores and Olaguez is virtually impossible, it\u2019s safe to conclude that the race for the 3rd District will be decided in the June primary.<\/p>\n
Despite his disadvantage in name recognition and financial support, Olaguez believes he has a real chance of winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel confident because what I\u2019m really hearing is people are just tired. That\u2019s the word I keep hearing. They\u2019re just tired of the BS.\u201d<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re ready for a change.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not taking any corporate money,\u201d Olaguez said. \u201cThe left and the right \u2014 they\u2019re the same party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired of the excuses. Let\u2019s fix this.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s running on transparency and accountability, the challenger said.<\/p>\n
Flores said his key issues include public safety, economic development, and getting homeless people off the streets and into treatment, whether it be mental health services, addiction treatment, or both.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of that is still as relevant today as it was four years ago,\u201d Flores said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m proud of my record on moving on all those fronts and I\u2019m going to continue to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it also encompasses is quality of life,\u201d Flores said, \u201cto advance the quality of life for Kern County residents. Safe streets, neighborhoods and just making Kern County the best that it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2022, Kern County voters approved Measure J, limiting members of the Kern County Board of Supervisors to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[120512,151,153,152,9930,61876,36070,87581,131432,735,15589],"class_list":["post-313961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-3rd-district","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-cal-state-bakersfield","tag-flores","tag-golden-valley-high-school","tag-jeff-flores","tag-johnny-olaguez","tag-kern-county","tag-kern-high-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313961","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=313961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}