Gurm said he supported<\/a> the city\u2019s anti-camping ordinance.<\/p>\n ![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HDO "\\"HDO")
The front side of a mailer sent by Fresno City Council candidate Nav Gurm against AJ Rassamni. DAVID TAUB dtaub@fresnobee.com The back side of a mailer sent by Fresno City Council candidate Nav Gurm against AJ Rassamni. DAVID TAUB dtaub@fresnobee.com Gurm mailer criticizes Rassamni\u2019s lobbyist role<\/p>\n
Gurm accused Rassamni of lobbying for a group of smoke shop owners, the California Smoke Shop Association, that sued the city of Fresno over regulations imposed by the city council. A judge ruled in favor of the city.<\/p>\n
In his mailer, Gurm said Rassamni worked \u201cto allow new smoke shops near our parks and schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rassamni downplayed his role as a lobbyist, claiming he registered as required by the city to advocate for his Blackstone Merchants Association, not the smoke shops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lie, because I never registered as a lobbyist for the smoke shop, I was never a lobbyist,\u201d Rassamni said.<\/p>\n
Records filed with the Fresno City Clerk\u2019s office show Rassamni registered in 2024 and 2025, under the company name \u201cAJ Rassamni.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rassamni made a distinction between lobbying which he denied, and consulting, which said is a more accurate representation of his work. He said he supports a fair permit process, known as conditional use permits at City Hall.<\/p>\n
Gurm said he didn\u2019t buy that reasoning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are being paid by a group to influence policy and contacting council members, the mayor, city leaders on public policy, it requires you to register as a city lobbyist,\u201d Gurm said.<\/p>\n
Rassamni responds Fresno City Council District 7 candidate AJ Rassamni is responding with his own mailer against Nav Gurm. DAVID TAUB dtaub@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n
Rassamni countered with his own mailer, questioning Gurm\u2019s life experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cNav is 26 years old, he still lives with his mommy and daddy, he doesn\u2019t understand the struggle that we have to put food on our table, to have the kids walk safely to school, to have a job, and, and, and to pay the mortgage or the rent end of the month,\u201d Rassamni told The Bee.<\/p>\n
Gurm confirmed that he lives with his parents after returning home from college \u2014 he attended UCLA for undergrad, and UC Davis for law school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve paid rent my whole adult life. Sure, I currently do not pay rent, but I\u2019ve had to balance my own budget. I\u2019ve had to build a business. It\u2019s a complete non-issue,\u201d Gurm said.<\/p>\n
Rassamni also threw the smoke shop accusation back at Gurm, accusing his parents of owning a liquor store that sells vapes.<\/p>\n
Gurm\u2019s family operates a convenience store in Fresno County, west of Selma. He says it is not a conflict of interest because it is outside the city limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a funny accusation, but to me, it\u2019s a complete nothingburger,\u201d Gurm said.<\/p>\n
Martinez Lott commented on the spat between her opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing of this exchange is no coincidence, it is deflecting attention away from the questionable practices at Youth Save Democracy<\/a>, which my opponent founded,\u201d Martinez Lott told The Bee. \u201cI encourage every District 7 neighbor to look up each candidate, what they spent their time doing prior to running for office, and with whom. That will offer the best clues as to how they would govern if elected.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat a neighbor thinks<\/p>\n
Joey Gil lives in an east-central Fresno neighborhood. His home is politically unique, with the front lawn carrying signs for both Rassamni and Gurm.<\/p>\n
He supports Rassamni; his parents support Gurm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have their own decisions, and I have my own decisions under one roof,\u201d Gil said.<\/p>\n
Gil called Rassamni, \u201ca really cool guy. He\u2019s really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
His parents said they support Gurm because \u201cit is nice seeing a Sikh Indian person running for office.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 12:25 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of Fresno City Council candidates are taking to the mail to malign one another, a week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-336400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336400","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=336400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}