Bee endorsement: Stanislaus, Merced counties lucky to have this Assembly 22 choice

Jessica Self has the will, the connections, the confidence and the know-how to effectively represent Stanislaus and Merced counties in the 22nd Assembly District.

She has a heart for the downtrodden, having worked nine years as an attorney in the public defender’s office before switching in June to Child Support Services.

Self knows that any Republican will swim against the tide in a law-making body with a supermajority of Democrats like herself. “It’s not effective to say you will repeal a tax; you’re not going to be able to do that” in a legislature dominated by representatives opposing that position, she said in an interview with The Modesto Bee Editorial Board. “Either it’s naivete or you’re not telling the truth.”

She will be effective because she knows how things work. “The best legislators look at what their area needs, they find others having similar issues, they join together and they get something accomplished. They don’t just go and scream into the wind,” she told The Bee.

Self is engaged and informed, seamlessly moving between the Valley’s challenges with state water policy to in-depth discussion of many bills recently acted upon in Sacramento, from electric vehicles and nuclear power to CARE Court for the mentally ill and farm workers’ voting rights. See the Editorial Board video at modbee.com/opinion for her reasoned views of controversial U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Self seeks to know constituents’ needs. Asked for her thoughts on Propositions 26 and 27 — both on the November ballot, but with different approaches to sports betting — Self’s first consideration, she said, is how the initiatives might affect the two local card rooms in her district. Protecting business is important to her.

She tells it like it is, even if it’s not what fellow Democrats are used to hearing — or want to hear. “Roe v. Wade was a terribly written decision when it came out. It was tenuous at best,” she said in the Editorial Board interview. “The fact that women were told, `That is the gold standard and you better hope it never gets overturned,’ that’s not acceptable. We should have had a constitutional amendment decades before to secure those rights.”

You don’t always hear that kind of straight talk from politicians. It’s a refreshing change.

A clear choice

Her Republican opponent, Juan Alanis, and Self advanced to the November ballot because they were the top two vote-getters among five candidates in the June primary. Alanis did not participate in the Editorial Board interview, leaving him ineligible for The Bee’s recommendation. It’s an endorsement policy practiced by all 30 McClatchy newsrooms throughout the United States, and he was aware of it when he politely declined.

The 22nd District includes Stanislaus County’s three largest cities — Modesto, Turlock and Ceres — and Patterson and Newman, plus Gustine and Stevinson in Merced County. Registration by party is fairly balanced, with an edge to Democrats.

A north section of Stanislaus County, with Riverbank, Oakdale, Waterford, Salida and Del Rio, is in the Ninth Assembly District, which spreads over four other counties to the north. Incumbent Republican Heath Flora is opposed by a write-in candidate who mustered only a handful of votes in June; it’s not a competitive race and needs no endorsement.

The race between Self and Alanis, in contrast, will be close.

“I do think it is a clear choice in this election,” Self told the Editorial Board. “I see people every single day being told by those in charge, (people) struggling and barely getting by, `That’s enough for us. We’re alive; that’s good enough for the Valley.’ We deserve more. Something I’m known for, I get results. You will absolutely see change if I’m elected to be your next representative.”

The Bee recommends Jessica Self for Assembly District 22.