[ad_1]
There was a bogeyman to the addition of Republican Mike Garcia in Santa Clarita this week: the state of California.
On stage at the College of the Canyons’ Performing Arts Center, Garcia spoke in front of a large screen that projected the red words: “My mission is to prevent the United States from adopting the extreme policies of California.”
Garcia learned about California’s gasoline prices, its homelessness crisis, housing costs they are about double the national average. And blame it all on the Democratic supermajority in Sacramento.
“I want to be very clear, because this has been misinterpreted in the past: I love California,” Garcia said. “That’s why I’m here. That’s where I raised my family. That’s where I was raised. I have no intention of leaving California, but, boy, Sacramento makes it hard to stay in California.
Then, he added, “My job is to prevent the country from turning into what California has become.”
The packed auditorium erupted in applause.
Declaring the cost of gas and housing in the Golden State is a powerful message in the sprawling district of Garcia in northern Los Angeles County. Many residents here commuted two hours to work in Los Angeles because they had to move to the high desert to find a home they could afford.
Tuesday night, Garcia, a three-time Republican running for re-election in one of the state’s most competitive congressional races, held court for more than three hours during his town hall. Because he was there in his official congressional role, Garcia did not speak directly about the election. His spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests from The Times to discuss the campaign.
In a lengthy question-and-answer session, forum members made clear their concerns: public safety, the cost of living, better health benefits for veterans, and the culture wars in California’s public schools. , especially regarding gender identity.
Garcia, a former Navy pilot, is facing a tough re-election bid to represent the 27th Congressional District, where Democrats have a significant lead in voter registration.
The race between him and his Democratic opponent, George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff under President Obama, will be crucial in determining whether Republicans retain their narrow majority in the US House. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan electoral handicapper, is calling this year’s race a throw.
“Some of you want me to be more right. Some of you want me to be more left. I am who I am, and I believe what I believe,” Rep. GOP Mike Garcia told a packed town hall in Santa Clarita.
(Hailey Branson-Potts/Los Angeles Times)
The once staunchly conservative district stretches from Santa Clarita to the Kern County line and includes Lancaster and Palmdale. With its proximity to Edwards Air Force Base, it has deep ties to the military and aerospace industries.
Just over 41% of registered voters are Democrats, and about 30% are Republicans. More than a fifth are independent
Garcia, 48, first won her seat during a 2020 special election to replace former Rep. Katie Hill, a young Democrat who resigned amid a sex scandal. It was the first time the GOP flipped a California district from blue to red in more than 20 years.
Garcia retained the seat in two subsequent elections. And he won the tripartite primary elections last spring with 55% of the vote, while Whitesides got 33%, setting the stage for the two first voters to face off in the November ball.
Whitesides, a former chief executive of Mojave-based Virgin Galactic, is a first-time candidate who challenged Garcia’s vote against certification. the results of the 2020 presidential election after the uprising of January 6, and his co-sponsorship 2021 of the Life at Conception Act, which would have been a ban on abortion throughout the country without exception for rape, incest or threats to the mother’s health.
On stage Tuesday, Garcia said: “In terms of party affiliation, I’m in the minority – I understand.
“Some of you want me to be more right. Some of you want me to be more left. I am who I am, and I believe what I believe,” he said.
Garcia is the son of a Mexican immigrant who moved to the United States in 1959. He said his late father “came here legally” and “did well” and that illegal immigration is one of the biggest threats to the nation. In Congress, he voted against creating a path to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers who were brought to the United States as children.
Garcia called for higher pay and more leave time for members of the military — drawing cheers from a crowd full of veterans.
“You have to pay better. You have to lead better, and you have to invest in the military industrial complex that supports them and gives our warfighters the … edge that, frankly, they deserve overseas and at home,” Garcia said, a former executive for the defense contractor Raytheon.
“As people who have a heart for patriotism and love of this country,” one woman asked Garcia, “what can we do to restore patriotism in our schools?”
Garcia, a father of two, said the policy needed to stay out of public schools and was aware of a new state law that prohibits schools from enacting policies that require teachers to notify parents about changes in the gender identity of a student – for example, if they ask to be. called by another name or pronouns.
“For every bill like this in Sacramento, there’s an ugly twin sister in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “And my job is to make sure that the twin is not allowed to sign the law and that California does not effectively become the norm across the country.”
The evening included a tense exchange. Garcia had told the crowd that has co-sponsored a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a landmark 1994 law that provides assistance to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
“This is a big deal. Very few Republicans are on board with this Violence Against Women Act, and I’m proud to be a co-sponsor,” Garcia said.
Ma in 2021Garcia voted against another reauthorization measure, as conservatives protested provisions that expanded protections for LGBTQ+ people and tightened gun access for people convicted of abusing or stalking a dating partner.
Instead, Garcia co-sponsored a failed Republican-led alternative to renew the act for one year, minus the new provisions. He was not a co-sponsor of the compromise bill that passed next year as part of a broader spending package.
Megan Johnson, an 18-year-old from Santa Clarita who will vote for the first time this fall, called out the discrepancy.
“You voted against renewing the act. Is that the same act you’re talking about co-sponsoring in your slideshow?” she asked him.
Garcia said she supports “a pure version” of the Violence Against Women Act, and that the version she voted against “ended up unintentionally depriving other people of their constitutional rights because of the protection of women who have been victims of violence.”
Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, described Garcia’s representation of his vote as “a new low.”
“The truth that Mike Garcia apparently can’t bear to admit is that he voted to block the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2021 — a move that would risk gutting funding to improve criminal justice responses to sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking, and reducing the availability of services for victims and survivors across California,” Gottlieb said.
Outside the auditorium, Johnson, a registered Democrat, said the lawmaker did not fully answer her question and that she would vote for Whitesides.
In addition to women’s safety and women’s reproductive rights, she said she cares more in this election than gun reform, an issue that hits close to home in Santa Clarita: In 2019, a Saugus High student opened fire on a crowded quad, killing two classmates. and wounding three others before killing him.
“Growing up in the generation that had to do active training shots … it caused, honestly, a lot of fear,” he said. “I have nightmares about mass shootings.”
As she left the auditorium, Trish Lester, a spokeswoman for the Republican Women of the Santa Clarita Valley, said she respected Garcia for explaining her vote for Johnson and that she liked everything he had to say.
Wearing a shirt that said, “My governor is an idiot,” Lester said she agrees with Garcia that California has become too extreme and too expensive.
Lester and her husband, an Army veteran, “supported her campaign from day one,” she added. “It was obvious that he was a class act, that this was a man who was a true patriot, with his military service and his business experience.
“I’m very happy with Mike,” she said.