I moved to the Santa Clarita Valley, specifically Saugus, back in 1984 when it was still a sleepy little semi-rural bedroom community, a distant outpost in the ’burbs of LA. I well remember the effort to incorporate as a city, which finally succeeded in 1987.
As I recall it, the primary impetus for incorporation arose from a consensus that we were being ruled by a remote government – the county supervisors – which was not sensitive or responsive to our local concerns; a small group of five people who often seemed far more concerned with political issues to which the majority of us were indifferent at best, if not in outright disagreement.
Our city elections have traditionally been non-partisan in nature. Candidates ran on their visions of how the city should develop and be maintained, and the City Council has, for the most part, concerned itself primarily with those quality-of-life matters: expansion and annexation, roads and traffic, density, parks and open areas, zoning, law enforcement, monuments, billboards and of course Cemex. Even our small group of local activists, primarily SCOPE, concerned itself primarily with issues such as those.
But over the last couple of election cycles I noticed a significant increase in Democrat/socialist activism targeting our area.
A major indicator was the carpetbagging arrival of a Westside lawyer, Bryan Caforio, who moved to the area just in time to register as a candidate for that party in the 2016 election for Congress (and who has now evidently decided on his imminent departure after having lost in two election runs in a row, having listed his house for sale).
This lends some real confusion to the race for City Council seats. There are a lot of candidates on the ballot; some are familiar names, many are not; and we each get to vote for up to three candidates of our choice.
I found a recent article in The Mighty Signal (“DAA holds meet and greet with endorsed candidates,” Aug. 27) describing the endorsement by our local group of Dem/socialist activists of three of those candidates: Haddock, Trautman and Logan Smith. Good to know!
That eliminates three from a long list of possibles.
There’s one candidate I want to bring to your attention: Jason Gibbs. I met Jason through our mutual friend Ron Bischof, an occasional contributor to these pages. Jason and I are also “friends” on Facebook, and through both social media and personal contact I’ve come to know Jason as a solid constitutionalist conservative. He’s a family man strongly committed to the SCV, having moved here six years ago.
Jason originally became interested in city matters when he and his wife had their second child. Feeling that he didn’t want to be simply a spectator anymore, he submitted his name for consideration to the vacancy appointment ultimately filled by Bill Miranda.
Though he was passed over for that appointment, he started regularly attending City Council and committee meetings, as well as occasionally writing columns published in The Signal expressing his views on a range of topics.
He brings a keen analytical approach to any issue he addresses, which I suppose is to be expected of a man educated and working as an engineer. He has the ability to assess all aspects of an issue before reaching a decision, or taking a position, and can be counted on to apply constitutionalist principles to his analysis.
On top of all of that he’s just a nice, likeable guy; modest and self-effacing, yet able to buckle down seriously to address any matter to which he applies himself.
I like him and intend to cast one of my votes for him. I hope you’ll do the same.
Brian Baker is a Saugus resident.
