By The Signal Editorial Board
For voters in the 40th Assembly District, we are offering endorsements today for two candidates: Republican challenger Elizabeth Wong Ahlers, and the Democratic incumbent Pilar Schiavo.
Of the four candidates on the ballot in the “top two” California primary, we believe Ahlers and Schiavo are the ones best qualified to represent our community.
Voting is under way in the June 2 primary, in which the top two candidates — regardless of party — will move on to the general election in November. Voters can cast their ballots by mail or at official drop boxes, or they can wait until Election Day and vote the traditional way, in a voting booth.
The 40th Assembly District is an important seat for most Santa Clarita Valley residents. This district includes some northern portions of the San Fernando Valley and encompasses almost all of the SCV, with the exception of some areas on our valley’s eastern edge, such as Agua Dulce.
We advocate that, in November, the decision should come down to Ahlers or Schiavo.
Elizabeth Wong Ahlers
A mother of six and a former member of the Crescenta Valley Town Council, Ahlers’ views on issues like public safety, the state’s tax mess and parental rights are in line with our own views.
“Radical ideologies in our schools are stripping parents of their authority and exposing kids to harmful curricula,” Ahlers writes on her campaign website. “I’ll champion parental rights in education, support school choice, and oppose mandates that undermine our rights and values. Our children deserve safe, quality education that teaches them the essentials: math, English, history and science, and prepares them for success — not indoctrination.”
She also supports protecting girls’ sports, an issue that has become more prominent in California of late, and even currently, as athletes and girls’ sports advocates are protesting today at the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section track and field prelims in Yorba Linda, where a male who identifies as a transgender female is poised to sweep three events.
Ahlers also has the right mind-set to turn around California’s tax and business failures. She advocates suspending the onerous California gas tax, and reducing other taxes and fees on energy, aiming to make California more affordable. She advocates reduced regulation of small businesses by a state government notorious for overzealous regulations, and her pro-business mindset is what we need more of in Sacramento to stop the exodus of residents and businesses that are fleeing the state’s oppressive tax environment.
While recognizing the importance of legitimate environmental protections, she supports reform of the California Environmental Quality Act, which for years has been used as a legal cudgel against commercial and residential growth.
“California can compete again if we make it easier to build, hire and invest,” Ahlers said in her responses to The Signal’s election preview questions. “California should offer tax incentives for companies that create jobs and keep operations here. We should reward hard work, entrepreneurship and investment, not punish success with endless red tape.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Pilar Schiavo
We’ll admit it. Pilar Schiavo has grown on us.
Mind you, our views and hers are opposites on many “big-picture” liberal-vs.-conservative political issues. That has not changed, and we could find many places where we and Schiavo would disagree, on principle, and there have been times we have been frustrated when she toes the Democrat supermajority’s party line in Sacramento.
But there is no denying that the incumbent, a Chatsworth Democrat, has been looking out for the SCV, in real and tangible ways. When it comes to our community, she is not an absentee legislator. She’s present, she pays attention and we believe she sincerely seeks to further the best interests of the community.
Perhaps that’s most evident as it regards the Chiquita Canyon Landfill.
More than any other elected official, Schiavo has actively sought to call attention to the crisis emanating from the landfill near Val Verde, a community whose residents don’t wield a lot of influence and need someone in their corner. The evolving environmental and health crisis stemming from an underground fire at the landfill has caused real impacts for them.
Schiavo has taken up the charge with them and for them, not only through advocacy but also through legislation. She has carried two bills in response to the crisis — one seeking to prevent such a scenario from repeating itself, and one providing tax relief for residents impacted by the Chiquita disaster. The tax relief bill was signed into law last year.
She’s advocated, authored and supported legislation for other forms of tax relief as well, in particular for veterans and disabled veterans, and military and law enforcement retirees. She also supports targeted tax breaks for small businesses.
“Prior to serving as your Assemblymember, I was a small business owner and nurse advocate,” Schiavo said in her response to The Signal’s election preview questions. “Times are tough. With prices on the rise, families like ours have made tough choices for too long. That’s why I ran for Assembly, why I have focused on policies to help our community, and why I am running for re-election.”
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The Santa Clarita Valley would be well-represented by either Ahlers or Schiavo, and it’s our hope that they will be the two who emerge from the so-called “jungle primary” in which the top two move on regardless of party affiliation.
Assuming that happens, we look forward to a robust examination of the candidates’ positions on the issues — including an in-person debate — leading into the November election.
