Accountability.
That’s perhaps the most important thing we are looking for in a congressional candidate, in particular the 27th Congressional District, which encompasses the vast majority of the Santa Clarita Valley. (Two other districts cover smaller slivers of our community.)
And, of the two candidates vying to represent the 27th, we are confident that one of them — Jason Gibbs — will hold himself accountable to those who matter most: the people of the district.
Gibbs has continuously demonstrated his own personal sense of accountability as a member of the Santa Clarita City Council since he was first elected in 2020. He’s responsive to constituent concerns and acts upon them.
Here’s a real-life example, provided to The Signal in a letter to the editor from local business owner Jerry Naber, who had shared concerns with one of his customers about suspicious activities at a neighboring business. The customer connected Naber with Jason Gibbs.
“Santa Clarita Councilman Jason Gibbs stopped by my business,” Naber wrote. “I told him what I had observed and expressed my concerns. He did not dismiss me or tell me I was imagining things. He asked questions. More importantly, he listened. He didn’t ask for recognition. He simply took my concerns seriously and appeared willing to connect a local business owner with people who could determine whether there was a legitimate problem.”
Soon after that, the neighboring business became the focus of a law enforcement investigation into possible human trafficking activities.
For Jason Gibbs, public service is about much more than photo-ops and partisan politics. We know Jason. He really cares about doing the right thing for the people he serves, and getting results — without seeking fanfare or acclaim, as attested to by Mr. Naber.
Gibbs’ qualifications on paper are nothing to sneeze at, either. He may not be a “rocket scientist,” but he is a “rocket engineer,” who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and has gone on to a career as an executive in the aerospace industry, with roles supporting America’s space program via the Delta II, Delta IV, and Atlas V rocket launch systems.
He and his wife, Chandra, are raising their two children in Santa Clarita, where he sets an example of service for them with his work on behalf of the community as a City Council member who also served as mayor in 2023.
On the issues, we see eye to eye with Gibbs, a Republican. He’s keenly tuned to the cost-of-living issues in the 27th District, he’s a firm advocate of public safety rather than coddling criminals, he believes a secure border is important to a secure America, he advocates for parents’ rights in education, and he favors more local control over the issues that directly impact individual communities — an issue he has confronted directly as a City Council member while Santa Clarita struggles to maintain some semblance of local control while residential development mandates are handed down from Sacramento that threaten to diminish local quality of life.
Speaking at The Signal’s candidate forum on Tuesday night, Gibbs demonstrated yet again his sense of accountability:
“What I’ve learned in my capacity as a council member, though, is fairly simple: The vote will always belong to the people that elect you,” he said. “They don’t go to a party. Washington, unfortunately for me, I believe has it backwards. Too many of our members will arrive to the Capitol, and the first question that is asked is not, ‘What is it you’re going to do for the people who sent you there?’ But, ‘What is it the party wants you to do for them?’”
Jason Gibbs has gotten into public service for all of the right reasons. And he has our unreserved endorsement for election to represent the 27th Congressional District.
The Other Side of the Coin
In contrast, we have been disappointed that the current representative of the 27th Congressional District, George Whitesides, has shown where his sense of accountability lies.
If he considered himself accountable to the people of the 27th District — all of them, Democrat and Republican — he would have agreed to participate in debates and forums with Gibbs, engaging in public discussion of the issues and answering questions about his positions on them.
If he considered himself only accountable to the Democratic Party, he would decline.
Whitesides chose party over the people of the 27th.
He declined to participate in any forums or debates that would also include his opponent, Jason Gibbs. So much for accountability.
This past week, given a choice of two dates, when Congress was out of session, he chose not to show up at The Signal’s forum. One can only wonder what he was running from. But, considering the voter registration numbers in the district, he surely figured he didn’t “need” to because the numbers favor him as a reliable party-line-voting Democrat.
His only appearance at such an event in the Santa Clarita Valley was at an SCV Chamber of Commerce “forum” — to which Gibbs was not even invited, and by the way, no video recording was allowed and non-chamber members had to pay $35 to get in the door.
The chamber called it a “forum.” Perhaps they were joking. The event was clearly staged to ensure absolutely nothing could go wrong for the sitting congressman, and if he slipped up, there would be no video evidence.
Campaign forums are like job interviews. Whitesides has refused all invitations to participate in a real public forum or debate with Gibbs. That’s the action of someone who knows he can only hurt his chances by showing up, being accountable to the voters, and answering questions on the issues without having every word vetted in advance by a political party PR flack.
Jason Gibbs won’t have that problem.
He’ll show up. He’ll look you in the eye.
And he will be accountable.
