From climate change to housing: Here’s where Central Coast assembly candidates stand on issues
In a surprise announcement in January, San Luis Obispo County Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham announced he wouldn’t be running for re-election after three terms in the California State Assembly— opening wide the field for who would become the Central Coast’s newest state representative.
The announcement came at a tumultuous time for the region: due to redistricting, SLO County’s assembly representation changed significantly. What was Cunningham’s District 35 is now split into a predominantly Democrat District 30 that includes most of San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, and District 37, which includes Nipomo and Santa Barbara County.
In District 30, which encompasses the majority of the county, five candidates are running for the two-year assembly term — with four registered as Democrats.
Those include Dawn Addis, a Morro Bay councilmember and co-founder of Women’s March San Luis Obispo, who previously ran for State Assembly in 2020; Zoë Carter, the director of operations at the Monterey County Business Council; John Drake, a Cal Poly student who recently ran in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election; Vicki Nohrden, who ran for state Senate in 2020; and Jon Wizard, a retired firefighter and police officer who now serves on the Seaside City Council.
In advance of the primary election on June 7, The Tribune asked the candidates where they stand on local issues, from state spending to the political climate. (Note: Nohrden did not respond to multiple Tribune requests for comment, so her stances on these issues are not included.)
Here’s what they said:
How do candidates feel about state spending?
How the government spends taxpayer money is always a topic of consideration during election season. This year’s candidates for District 30 had varying opinions on how best to manage state spending.
Zoë Carter
Carter says she stands out from the other Democratic candidates by being the moderate in the group (though Wizard argues similarly about himself).
Carter, who doesn’t support legislation like single-payer healthcare, advocated for more fiscally conservative decisions in the state.
“I’m not a believer (in spending) hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes on small businesses coming out of the pandemic,” Carter said. “You can’t just wave a magic wand and say, okay, we’re gonna give everybody health care and that’s going to make everything better — actually, it’s not. And it’s just not that easy of an answer.”
John Drake
Drake said he wants to cut taxes on working class people and small businesses while increasing them on big businesses.
“Part of being a legislator … is to put your communities first, and that means making tough decisions,” Drake said.
Jon Wizard
Wizard also emphasized managing state spending more effectively.
While rising property taxes burden families as the risk of homelessness grows, Wizard pointed to one loophole that exemplifies the need for better managing: Renters in California who pay taxes get a credit of around $150, a number he said hasn’t been touched since the 1980s. But people who own two homes can deduct thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of mortgage interest — showing how people with multiple homes can write off higher taxes, while the burden rests on those of lower incomes, Wizard said.
What do candidates say about housing and homelessness?
As the Central Coast becomes more unaffordable for a large portion of its population, many voters are concerned about what representatives will do to help fix housing problems in the region, and especially address homelessness.
Dawn Addis
Addis, who serves on the San Luis Obispo County Homeless Services Oversight Committee, said she has helped move forward “the first 100% affordable housing in 30 years in Morro Bay and led the way to make housing a major city goal so that staff time and city resources could be put into solving the crisis.”
“Costs are rising dramatically — from buying your first home to filling up at the gas station or going to the grocery store, Central Coast residents are finding that wages aren’t keeping up with the costs of living,” she said. “In the State Assembly, I’ll work to increase high-paying, skilled jobs while also focusing on increasing a variety of housing, including low-income and missing-middle housing.”
Addis said that, if elected, she would also expand first-time home ownership programs.
John Drake
Drake said affordable housing and addressing the increasing housing demand is his first priority.
“Once we solve that, everything else tends to fall in place,” Drake said.
Growing up in the agriculturally and tourist-focused Ventura area lends to Drake’s understanding of the District 30 region, he said. He says he understands the concern of building up contributing to an “urban sprawl,” but that it’s necessary for responding to homelessness.
Drake said he started a nonprofit based in Los Angeles alongside his friend who experienced homelessness, called Unhoused People’s Nonprofit.
“You have unhoused people dying in the streets of heatstroke, dehydration, starvation,” Drake said. “And we wanted to find a way to help solve that issue outside of the government because the government wasn’t doing anything to actually solve it — they’re just exacerbating it … they’re criminalizing it.”
Drake’s nonprofit provides hygienic products, clothing, water, food and more to unhoused people, but he has a longer-term goal of providing housing-first shelter.
Jon Wizard
Wizard has held multiple roles in housing and homelessness, deeming them “front and center issues” for Californians, particularly in this district. He’s worked for Habitat for Humanity, building homes at the northern end of the district. He’s also been Chair of the Housing Authority of the County of Monterey, working on vouchers and new construction projects, including properties in Paso Robles.
On the city council, he works with strategic plans for housing, taking into account population growth and accommodating for job growth and other factors at the city and county level, he said. He also helps teach a class at University of California Berkeley on how to write and execute such plans.
In Monterey County, Wizard says there are roughly 4,000 people on the waiting list for vouchers, meanwhile some people with vouchers still can’t find somewhere to live. He discussed how the federal government’s voucher program includes some limitations that conflict and make it difficult to meet the state’s requirement for fair housing.
“They both are going the same direction, but they’re not necessarily complementing one another,” Wizard said. “And that’s where the state can have a bigger role.”
He spoke of how typically all that’s built are either restricted housing for people with low incomes, Social Security or veteran status, or 1,800-square-foot homes with 3-car garages. A blind spot is “middle” housing, he said, like places accommodating recent college grads.
“There’s not much happening in the middle,” Wizard said. “The state’s got to step in and do something.”
Where do candidates stand on climate change, drought?
Dawn Addis
Addis said climate change poses “an absolute real danger to the Central Coast, whether it’s drought or wildfires, habitat loss, coastal erosion.”
Addis advocated for reducing carbon emissions and reducing the damage of wildfires by “investing in local renewable energy production and rebuilding our energy transmission systems,” plus investing in both short- and long-term solutions for water sustainability.
“In the State Assembly, I’ll work to make sure the Central Coast gets our fair share of investment to create high-paying jobs that build the infrastructure we are going to need for the next 20, 50 and 100 years,” she said. “Our children are counting on us to get to work now.”
Zoë Carter
Carter said the region needs to look at private companies for what our water solutions would look like.
This could include recycled water and rainwater capture, though she said that method can be unreliable due to the loss of rainfall.
John Drake
Also an advocate for renewable energy, Drake says he draws the line in some ways.
He says wind energy requires oil to function and has to be recycled every 15 years, which produces even more carbon dioxide than it will save.
Instead, he advocates for desalination, nuclear power and hydroelectric power, all of which can meet consumer demand without raising the individual payment, he said.
Jon Wizard
As Diablo Canyon faces closure, Wizard said the state has a responsibility to retrain workers for green technology, as well as provide resources so schools like Cal Poly and Cuesta College could be at the center of a greener economy.
Wizard, who has worked with his regional sanitation district, said the idea of pumping water out into the ocean every day, and then to “wring our hands” about how there’s a drought, is “sort of bewildering.”
How do candidates feel about education?
Dawn Addis
Addis, a long-time teacher, said she’s heard from constituents that the high cost of living causes them to move out of the area in favor of more affordable places to live — which in turn impacts enrollment in schools.
“High housing and living costs combined with stagnant wages are forcing Central Coast families to make tough choices,” she said. We need to address the lack of housing, the high cost of living, and the availability of good-paying jobs.”
She added that schools also need funding to help schools safely recover from the coronavirus pandemic, and deal with teacher and substitute shortages.
Zoë Carter
Carter is outspoken on rural broadband and access as a key component of educational availability. She says there’s a lot of rural parts in the district between Big Sur and Paso Robles, so it’s important to make sure people have access to emergency services, healthcare and the internet.
Carter also said she wants to look closer at solutions for making college more affordable.
“Students coming out of college with thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in debt is not sustainable,” Carter said. “And so what that would look like? I’ve said on this campaign multiple times that people want quick and easy answers to some of these really difficult problems and there aren’t any.”
What do candidates think they can bring to District 30?
Dawn Addis
Addis said the new district is “exciting,” but she declared she was going to run before redistricting even formed.
“I saw the district changing but still believe, you know, regardless of where the lines are, that the Central Coast really deserves somebody that reflects our values,” Addis said in an interview in February. “And I think I’m well positioned to be able to do that.”
Addis said she is continuing with the momentum of her “grassroots style campaign” to reach new voters.
“I’m an effective and experienced champion for the people of the Central Coast,” she said in a later Tribune interview in May. “I have actual experience working with people of different backgrounds as a councilmember. I also have actual experience effectively serving children and families over the last 20 years in the largest unified school district in the Assembly district. Additionally, I’m able to bring people together on important issues such as increasing housing, working for climate action and standing up for Roe.”
Zoë Carter
Carter said her moderate voice in this district would help her get to work on important issues like post-pandemic recovery, infrastructure and internet access for rural areas and school children.
“I think that having younger people in Sacramento is really important, and having someone who can really work across the aisle and work with diverse groups of people to get legislation passed is a critical piece as well,” Carter said.
Carter comes from an international relations background and has worked with former First Lady Michelle Obama and worked for Secretary Leon Panetta through the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
She says having a global perspective and taking cues from how things work in other places is “really important,” and stressed how these politicians worked with both sides of the aisle to do what’s best for constituents and get legislation passed.
“Working for the Obamas was a really transformative experience in my life, and I think that was a time when people really tried to work together,” Carter said. “That’s sort of a lost art now, and I really would like to be able to try to bring that back and not have everything be so polarized.”
Jon Wizard
Wizard said having lived and worked in all three counties gives him an advantage this election.
“Being able to connect with people and talk about our shared experiences, as someone who has been part of the community, I think has helped kind of set me apart from other people who are not from a particular region,” Wizard said.
Wizard also emphasized his experience working across the aisle. He gave the example of Cunningham focusing on everyday issues like human trafficking and transportation, where it “doesn’t matter if he’s a Republican if he’s working on these issues.”
“I see my role, if I should be selected as this district’s legislator, to support the whole district,” Wizard said. “And the last time I checked, there were people other than Democrats who live in this district, and I think they want to have somebody represent them too. So I’m focused on issues for everybody. I’m focused on everyday issues.”
John Drake
Drake said he hopes that in office he could help California succeed.
“I want to see California succeed,” Drake said. “I want to see it live up to the potential it espouses. And it’s been hard for us to do that for the past couple of years, especially the past couple of decades.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 5:00 AM.