4 candidates face off to represent northern SLO County in Congress. Here’s where they stand
San Luis Obispo County voters must choose next month from four candidates to pick the person to represent California’s newly realigned District 19 in Congress.
On the ballot for the June 7 election are incumbent U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, his Democratic opponent Douglas Deitch, and Republicans Dalila Epperson and Jeff Gorman. None of the candidates live in San Luis Obispo County.
The realigned District 19 includes sections from four previous congressional districts. Its boundaries stretch 200 miles through coastal California, extends from Cambria and Atascadero northward to Boulder Creek in Santa Cruz County and the suburbs of southern San Jose.
As of Dec. 20, according to the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, voters in the district were 60% white and 17% each Asian and Latino. It’s estimated that 49% of voters are Democrats and 22% Republicans.
Some district residents who live in smaller population areas, such as northern San Luis Obispo County, worry that their issues might wind up taking a backseat to those of the larger counties to the north.
Candidates running for the congressional seat promise that won’t happen.
Here’s more information about the District 19 candidates, including where they stand on key issues.
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Douglas Deitch
Deitch identifies himself on the ballot as a water policy CEO, on the Monterey County voter information guide as a nonprofit executive director and on his Facebook page as the “balanced law and order Democrat.”
If elected, Deitch has said, he’ll secure $2.1 billion in “build back infrastructure” financing for “my 30-year-old ignored plan” to restore the 21,000-acre Monterey Bay Estuarine National Monument to wetlands. That, he maintains, will provide 33,000 acre-feet of recycled water annually for regional urban and farming needs.
Deitch also expressed concerns about aquifer storage recovery projects for Monterey and Soquel, saying that they “cannot possibly work” due to projected sea level rise.
In addition, he pledged more prosecutions for fentanyl-related crimes under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Deitch promised to serve just one two-year term, adding that he’d offer Panetta the job as his chief of staff “if he will take the job.”
Deitch has run for political office before, having briefly been one of 47 candidates on the ballot in the unsuccessful September 2021 recall election to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Deitch also has run, unsuccessfully, for Monterey County supervisor and a separate congressional seat.
Deitch declined to speak to The Tribune via phone or email. He also didn’t submit a candidate’s statement for San Luis Obispo County’s voter information guide.
Jimmy Panetta
Panetta already has some name recognition in San Luis Obispo County, having helped secure millions of dollars in funding toward repairing storm and fire damage in the Gorda and Big Sur areas.
The son of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Jimmy Panetta served in Afghanistan as a U.S. Navy Reserve officer and received the Bronze Star.
The former Monterey County deputy district attorney has represented the 20th District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017. He currently serves on the House committees for the armed services, agriculture and ways and means, and is a chief deputy whip for the 117th Congress.
During a San Luis Obispo County campaign tour, Panetta said he’s dedicated to “being the bridge between the people of the Central Coast and the federal government and its resources, getting bureaucracy to work for the people we serve.”
His ambitious list priorities for serving his constituents includes reducing gun violence, lowering prescription drug prices, guarding women’s rights, preventing wildfires and protecting water resources and the environment, which means no offshore or onshore oil drilling.
He also vowed to fight for veterans benefits, affordable healthcare and housing and immigration reform.
The grandson of immigrants, Panetta pushing for “citizenship for essential workers, Dreamers and families,” Panetta said.
He said he’ll continue trying to form alliances across the political aisle while “staying in my trench and fighting like hell to get past the sentiment of them ‘just saying no.’ Our job, my job, is to get them to say ‘yes,’ for them to understand how important that is.”
“Partnerships last a hell of a lot longer toward helping our communities,” he said and produce better results than conflicts do. “Making sure you bring everybody to the table is not easy, but to have those partnerships is worth it.”
Jeff Gorman
Gorman, a licensed stock broker and radio show host, spent 20 years working for major brokerage firms. He launched his own firm in Monterey in 2009.
Gorman defines himself as a “law and order candidate” who wants the federal government to “return to its constitutional roles and reduce intrusion into our lives.”
“Together, we can bring sanity and common sense back to our state and country,” he wrote on his website, adding that “your personal security, especially the security of your liberties, will always be my top priority.”
His concerns include soaring national debt and inflation. He wants families to be able to choose schools and medical providers, two sectors that he says “should be handled like Medicare.”
In a phone interview, Gorman said he’d been active in Monterey County Republican politics since 2010, starting as a ground-level organizer. “I was actively trying to convince people to get more involved” in issues such as schools and water, he said.
In 2020, he ran unsuccessfully against Panetta to represent District 20.
“We are in a one-party state, a one-party district,” Gorman said, and he wants to help change that. “We need balance in our political discourse. Without counterbalancing influences, policies get calcified. We lose suppleness, the ability to speak to each other.”
He feels that the recent redistricting process “didn’t help the very people that it was supposed to help.”
“You have to be careful what you ask for in legislative matters,” he opined. “With laws, less is more. Otherwise, you’re just confusing people.”
Gorman said he’s proud to be endorsed by the California Republican Party and the Republican Party committees representing all four counties with territory in the new district.
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Dalila Epperson
Epperson describes herself as a mom and community coordinator. She has owned two businesses and was most recently a licensed vocational nurse at a facility for the institutionally insane.
Her family includes four adult children, two grandchildren and a veteran husband who was a firefighter for nearly three decades.
Epperson has been a grassroots volunteer for more than two decades, she told The Tribune, becoming a political leader in 2021 to fight “snake-pit politics.”
Epperson says she’s motivated by her opposition to the teaching of critical race theory in schools, coronavirus pandemic mandates, efforts to defund police and what she called “progressive legislation written to further restrict our rights.”
She supports concealed-carry gun laws and removing regulations about lead ammunition and how many ammo magazines someone can own.
In a phone interview, Epperson said, “I am not a politician. I’m a mom, a wife and a loyal Californian. I support our police … our small businesses. And I am passionate about changing and replacing school boards with parents, moms and dads, so we can get back to real education.”
Epperson feels most current school board members are “politicized politicians. They’re letting the teachers’ union tell them what to do.”
If elected, she vows to “deregulate small businesses — the backbone of the U.S. ... We need to support them so they can prosper.”
To deal with state and regional water issues, Epperson said, “We have to build more dams and maintain the dams (we have), so the water goes to farmers, not out into the ocean.”
She said that the scheduled closure of Diablo Canyon Power Plant “is a crisis waiting to happen. It has another life of 25 years. Nuclear is the cleanest, most efficient technology, and also the safest.”
Besides keeping Diablo Canyon open, Epperson wants the state to build another nuclear power plant and “stop with the nonsense about the sun panels and the microgrid, because they do not work.”
Campaign fundraising
As of March 31, Panetta had raised $1.4 million in campaign donations, according to the Federal Elections Commission’s campaign finance data.
In comparison, Epperson had raised nearly $21,500 during the same time period and Gorman had amassed about $15,000, campaign finance data show.
Deitch says he doesn’t accept donations.
This story was originally published May 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
