California Assembly District 52 election: Caloza vs Carrillo voter guide

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo gave up her legislative seat to challenge Kevin de León for his Eastside City Council seat in Los Angeles, but did not make it past the March primary. Her decision opened up a coveted vacancy in the state Assembly.

The majority-Latino Los Angeles County district attracted 10 candidates in the all-party primary, a field that was narrowed down to two Democrats for the November election: justice advocate Franky Carrillo and women’s rights advisor Jessica Caloza.

Who are the candidates?

Caloza was once a community organizer for President Obama and a Los Angeles Board of Public Works commissioner. She also served in the Obama administration’s Department of Education and as a staffer to former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Her main priorities are protecting reproductive health and access to abortion by fully funding Planned Parenthood and making it easier for the organization to open more locations across California. She also plans to focus on how artificial intelligence is replacing jobs and making sure public education in the state is fully funded.

Carrillo (no relation to the outgoing Assembly member) is a late addition to the field, having first launched a campaign for California’s 27th Congressional District. According to his campaign manager, Carrillo ended his congressional bid to help consolidate support behind Democrat George Whitesides. A senior policy advisor at the Los Angeles Innocence Project, Carrillo was wrongfully convicted of murder as a teenager and spent 20 years in prison before his conviction was overturned in 2011. If elected, Carrillo would be the first previously incarcerated person elected to the Legislature in decades. He has put more than $250,000 of his own money into his campaign.

He said his main priorities would include ensuring the court system is “more equitable” and can bring a more diverse crowd of people onto juries. “As someone who has been through that process,” he said, “having a broad representation of a jury of peers is very important to me.”

Where is the district?

District 52 covers a wide swath of northeastern Los Angeles County and some or all of Glendale and East Los Angeles and the L.A. neighborhoods of El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights, Highland Park, Glassell Park, Elysian Valley, Mount Washington, Eagle Rock, Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Echo Park.

Proposition 36

Proposition 36 would reform the decade-old ballot measure Proposition 47, which reduced some low-level drug and theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The measure on the November ballot would turn some nonviolent, repeated drug and theft offenses into felonies. Both Caloza and Carrillo oppose the measure.

Caloza called the issue “very personal” because she has family members who are incarcerated or homeless. “I’ve read Proposition 36 and don’t think it does anything to help alleviate the retail and theft trafficking,” she said. “We see all it does is increase penalties and mass incarceration. We have to focus on real solutions to safety to prevent these crimes from happening.”

Carrillo said that he supported Proposition 47 back in 2014 and that the new measure would only roll back “all of the work that was done” for marginalized communities impacted by mass incarceration. He said the measure is a “fearmongering return to these harsher penalties.”

Homelessness

Caloza said that as a renter, she thinks the biggest cause of homelessness is a lack of housing. “Unless we build more housing, we won’t have places for people to live who are on our streets,” she said. “It’s taken a lifetime for my family to get one person off the streets. I wish my family had reunification services. I am shocked to hear how many people have someone living on the streets. Also want to bring in accountability for [the] billions of dollars we’ve spent on homelessness.”

Carrillo said he believes his district needs more transitional housing for individuals or families who can’t afford it or who have been priced out. He also said that although he supports Gov. Gavin Newsom, he does not back the Newsom-endorsed homeless encampment sweeps that took place across the state this summer. “What concerns me is there are a lot of homeless students in Los Angeles County,” he said. “I think [authorities are] approaching housing as a ‘one size fits all.’”

The budget

California is facing a budget shortfall this coming fiscal year that is projected to continue in subsequent years. The Times asked the candidates how they think California should balance its budget.

Caloza said that the budget crisis in California “tragically resulted” in less funding for critical services. “That’s why lawmakers need to act to ensure a budget deficit of this scale doesn’t happen again,” she said. She added that closing loopholes that allow big corporations and billionaires to escape state taxes is necessary, and she wants to invest in more long-term rainy-day funds.

Carrillo did not suggest cutting services as a way to remedy the budget deficit, but he said he thinks Californians are being “taxed enough already.”