California Assembly District 43 primary election voter guide

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Until late November, it appeared that the eastern San Fernando Valley was on track to have a quiet election season, with incumbent Democratic Assemblymember Luz Rivas favored to win reelection and continue representing California’s 43rd Assembly District in Sacramento.

But when Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Pacoima) said he would not seek reelection to Congress, Rivas, of North Hollywood, announced that she would run for his seat rather than seek reelection to the state Legislature. Her late exit from the Assembly race gave newcomers just three weeks to qualify for the ballot. Six candidates are running. The two who win the most votes in the March 5 primary will advance to the general election in November.

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Who are the candidates?

Victoria Garcia, Republican, San Fernando city commissioner.

A native of Sun Valley, Victoria Garcia works as a construction lawyer and serves on the city of San Fernando’s Transportation and Public Safety Commission. She has also filed to run in a special election to complete the remainder of the late Cindy Montañez’s term on the San Fernando City Council, which ends in November. She has been endorsed by the California Republican Party.

Walter García, Democrat, aide to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta.

Walter García, a native of Pacoima, attended San Fernando High School. The state attorney general’s spokesperson on issues including affordable housing and environmental policy, he previously worked for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez and as a law clerk for then-Sen. Kamala Harris.

Celeste Rodriguez, Democrat, mayor of San Fernando.

Rodriguez was elected to the City Council in her native San Fernando in 2020 and began her term as mayor in 2022. A consultant for nonprofits, she previously worked for the city of Los Angeles, including on homelessness issues in the administration of former Mayor Eric Garcetti. She has been endorsed by incumbent Assemblymember Luz Rivas and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).

Also running are:

Saul Hurtado, Democrat, owner of a Sun Valley child-care center.
Felicia Novick, Republican, a plastic surgery clinic office administrator who has said the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Carmenlina Minasova, no party preference, who is also on the ballot for L.A. City Council District 6.

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Where is the district?

Assembly District 43 covers a northeastern swath of the San Fernando Valley from Sylmar to Van Nuys. The district includes the city of San Fernando and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Sylmar, Sun Valley, Panorama City, Pacoima and Arleta. The district sits next to Hollywood Burbank Airport and is bisected by the Metrolink and Amtrak routes that run to Santa Clarita and Ventura County.

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Affordability

One recent survey from the Public Policy Institute of California found that nearly 2 in 3 Californians expect bad economic times over the next 12 months. A strong majority of residents said they were less comfortable making a major purchase and other household purchases compared with six months ago.

All candidates in the 43rd District said that if elected, they would work to limit regulatory red tape to decrease costs to consumers. All but two candidates — Rodriguez and Walter García — said they would support pausing or repealing the state’s gas tax, something Republicans in Sacramento have unsuccessfully proposed many times since Democrats (and one Republican) raised the gas tax in 2017 to pay for road repairs. California’s gas taxes are the steepest in the nation, now standing at 57.9 cents per gallon, according to the state Department of Finance.

“The gas tax has raised the price of gas and car registration to absurd levels,” Victoria Garcia said.

Beyond that, there is little agreement among the candidates about how the state can defray the rising costs of groceries, child care and more while grappling with an estimated budget deficit of between $38 billion and $68 billion in the upcoming fiscal year.

Walter García said he would support the state dipping into its rainy-day fund to close the deficit, rather than cutting programs that support the environment and the state’s social safety net programs.

“There is a lot of good that the state is doing, in terms of ensuring that folks who are less privileged are able to make ends meet,” he said.

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Housing and homelessness

The candidates are split on whether to prioritize cleaning up encampments of homeless people or building more housing and addiction services.

Rodriguez said her top focus would be preventing people from sliding into homelessness by building up programs that offer renter protections and help alleviate poverty. She said she would also support the construction of more affordable housing, as well as incentives that could make new housing more enticing for communities, such as building publicly accessible green spaces in new developments.

Walter García said he would focus on legislation to streamline and finance the construction of affordable housing and to fund mental healthcare. He also said he would focus on transparency for homelessness funding.

Victoria Garcia said she would push to loosen laws that require cities to build a certain number of new units of housing in favor of allowing more construction farther away and more flexibility for cities.

She said she would also push for more policing at homeless encampments, including ticketing residents for quality-of-life issues such as public defecation as well as assault and other crimes. She said that added enforcement, perhaps coupled with diversion programs that would waive fines or charges for people who enter housing or treatment programs, could move the needle.

“It is not compassionate to let people live on the street,” she said.

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