SALAS AND VARGAS SPAR FOR DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION IN FRACTIOUS STATE SENATE RACE

By Richard Darvas

June 5, 2010 (San Diego)--Bowing to corporate sponsors and resorting to dirty politicking are among a spate of accusations being exchanged by opposing candidates in South Bay’s upcoming Senate Democratic primary election. Assemblywoman Mary Salas and former Assemblyman Juan Vargas are vying to win the heavily Democratic 40th District’s seat that will soon be vacated by Denise Ducheny due to term limits.

East County Magazine sought interviews with both candidates for this story. Mary Salas agreed to a telephone interview; Juan Vargas was unavailable despite numerous email and voicemail requests. However, Vargas’ campaign manager, Jim Anderson, did furnish an email message with passages mostly culled from his candidate’s website.

The 40th State Senate District includes significant portions of East County (including backcountry areas east of Pine Valley) as well as southern portions of San Diego County including Chula Vista, National City, Coronado, and Imperial Beach as well as areas in Imperial County. View the district map. 
 

Juan Vargas was born in National City, attending college in San Diego before he earned a law degree from Harvard Law School. From 1993 to 2000 he served as a San Diego City Councilman. In 2000, he was elected to the 79th District of the California Assembly. Vargas served in that role until 2006, when he departed for a position in the insurance industry. In 2009, Vargas left the private sector and recommitted to political aspirations.
 

Mary Salas’ family has roots in Chula Vista, and she earned a social work degree from SDSU. She was a member of the Chula Vista City Council from 1996 to 2004. That year she joined the South Bay Irrigation District Board of Directors, where she served until 2006. At that time, Salas was elected to succeed Vargas in the state Assembly.
 

Salas views her Senate run as a continuation of her efforts in the 79th District of the state Assembly—the same political office that Vargas previously held for six years. “I’m running because I have a history of working really hard for my community,” Salas explains. “There are a lot of things that I’ve accomplished in my three and a half years in the Assembly that I want to make sure get implemented.” She cites her co-authorship of Chelsea’s Law and work to stimulate job creation as two of her major accomplishments.
 

Vargas outlines four central reasons for his candidacy. “I’m running for Senate because we need bold leadership to reform California, reduce the power of special interests, promote job creation and stand up for ordinary citizens.”
 

According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report published in late May, California’s unemployment rate of 12.6% ranks third highest in the nation. Underemployment is another key problem.
 

“Just having experience in economic development, I know jobs are the number one issue for the people of California,” says Salas. “For seven years, I worked for the California Trade and Commerce Agency.” Salas observes that her efforts generated “a lot of jobs that came to San Diego County and Imperial County as a result of my management of those projects.” The Assemblywoman identifies working families as the engine that will trigger an economic recovery. “Everything else flows from that, including a prosperous California.”
 

In addition, the green-tech business sector is a burgeoning industry which Salas says she seeks to exploit for economic revitalization. “We see that the fastest job growth is in green-technology-sector jobs. We have all these geothermal and solar projects that are now being permitted and will be providing renewable energy sources. It’s going to be providing a great number of jobs for the whole state of California. We’re going to be great beneficiaries.”
 

Salas states that an overdependence on foreign oil presents an addition incentive to advance greener technologies. As Chair of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, Salas says that she recognizes the green revolution as a matter of national security.
 

“The work I’ve done on water policy relates to jobs as well,” she adds.
 

Vargas lists “good paying jobs and job training” as well as “solar and green power economic growth” as two of his biggest priorities.
 

California’s budgetary collapse is well-documented and worsening by the fiscal quarter. Vargas contends that a crisis of leadership in Sacramento accounts for this financial shortfall. "Since I left, Sacramento has become a mess. It’s immoral for politicians to accept pay raises and then release dangerous prisoners to balance the budget.”
 

According to Vargas’ biographical and issue page on the Union-Tribune’s website, he proposes to “cut wasteful programs, such as reducing the benefits that prison inmates receive.” One such benefit he targets is “gender-altering hormone treatments” for the incarcerated.
 

Salas claims that oil companies have operated as scofflaws for years in California, failing to pay their fair shares in taxes. “We are the only state in the whole nation that produces oil that does not charge our oil companies an oil-extraction fee. Texas charges 10%. Alaska charges 18%.” Despite the new fee, Salas vows that Big Oil will not be permitted to pass the higher cost of doing business onto the consumer at the pump.
 

In the wake of the recent environmental disaster in the Gulf region, Salas explains that offshore drilling is not an option. “Tourism is our number one industry in California, mostly because of our beautiful coastlines. Can you imagine our economy and ecology being ruined by oil spills? We have to get off fossil fuels.”
 

A matter of sharp controversy that has erupted during this race is the content of Vargas’ political ads. Mailers have been distributed door to door by Vargas’ canvassers to residents in the 40th District. Four such pamphlets are viewable on his website. None of these include information pertaining to his platform. Instead, they attack Salas on various fronts such as being soft on crime, in bed with the insurance industry and generally lacking leadership.
 

One mailer is a mock postcard from prisoners at San Quentin to Assemblywoman Salas. It references legislative bill SBX318, which Salas voted for in September 2009. In part, this law granted early release to prisoners. Fictitious inmates end the postcard on an ominous note: “Well, gotta pack. Got some unfinished business to attend to when we get out.”
 

“He is distorting my record,” Salas responds. “And the way he’s been able to distort my record is by the $2 million the insurance companies and Wall Street banks have poured into his campaign.”
 

As for Vargas' allusion that she’s soft on crime, Salas responds passionately, “That is absolutely not true…The final bill, the only reason I voted for it is that our law enforcement agencies removed their opposition to it. They felt that the type of prisoners that were identified for early release were only those who were non-violent offenders.” She takes her defense one step further.
 

“I have the endorsement of every major law enforcement agency in the state of California, including our own Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of San Diego County, the San Diego Police Officers Association, the Chula Vista Police Officers Association, Imperial Beach Police Officers Association. If Juan Vargas was telling the truth, I wouldn’t have their endorsements.”
 

An April news conference organized by Salas before downtown’s Hall of Justice featured volleys of angry words by contingents from both camps. Hostilities reached a crescendo as a Salas staffer was allegedly assaulted by a Vargas campaign worker, according to a Salas press release on April 30. The attack was purported to necessitate a hospital visit.
 

Another bone of contention in the Senate race is the volume of independent expenditures on behalf of Vargas’ campaign by corporate interests. According to a report by Campaign for Consumer Rights, a California-based watchdog group and consumer advocate, the insurance industry has bankrolled front-groups which have collectively spent at least $1.46 million to defeat Salas and elect Vargas.
 

On the other hand, Vargas has assigned “15,000 reasons to vote against Assemblymember Mary Salas” in one mailer as the quantifiable equivalent of a $15,000 check written by Anthem Blue Cross to Salas. Coincidentally, Anthem Blue Cross of California was cited in San Diego CityBeat’s “Last Blog on Earth” on April 29 as one of several named contributors to corporate front-groups which have funded Vargas’ political ambitions through the aforementioned independent expenditures.
 

Salas acknowledges that she’s raised a considerable sum in this primary election. “It’s been a very expensive campaign,” she confirms. “I’ve been really proud of the way I’ve done it because it’s been with individual people. I’ve raised $700,000. Compare that to the $2 million that the corporations have poured into Juan Vargas’ campaign.”
 

Why does Salas believe that corporate backers have favored Vargas? A long history of quid pro quo, says Salas.
 

“He was their go-to guy when he was in the Assembly. Consistently, he voted against the interests of the consumer…One great example of that is what he did during the wildfires. When the people of his communities asked for relief, instead he made it harder for them to collect on their fire insurance. As a result, the work that he did for the insurance companies grossed them millions and millions and millions in profits. So they’re paying him back.” In practical terms, Salas claims that Vargas helped pass a law that required itemization of lost possessions in order to recoup losses in fire claims. “It was very, very difficult for people to prove what they actually lost in the fire.”
 

Salas says she opposes Arizona’s immigration law because it hamstrings federal enforcement and creates too many variable standards amongst the states. In addition, she says that it detracts from the overall mission of local law enforcement, which is to ensure public safety.
 

Vargas advocates “tough laws that keep violent sexual predators and dangerous prisoners behind bars.” As a California Assemblyman, he says he wrote a one-strike measure to “keep sexual predators out of our neighborhoods.” He has expressed his support for Chelsea’s Law.
 

Salas is pro-choice and supportive of gay marriage. Vargas supports civil unions in lieu of gay marriage “because of my legal analysis of the issue,” according to the U-T election page.
 

“I don’t know about my opponent’s platform because he hasn’t talked about his platform,” Salas concludes. “All he’s done is attack me, but he hasn’t said what he’s going to do…We’ve had several forums—at least five—that he said he would be at and he never showed up. He’s not giving the people an opportunity to learn about what his plans are. I think it’s because he simply doesn’t have a good plan. He hasn’t articulated a platform…I think he’s ashamed to go before the people because he sold them out in the six years he was in the Assembly…He’s ashamed to face them because our community is smart, our voters are smart, they know where his money is coming from. They know he’s not on their side, and they know I’m on their side.”
 

As part of the Union-Tribune’s election coverage, Vargas delineated some of the policymaking goals of his campaign. “We must fight to protect important programs like in-home supportive services, job training, senior day care, environmental stewardship and early childhood nutrition. Protecting these services, which I believe are really investments, is vital to preventing higher costs later onto care for the recipients of these programs. Our state cannot afford to kick the can down the road.”
 

On June 8, voters will likely simultaneously cast their votes in two elections due to the heavily Democratic makeup of the 40th District. The eventual winner of this primary race is considered a shoo-in in the November general election.
 

Endorsements and other policy stances are available on the opponents’ respective websites. Information for Assemblywoman Salas may be found at www.marysalasforstatesenate.com. Information for former Assemblyman Vargas may be found at www.votevargas.com.  Voting records, ratings by interest groups and other information on Salas, currently serving in the Assembly, may be found at the nonpartisan League of Women Voters Project Vote-Smart website.