AD 80’s desert race promises hot Dem primary for Garcia seat

Assembly District 80 is a sprawling desert region encompassing the wealth of Palm Springs and the vastness of the Imperial Valley, Joshua Tree National Park, the Salton Sea and other sunbaked lands. Moderate Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia is termed out of this 10,000-square mile landscape this fall, leaving a succession fight between a moderate Republican and one of four Democrats.

“The district has more registered Democrats but they tend to vote on a conservative ticket,” said former Palm Springs police chief Gary Jeandron, Garcia’s anointed successor. With no primary opposition, he reportedly has $150,000 in campaign funds.

But the June 3rd Democratic primary has four contenders including Jeandron’s political neighbor, Cathedral City council member Greg Pettis. The Desert Sun in Palm Springs reported late last month that Pettis raised about $55,000 through mid-March.

The three other Democratic contenders are community development activist Rick Gonzales from Imperial County, Calexico orthodontist Richard Gutierrez and Coachella Valley Unified School Board member Manuel Perez. An early April poll by San Francisco-based David Binder Research have Perez and Pettis almost tied, with close polling numbers too when either of them is matched against Jeandron.

“Obviously the primary has to be won. My opponents are going to have to expand their base,” said Pettis, who ran in the district’s 2002 primary but lost that race.

Jeandron is playing up his long police career plus later being a Palm Springs Unified School District board member.

“There were some very good Republicans who were going to run,” Jeandron said. “To their credit, they’re looking to keep this a Republican seat. It’s a moderate to conservative district.”

The district has two-thirds of its voters in western Riverside County’s Coachella Valley along Interstate 10, and the fall fight will focus partly on Palm Springs and the lush resort region’s gay-and-lesbian voting bloc.

With his endorsement from gay-friendly incumbent Garcia, Jeandron also is traveling to the district’s remote regions to discuss farming. “We’re pushing farmland out of California,” he said.

Along with nods from El Centro, Brawley and Palm Springs politicians, Pettis hopes to be the district’s first gay assembly member and has out-of-town endorsements from prominent gay legislators such as U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). And in perhaps the only thing they will agree on this spring, San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno State Sen. Carole Migden, whom Leno wants to unseat, have endorsed Pettis.