California State Assembly District 33 has four people running. What are their priorities?
The California State Assembly District 33 seat is open as incumbent Devon Mathis decided to retire from the Assembly at the end of his current term.
Residents in the district will have four choices – two Republicans and two Democrats - at this upcoming March 5 primary.
The district represents parts of Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties. As of the 2020 Census, District 33 has an average of 494,709 residents.
Republicans hold a slight party advantage with 35.41% of registered voters, followed by Democrats at 35%. Those with no party preference represent 21.38%. Latinos represent 54% of the district’s voting age population, and whites are 36%.
Four candidates – Xavier Ávila, Rubén Macareno, Alexandra Macedo and Ángel Ruiz - are looking to replace Mathis, a Republican who was first elected to the Assembly in 2014. The two top vote-getters, regardless of party, will compete in the November general election.
The Fresno Bee submitted questions to each of the candidates. Their responses are offered here and presented in the order they were received.
Ángel Ruiz
Party: Democrat
Age: 35
Occupation: Labor organizer, focusing on labor rights and worker empowerment; Small business owner.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science, California State University, Northridge
Other office held: None
Campaign website: angelruizad33.com
Q: In your opinion, what are the top three issues for district residents?
I think for one of course, would be healthcare access. Lindsay doesn’t have a hospital. The people that live in Avenal they have to travel to Visalia or if it’s something crucial, then they have to drive over to Fresno and or Bakersfield. When it comes to the beautiful city of Corcoran, they don’t have a clinic or a hospital or anything like that.
The Tulare hospital is still under a lot of development that needs. We only have one childbirth a week in the hospital. So those are the areas and the places that I’m tackling down in my campaign. Those are the priority things that I’m very concerned when it comes to healthcare.
The second thing I would say drinking water, and having access to drinking water, that’s crucial. Last year we had a flood, and Allensworth and Alpaugh, and it was very difficult for people to have medication for people to have access to clean water to take a shower. I was out there with Cal Fires doing food distributions and ensuring people had what they needed. So, it’s things that have divided us from Sacramento. And I think now more than ever, we need to find common ground between us and Sacramento.
And the third one, would be access to the internet or ending the digital divide. When it comes to internet access, I feel that for sure, this will help small businesses, it will educate people because we know that Google is the way to move forward. Not having internet to access also limits people when it comes to voting.
Q: What will you do to make sure Sacramento pays attention to the needs of the district?
Right now, it’s not the time to pick a fight with Sacramento. Now is the time to ensure that we’re getting our share of the pie right. Now is the time where we need to find common ground with Sacramento.
Now is the time where we ensure that every legislation that’s passed is taken into consideration the Central Valley, it’s taking in consideration that Allensworth, East Porterville, Earlimart, Ducor, Farmerville, those areas like Woodlake that have been forgotten for far too long.
I plan to legislate based on my community and how we’re going to have a voice at the table. We haven’t had a voice at the table. We never had a voice at the table. This is an area that has never been fairly represented in our district. I think that me being the candidate of choice is something that’s definitely going to help us. It’s something that’s going to help my community, and it’s something that’s going to build common ground with Sacramento and ultimately create the future we want to see.
Q: If elected, how do you plan to reach out to district residents? Town halls? Social media?
Right now, in the last two months, I’ve already spoken to about 8,000 people. Last week alone, we knocked on 12,000 houses and we had 630 conversations. So, if elected, I would do everything possible to get our message out to the people. I will use local newspapers; I will use social media. And most importantly, I want to end the language divide that we have. I’m an immigrant from Guatemala. I know how difficult it is to be able to translate and interpret into our native language. So definitely applying language accessibility would be number one. Number two, I speak Spanish fluently. I write Spanish fluently. I have a certification in translation and interpretation. So that wouldn’t hold me back where Tulare is, 65.5% of the people here are Latino or Hispanic or Hispanic heritage. The same thing with King’s County, we are the majority there. And we need to be able to have a voice.
The other thing I would want to do is have town hall meetings. I want to invite the community. We know how important it is for people to have cafecito con pan (coffee and bread). So, I can provide that on my town halls. And I just want to go out there and tell people, hey, we’re having a town hall, canvass the area, make phone calls, text message, let them know this is the legislation that’s going on in Sacramento. This is how I want you to be involved. I can’t do this alone; this is going to take all of us to be involved, this is going to take all of us to be part of this movement that we’re doing right.
Alexandra Macedo
Party: Republican
Age: 29
Occupation: Small business owner of Macedo Enviromental Consulting
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business law, California State University, Northridge.
Other office held: None
Campaign website: www.AlexandraMacedo.com.
Q: In your opinion, what are the top three issues for district residents?
I come from a background in agriculture, and I know how vital agriculture is to the Central Valley, and we really can’t exist here without it. So, the big, big issue for me is water and making sure that we can get water in the Central Valley. We have storage, we have the ability to transport it, but we also have a safe and sustainable water source. So that’s a big one for me.
The cost-of-living crisis is huge in the Central Valley and families are feeling it left and right. You know, when they’re faced with the choice of whether they are going to fill their gas tank or fill their refrigerator, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. So that’s a big thing for me, too, making sure people can afford to live here in the Central Valley and then finally making sure that our communities are safe. We are facing big city problems in small towns, and I so respect our law enforcement for their efforts. Unfortunately, we’ve taken the handcuffs off of criminals and put them on law abiding citizens in our law enforcement and so making sure that people feel safe in their communities is of utmost importance to me as well.
Q: What will you do to make sure Sacramento pays attention to the needs of the district?
So, a big goal of mine when I get to Sacramento is to use my voice in a loud but logical way and use strategy to make people understand and tell the story of what we do here in the Central Valley. Some often we are overlooked in Sacramento, and what we do here is vital to the success of our state. And so, telling our story, sharing that with other legislators and making them recognize the value here in the Central Valley will make sure that we get the resources and the respect we deserve.
Q: If elected, how do you plan to reach out to district residents? Town halls? Social media?
All of the above. I want as many people reaching out to me as possible. I would love to have coffee with people. I would love to reach out over socials. I would love to go door to door. The absolute heart of what I do would be doing as assemblywoman would be listening to the community and finding out what issues are facing your household, your communities. And our district is very large. There’s 500,000 people in the district, but I want to hear from as many of them as possible, and whether that’s holding town halls in each city or social media, or having one on one conversations, I’m willing to do that.
Even in my campaign, we’re actually holding meet and greets in various towns, and we’re publicizing those on our social media. So, if you want to come down and meet me and have a conversation with me, I’m very excited to do that and meet as many people as possible.
Ruben Macareno
Party: Democrat
Age: 60
Occupation: Semi-Retired, consulting for Sunshine Resources organization.
Education: Los Angeles City College AA Modern Political Studies. (Student Body President). California State University, Los Angeles. 4 units from completing BA Political Science. (Alumni Scholar)
Other office held: Farmersville City Council, Farmersville Unified School Board Trustee
Campaign website: https://macareno.info/
Q: In your opinion, what are the top three issues for district residents?
Affordable housing is right now a big issue locally. Even in my town of Farmersville, people are always asking, do you know if there’s a house for rent or is there a house for sale. And in Farmersville alone, although we’re build some affordable housing, it’s still really very tough. We’re just so far behind in terms of housing, so we have to figure out how we’re going to be able to do what Self-help is doing, like the cities of Farmersville and Tulare. So, we still have to figure out a formula. That’s number one.
Number two, which is tied to affordable housing, is good paying jobs. We don’t have enough of those to go around, so we need to figure out how are we going to bring industry other than AG, because AG is pretty much our local economy here, but we need to find how are we going to bring in more business into the area so that people can afford to feed their families and also to help be housed. That’s a challenge that we have.
The third one is health. We need to be able to have not only affordable housing, but quality health. This area has always been plagued with our fair share of cancers, if not more. I hear more and more people having cancer. I hear more and more people not being able to have the adequate diagnosis to actually address the issues that they’re going through. Sometimes they’re misdiagnosed and that’s mostly because we don’t have that many doctors per capita for residents. We have to make it more attractive for doctors that want to come here. We have to make it more attractive to have a research hospital to address the chronic diseases that we do have in the area.
Q: What will you do to make sure Sacramento pays attention to the needs of the district?
The only way that you’re going to get the attention of Sacramento is that you already have built relationships, and you’re able to create a relationship with other legislators to introduce them to issues. Ours is abundant. And unless they really hear it from a compassionate, empathetic legislator, to have them understand what the valley continues to go through, and we continue to be underfunded in all these areas.
We need the help of others. It’s not just that one legislator that’s going to be the cheerleader and the rah rah person. It’s going to be the legislator that’s going to bring more people under the tent to understand where we stand.
I would coalition with the relationships that I already have in Sacramento and present them the issues that we have and not just talk to them about it, but I want them to feel it. I want them to hear it from someone that has lived it, is living it, and wants to do something about it.
Q: If elected, how do you plan to reach out to district residents? Town halls? Social media?
Engagement is so important. And I do that right now in my elected positions at city councilman and as a board member on the school board. I’ve always said the elected official is the mouthpiece, the eyes and the ears of the community. And this is one way how we can feel the pulse of community so that they and their needs are heard.
So for me, engagement means, yes, talking to your city councilman and the school board members, but also engaging in community to have those periodic house meetings to tell them about what’s happening in Sacramento, what the what the Assembly member’s office can do for them directly, to teach them that we have assets for them in the immediate. We have a voice in their legislator if you know they’re willing to have that conversation. So, I believe and I would have house meetings in various communities with communities mostly that are unheard.
Xavier Ávila
Party: Republican
Age: 60
Occupation: Dairy farmer, healthcare advocate
Education: College of the Sequoias
Other office held: Tulare Health Care District board, Tulare Cemetery board.
Campaign website: www.avila4assembly.com
Q: In your opinion, what are the top three issues for district residents?
Since District 33 is largely almost all agricultural, the towns are small, 60,000 are the biggest, Tulare, Hanford, Porterville, Dinuba. Then you’ve got smaller towns like 20,000, but it’s all farm ground. So, agriculture is a big issue. And I’ve been in agriculture my whole life.
The other big issue is health care. I serve on the Tulare Health Care District board in Tulare. It’s a public board. I’ve served on that for the last six years, but I also serve on Adventist Health Central California Network Board. And we cover these eight hospitals Reedley, Selma, Hanford, Tulare, Delano, two hospitals in Bakersfield and one in Tehachapi, plus 128 clinics. A lot of those clinics are in the district. So, health care in the Central Valley, and this district is in crisis. I’ll refer to what happened in Madera County, where that hospital is closed. And that has created a huge hardship on the people in Madera County. I am worried that services are going to close up in Tulare and Kings counties, too, if we don’t take better action.
A third issue is cost, things are high. Housing is very high, it’s not affordable, groceries, different things like that it’s really hard for people to make it. Energy costs, gas prices, but I would say I would like to lump that economically because jobs are important too, jobs are part of that. And people need jobs in order to, to have an income. So I’ll lump those two together.
Q: What will you do to make sure Sacramento pays attention to the needs of the district?
Very good question. I will have to align myself with other valley legislatures because I think a lot of our problems are similar. Take Esmeralda Soria. I would think she would be an ally as far as, uh, health care goes, right. So, I would look, you know, these issues we have are not political party issues, right? They’re human being issues. And it has nothing to do with political party. So, I would work with everybody to help solve those.
Q: If elected, how do you plan to reach out to district residents? Town halls? Social media?
Yes, but physically visit them. So, a couple of weeks ago, I was in Avenal, and I visited the mayor, and the city manager. I had dinner with them, and I listened to them about all their problems, their water issues. They get water directly from the California Aqueduct, and they have to share that with the prison. They got a lot of issues there. I care about the rural towns. I’m from Tipton, California. It’s a little small town south of Tulare. You have Farmersville, Woodlake, Poplar, Armona, London. All these little towns that don’t get any attention. And growing up on a farm I’ve been in all these towns. I’ve known all these people. So social media is important, but physically going to these towns and talking to their leaders and different businesspeople is what I would do. I’m already doing it as we speak.
