After an election night marked by statewide victories for moderate Democrats, one of the San Joaquin Valley’s biggest agricultural water districts assessed how best to maintain its influence.
During Wednesday's board of directors meeting of the Semitropic Water Storage District, former Democratic state senator Dean Florez, now a lobbyist for Semitropic, updated the district’s leaders on election results. The night proved a victory for moderate Democrats running at the state level who often support business or agricultural interests, Florez said.
“At least in the Assembly, where the bills to protect us live or die, that’s going to be a marked sea change, probably one for the better,” Florez said during the meeting.
Democrats appear to be retaining their supermajority in the state Assembly, but in some races, more moderate candidates were beating out their progressive counterparts. Florez estimated that about 80 percent of the Democrats who beat out members of their own party in state Assembly races were supported by business interests.
The result was a near-doubling of the moderate caucus, which has traditionally “put away bills that have been troublesome for us,” he said.
Still, many of the candidates who were expected to win suffered defeat, he added. Florez discussed the need to lobby new members of the Assembly and get them “on the water learning curve.”
Specifically, he named Jasmeet Bains, who appeared ahead in the 35th Assembly District race over her opponent, county Supervisor Leticia Perez — albeit with roughly two-thirds of Kern's ballots outstanding.
He said the most important result still to come is who will be elected speaker of the state Assembly.
Florez, a veteran politician, is an unlikely lobbyist for one of the valley’s largest agricultural water districts. As a state senator, Florez supported several bills that required farms to comply with more stringent environmental measures, including one that forced farms to adhere to the Federal Clean Air Act.
Florez was termed out of office in 2010. In 2014, he founded Balance Public Relations and Strategies. Two years later, he was appointed to the California Air Resources Board, which pushes for restrictions on diesel trucks and other sources of emissions.
Semitropic has relied on Florez’s political know-how and connections for a number of efforts, including getting legislation passed in 2016 allowing the 220,000-acre western Kern district to get a jump on groundwater protection projects.
The district has a severe groundwater deficit and has sought ways to increase surface water storage projects, monitor groundwater use and other projects.
SJV Water is a nonprofit, independent online news publication covering water in the San Joaquin Valley. Lois Henry is the CEO/Editor of SJV Water. She can be reached at lois.henry@sjvwater.org. The website is www.sjvwater.org.
