Hanford's Todd Cotta, challenges incumbent Rudy Salas in 32nd Assembly District race

It’s likely to be a major chore for the former law enforcement officer and major Hanford business owner. The 32nd Assembly District is perhaps one of the most cumbersome, far-reaching, and geographically challenged voting districts in the state. It reaches from the entirety of Kings County to Kern County and ends at the Grapevine.

According to the latest registration figures from the California Secretary of State’s office, Cotta is expected to face a dominant 45 percent Democratic registration compared to a 26 percent Republican registration in the district.

In the 2018 general election, the incumbent, Salas, easily defeated his challenger, Hanford’s Justin Mendes, amassing 26,646 votes to the Republican’s 12,562 in Kern County. Mendes managed to outdistance Salas in Kings County by about 5,000 votes, but Salas easily won the election 56.7 percent to 43.3 percent.

Regardless of the March 3 Primary Election results, the two will tangle again in November. They are the only two candidates on the ballot. California’s election laws call for the top two, regardless of party, to face each other in the general election.

Cotta, the owner, and operator of the Hanford Gun Center Indoor Range is a businessman, former farmer and longtime deputy sheriff who claims the state is under assault by California’s predominantly elected Democratic majority, and he wants to begin changing the state’s political dynamics, first and foremost by getting elected to the state legislature.

He insists that California has been damaged by what he says is a legislature that panders to select groups and passes legislation detrimental to the political health of Californians. California needs “fixing,” and Cotta is adamant that all that’s needed is a little “common sense.”

“Stop pandering to special groups,” he said. “Defend small business. Defend independent contractors. Defend the people that are working hard in this state and not overtax them. Cancel out this gas tax, or make it be spent on the roads.

“This Rudy Salas run got to a head when I saw what California was doing and the taxes that were coming down, the bond measures that are coming down, and the regulations that are coming down. All the things coming out of Sacramento right now are stifling California as far as productivity and job growth, and I just could not sit on the sidelines anymore.”

As a former deputy sheriff, he lambasts the state’s attitude toward law enforcement. “There’s zero support for public safety in the Sacramento sector,” he said. “They (legislators) prefer criminals over law enforcement, in my opinion. When they pass laws that restrict the ability for cops to do their jobs and release prisoners from prison, it’s handcuffing cops and letting free rein go for criminals.”

He cites as detrimental to the state, AB 109, a 2011 bill that diverts people convicted of felonies – not defined as dangerous – to local county jails and Prop. 57, the 2016 Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act that California voters overwhelmingly passed to enhance public safety by emphasizing rehabilitation.

He also cited Prop. 47, the referendum passed by voters in 2014 that recategorized some nonviolent offenses as misdemeanors, crimes such as some drug offenses. “The Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act let prisoners out, gave drug addicts a pass on arrests, and raised the minimum standard for grand theft in the state. The law had contributed to police officers not being able to do their jobs in California,” he said.

He also suggested that thanks to the state’s misguided policies – including recent legislation – in recent years, one of the results has been an increase in homelessness. “This drastic increase in homelessness is a relatively new thing. We’ve always had homeless, but not to this level. In the last six or seven years, it’s really been ramping up.”

He’s also upset at the way California is addressing its water needs insisting that California needs to build additional reservoirs to keep up with the state’s long-term needs in population and agriculture.

What can Cotta do to change the current climate in Sacramento? “Be a larger voice to bring reason back, to get a pulpit to start getting the message out,” He insisted. “We’ve got to straighten this thing out, and when these laws are passed, like the “Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act” what stops every homeless or every drug addict from the western seven states from coming right here when they know can get a pass on everything. It’s like a vacuum; we’re sucking them all in here.”

His priorities if elected in November?

Cotta says killing California’s high-speed rail project is at the top of his list, along with increasing the state’s water supply, starting with implementing the long-debated Rogers Crossing project, a major dam initially proposed decades ago, but dropped in the 1980s. In 1987 the river was incorporated into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Furthermore, Cotta told The Leader that his legislative focus would include restoring “reason” to the legislative process. (I would) “be a larger voice to bring reason back, to get a pulpit to start getting the message out,” he said. “We’ve got to straighten this thing out, and when these laws are passed, like the Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act, what stops every homeless (person) or every drug addict from the western seven states from coming right here when they know can get a pass on everything. It’s like a vacuum. We’re sucking them all in here.”

How is he going to defeat the district’s long-term incumbent? Cotta suggests that he will connect Salas to Democrats nationally and in California. “If you say, Adam Schiff, you say, Rudy Salas,” he predicted. “I will fight every day for this place. I will fight for oil. I’ll fight for ag, and I’m going to fight for water. That is what this district is about, and (these are the things) I’m going to fight for in this district.”