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Republican pledges to get more done in Congress
| Wednesday, Sep 3 2008 5:10 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Sep 4 2008 7:23 AM
Jim Lopez is running for Congress because he was asked to but he’s no “shill” just out to make incumbent Jim Costa spend money, he told The Californian editorial board Wednesday.
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Jim Lopez is running for the 20th Congressional District seat.
Lopez, 70, said he wants to develop stable water supplies for valley agriculture, tackle the 20th District’s super high poverty rate and replace a man he believes has done nothing on water in his 24 years as a state legislator and nearly four years in Congress.
“We have problems in the valley we’re not addressing,” Lopez said.
Lopez said state Republican strategist Chris Wysocki recruited him to run against Costa, D-Fresno, two years ago, but he missed the filing deadline by three minutes.
Lopez said it was probably lucky he didn’t make the ballot then because “I would have been wiped out.”
Since then he’s made contact with area leaders and learned about water and poverty issues so he is prepared to challenge Costa, he said.
Costa couldn’t be reached for comment after Wednesday’s afternoon interview with Lopez.
It’s not important, Lopez said, that he has never been elected to public office and lives in northwest Bakersfield, outside the 20th District. The 20th District includes much of northwest Kern County plus parts of Bakersfield and Arvin.
He cited his experiences growing up working in the fields with his immigrant family, 22 years in the Marine Corps and Air Force and a career in private business as proof that “life is a very good teacher also.”
He said he also learned a lot from a divorce and a bankruptcy in Solano County in 1998.
Lopez said he told the people who asked him to run “I wasn’t going to run as a shill to make Costa spend money.”
He said Costa has failed the valley on water.
“I can do a hell of a lot better,” Lopez said. “Nobody has seen anything he’s been able to accomplish (on water).”
Lopez said San Francisco should desalinize water from San Francisco Bay rather than take water the Central Valley needs for agriculture.
Lopez said California agriculture needs immigrant farmworkers. When asked if the children of illegal immigrants should receive an education in the United States, he said that’s the law. But he said he believes the United States needs to protect its borders and that farmworkers should not be given free health care.
Wysocki’s Consumer Alliance for a Strong Economy lobbying group was behind anonymous attack advertisements launched against state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and Bakersfield City Council members Sue Benham and David Couch, and former member Mike Maggard in recent years.