Election 2024: California State Assembly Senate Race, District 19
Candidates Lisa Middleton and incumbent Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh answer our questions
California State Senators directly affect the daily lives of Californians. What do members of the Senate do? They take part in creating laws and establishing the state budget by introducing, debating, and voting on bills that become law if approved by the legislature and signed by the governor. They also vote to uphold or override the governor’s vetos.
Senators are elected to four-year terms, and each represents just under a million voters. Half of the Senate is up for election every two years, with odd-numbered districts up for election during presidential election years and even-numbered districts up for election during midterm elections.
We provided background on candidates Lisa Middleton (D) and incumbent Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R) before primary voting in March.
Quality of Life: Twentynine Palms and much of the Morongo Basin is in the lowest quartile of the California Healthy Places Index. What specific initiatives would you spearhead to improve the quality of life for Morongo Basin Residents?
Lisa Middleton: Improving the quality of life for Morongo Basin residents is a complicated issue that will require thoughtful, bipartisan solutions like the ones I’ve worked to deliver throughout my time in public service, including confronting the rising cost of living, investing in critical transportation infrastructure, and recruiting more high-paying jobs.
To start, we need to cut taxes for working families and small businesses and take a deliberate approach to one of the biggest cost of living challenges in our state—exorbitant housing costs. In the Senate Senate, I’ll work with members of both parties to cut red tape and invest in affordable housing and infrastructure projects to create good-paying local jobs for working families.
Additionally, we desperately need to modernize our region’s roads and bridges and expand access to public transportation across the Inland Empire to ensure a 21st-century transportation system that reduces gridlock and creates family-sustaining jobs. Serving on the City Council and the Riverside County Transportation Commission, I’ve partnered with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to invest in rebuilding roads, bridges and public transportation across our region, while creating good-paying, middle-class jobs. But we clearly need to do far more. In the Senate, I’ll use this experience to rebuild and modernize Riverside and San Bernardino Counties’ roads and bridges and expand access to public transportation — without raising taxes on the middle class and working families.
Lastly, we need a comprehensive approach to attract emerging businesses and high-paying jobs to the Morongo Basin. This includes supporting small businesses with loans and tax cuts, ensuring safer communities, enhancing transportation networks, and investing in affordable housing. I will stand up to my own party when necessary to oppose tax increases on local businesses and work with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to invest in real solutions that ensure more high-paying local jobs for working families across our region.
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh: Improving the quality and quantity of healthcare options: We must work toward modernizing existing healthcare facilities, as well as facilitating partnerships between local and state health agencies to bring new clinics and mobile health services to the area. Increasing access to primary care, mental health services, and preventative care is an important first step toward improving overall community health and resiliency.
Fostering growth and opportunity: Providing diverse educational opportunities is essential to developing a local workforce that has the skills to meet the unique needs of the region, and allows students to pursue careers right in their hometowns if they wish. Similarly, creating a business environment that incentivizes employers of all sizes to establish themselves in the Morongo Basin is necessary to create high-paying, stable jobs that enable the next generation to settle in the area long-term.
Expanding housing and infrastructure: As is the case with many cities in California, a lack of affordable and dignified housing options has caused many families to come under severe financial strain, or forced them to make do with unstable options. We must collaborate with developers and housing authorities to build affordable housing units, as well as improve upon local infrastructure to ensure that roads, energy, public transportation, and utilities are able to reliably meet the demand of the population.
Investing in community resources: All families deserve to have local resources and programs available to them for recreation and education. In Yucaipa, I’ve seen firsthand how developing and maintaining parks, community centers, and outdoor spaces encourages physical activity, and fosters community engagement.
Enhancing students’ futures: Programs that improve educational outcomes such as after-school programs, arts and music programs, and support services provide students with a support system on campus. And beyond that, we should also engage our youth in civic and community activities, and provide leadership opportunities and life skills development to boost their college and career readiness.
Education: 29 Palms is a vibrant yet disadvantaged community. How will you ensure that Morongo Basin youth receive an education that helps them thrive in the coming decades?
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh: As a former educator and the mother of 3 young adults, preparing our students to be successful and independent after graduation is one of my top priorities. For example, I’ve focused on math reform in an effort to fortify curriculum standards and bridge the gap between K-12 and higher education. SB 1410 mandates Algebra I or Mathematics I course offerings for all 8th-grade students in the forthcoming mathematics framework revision, and SB 1411 facilitates the participation of higher education subject matter experts in K-12 curriculum development discussions to ensure that K-12 education aligns seamlessly with college requirements, providing students with a clear and direct pathway to higher education and beyond. Instead of continually diluting educational standards, we should empower our students to rise to a higher level by providing diverse and research-backed curriculum options.
Lisa Middleton: The physical conditions of our public schools are in serious need of upgrade, including in the Morongo Basin. This investment needs to come, in part, directly from the state, so that we ensure safe learning environments for both students and faculty. This is particularly true in many communities across SD-19 that consistently deal with extreme heat — many of which do not have the requisite A/C units. I grew up in a working-class community in East Los Angeles and am the proud parent of two award-winning public school educators, so I have seen the extreme disparities between wealthy school districts and those in lower-income communities.
Proposition 2 is a critical step this November to provide significant resources to the Morongo Unified School District and countless others throughout the Inland Empire for vitally needed facilities improvements so that every child has an opportunity to succeed. Additionally, we must ensure our hard-working classroom teachers and public school staff are paid family-sustaining wages so that we are able to attract and retain talented educators to teach our children.
Housing: 29 Palms and other Morongo Basin communities are severely impacted by the housing crisis. What will you do at a state level to accelerate the building of affordable and market-rate housing in 29 Palms? To ensure that the unhoused are safe during increasingly frequent extreme weather?
Lisa Middleton: California’s housing affordability crisis demands urgent action and I will implement a comprehensive approach to building more affordable and market-rate housing across SD-19, including 29 Palms. There are a wide variety of factors that have influenced our state’s housing and homelessness crises, including years of disinvestment, burdensome red tape that stalls the construction of new housing, bad investments, and outdated zoning laws.
Most importantly, I will support tax credits for first-time home buyers to make it easier for young and working-class families to buy that all-important first home of their own. Additionally, I will support tax credits for individuals and families with a newborn to help them when they most need the help.
We also need to build more affordable housing much faster and create a pathway to homeownership for working families across our state while continuing to invest in proven solutions to our homelessness crisis. In Sacramento, I’ll work across the aisle to cut expensive red tape, invest in affordable housing development, and create good-paying construction jobs.
In the State Senate, I will bring fresh ideas and a new approach to our homelessness crisis — including giving local governments more authority to enact policies that work for their communities and the reliable funding necessary to create long-term solutions. I will also work to implement California’s new CARE Courts faster, so we can help get unhoused people with severe mental illness off our streets and connected with the treatment, services, and supportive housing they need.
However, our state has spent $20 billion on the homelessness crisis, and yet the population of unhoused Californians has exploded. That’s why we also need a full accounting of the money our state has spent to keep the public trust. As a longtime auditor, I will use my decades of experience to put California’s housing and homelessness spending under a microscope.
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh: Expanding affordable housing is critical for stability and is a foundation for other support services, so we need to ease the regulatory burdens that developers face by responsibly streamlining CEQA and empowering local jurisdictions to pursue housing options that work best within their communities.
To ensure the safety of the unhoused during extreme weather, I believe that we should allow for short-term emergency resources such as cooling and warming centers and shelters. However, we should also work to address the root of the issue by investing in transitional housing solutions that provide long-term support and services for individuals experiencing homelessness, including mental health care, job training, and substance abuse treatment, helping individuals achieve stable housing and self-sufficiency.
Mental Health / Prop 1: Where do you stand on State Proposition 1 (Amending of Health Services Act to provide behavioral health services)?1
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh: I strongly believe that California desperately needs to expand mental health services and bed capacity – in fact, I introduced a bill during my first year in office to do exactly that. SB 1298 sought to fully close the mental health bed and workforce deficit, by continuously appropriating at least $1 billion from the General Fund annually to continue building out essential county mental health bed capacity across the entire spectrum of need. While I don’t necessarily believe that passing a bond via Prop 1 was the best funding option, I am glad that Governor Newsom heard my call for action on this important issue.
Lisa Middleton: I supported Prop 1 in the primary because it will inject much-needed funds into a struggling mental health care system. Moving forward, the Legislature must ensure California’s mental healthcare system has the capacity to respond to the crisis of people on our streets. As a member of the CalPERS Board, I have on numerous occasions spoken out on the importance of adequate mental health care resources and the critical need to expand the number of mental health care workers.
Renewable energy: How do you view the balance between developing renewable energy infrastructure and the need to preserve neighborhoods and the environment? This question is particularly pertinent in Twentynine Palms where solar farms are currently not allowed in City Limits, yet there is a pending development application for a 175 acre solar farm located in rural living residential zoning and adjacent to the existing neighborhood of Harmony Acres.
Lisa Middleton: I have been a strong proponent of building wind, solar, and battery projects throughout my career — we obviously can’t move away from fossil fuels without building new energy sources. That said, as a City Councilmember, I understand the importance of working with local governments to implement new policies. Additionally, the California Public Utilities Commission has, with the support of the utilities, made rooftop solar less attractive as they prefer mega-projects. In the State Senate, I will be a strong advocate for rooftop solar and for local involvement in the development of wind, solar, and battery.
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh: Balancing renewable energy development with preserving neighborhoods and the environment is critical, especially when it comes to ensuring that residents' needs can be reliably met by the infrastructure. While renewable energy is essential for reducing our carbon footprint, it must be pursued thoughtfully to protect local communities and ecosystems. I believe that any renewable energy projects, such as solar farms, should be carefully sited to minimize disruption to residential areas and sensitive habitats. In cases like the proposed solar farm near Harmony Acres, it's important to engage with residents, conduct thorough environmental impact assessments, and explore alternative locations that do not compromise neighborhood character or quality of life. I support policies that promote responsible renewable energy development while ensuring that local voices are heard.
Accomplishments:
What are you most proud of in your work with in the California State Senate?
Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh: In the two years since the Senate has allowed members to host public events, I have held over 50 community town hall meetings across my district as a means to engage with constituents directly. My goal in doing so is to engage and inform them about what’s really happening in Sacramento, as well as make myself available to answer any questions and be accountable to the people for all of my votes.
What are you most proud of in your work with the City of Palm Springs?
Lisa Middleton: On the Palm Springs City Council, I have worked to improve local transportation and infrastructure, combat climate change, build more affordable housing, invest in public safety, and address our homelessness crisis. I’m honored that the Palm Springs Police Chief has said I am “one of the best elected officials” he has worked with in 40 years because I am “that calming voice that tries to bring people together, rather than find the extremes and push people apart.” While serving as Mayor of Palm Springs in 2022, I am proud to have led the City’s economic recovery from the pandemic — helping small businesses reopen and create good-paying jobs.
I also represent Palm Springs on the Riverside County Transportation Commission, where I am known as a hard-working, nonpartisan leader who invests in rebuilding roads, bridges and public transportation throughout the Inland Empire while creating good-paying, middle-class jobs.
Our thanks to the campaign offices of both Lisa Middleton and Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh: both were extremely helpful.
Previous election coverage in the Desert Trumpet included coverage of the State Assembly races for Districts 34 and 47, Q&As with candidates for Copper Mountain College Area 3, MUSD Area 1 and reports on School Bond Measure C and on our Twentynine Palms City Council Candidate Forum.
See our Elections 2024 tag for complete coverage.
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Proposition 1 passed in the March 5 primary. It authorizes $6.38 Billion in Bonds to Build Mental Health Treatment Facilities for Those With Mental Health and Substance Use Challenges; Provides Housing for the Homeless. Legislative Statute.