This year, for the first time since 2008, Sacramento will be electing a new mayor. Current mayor Kevin Johnson has declined to run for a third term, leaving the position to be filled by a new candidate. Three prominent Sacramentans have already joined the race.
The first, currently betting favorite for the position, is seven year veteran of the California State Senate, President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg. Steinberg declared his run shortly after Mayor Johnson announced he would not be seeking a third term.
Steinberg is best known for authoring bills such as AB 34, which created an integration program in 1999 aimed at aiding and assimilating the large homeless populations of Sacramento, Stanislaus, and Los Angeles counties. The program was a success, effectively reducing the hospitalization and incarceration rates of homeless people in those three counties. Steinberg is now running on a platform that focuses on aiding the homeless and those with mental health issues.
The second candidate, Angelique Ashby, is a two term city councilwoman and, unlike the other two candidates, is running as a nonpartisan with “democratic leanings,” according to her website. Like Steinberg, Ashby’s campaign has declared its focus on fighting homelessness, as well as lowering Sacramento’s increasing crime rate.
Since her entrance into the mayoral race, Ashby has received support from the fire department and law enforcement unions.
The final candidate, and the only Republican to have declared candidacy, is former two time International Boxing Federation World Super Featherweight champion and former World Boxing Association World Lightweight champion, Tony “The Tiger” Lopez. Lopez is a Sacramento native, who after retiring from his boxing career, opened a bail bond agency, Tony Lopez Bail Bonds, in his hometown. Lopez stated in an interview with the Sacramento Bee that, despite his lack of political experience, his 50 years of living in Sacramento gives him intimate knowledge of what needs to be done. Lopez says that, if elected, he would do all he can to combat homelessness, gang violence, and drug issues that have plagued Sacramento for years.
However, only time will tell as to who will be the next mayor of our great city.