Editorial:
Mary Salas has been running for the 40th State Senate seat for the past year and a half. Juan Vargas, her opponent in this race, officially announced his intention to run earlier this year. The conventional thinking then was that this race was going to get down and dirty. This race has not disappointed, it has been one smear mailer and falsehood after another.
Heavy-handed smear tactics best describes the Vargas style of campaigning and he has plenty of money to spread his vitriol thanks to the insurance companies that are bank rolling his campaign. Mary Salas is no shrinking violet, though. She has enough support and resources to hit back at Vargas. To date this pretty much describes the campaign between Vargas and Salas. Unfortunately the truth is lost in all of this ugly back and forth and any real discussion and evaluation of the candidates is absent.
The Vargas campaign started out with a mailer showing Salas with a huge shoulder tattoo. For the record, Mary Salas does not have a tattoo. Vargas has gone on to hand-pick some negative assembly actions and blames Mary Salas as the person who cast the critical vote on such issues as the early release of prisoners. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Salas is a diligent assembly person who votes the Party line and votes with the majority.
For Salas’ part she has spent most of her time defending herself from these malicious attacks and attacking Vargas for his ties to the insurance companies. Vargas came under heavy attack as chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee. When Scripps Ranch fire victims went to Vargas seeking support for their Homeowners Bill Rights, instead of help they received insurance industry rhetoric from Vargas. And although Vargas publicly vowed he would never go to work for the insurance industry, after he was termed out of office, he went to work for an insurance company, Safeco Insurance.
Lost in all of this bickering between the candidates has been an honest debate about qualifications, vision, and an honest review of their track records.
The voters of the 40th State Assembly deserve better than this. Vargas hasn’t shown or given the voters of this district any tangible reason why they should vote for him. He is depending on a massive negative campaign that shows a profound lack of respect for the voters.
As voters you have the power to change this type of dirty campaign politics. Send a message to the politicians that we want honest, hardworking politicians who will work in our best interest, not wallow around in the mud.
Vote for Mary Salas as the next State Senator for the 40th District and vote dirty politics out.