Former mayor of Watsonville seeks seat as 28th District
Assemblywoman
Gilroy – Ana Ventura Phares is hot on the campaign trail for a seat in Sacramento as the 28th District Assemblywoman and she is advancing her campaign in the South County not by talking, but by listening.
Ventura Phares swung through town Monday to meet with the leaders of key community organizations in order to begin to gain a better understanding of Gilroy as a whole.
“The purpose of today’s visit was to begin meeting with the community, to understand the people of Gilroy and their big issues, to listen to how they see us and how we can help them,” Ventura Phares said. “I want to see how this community survives and thrives and how it can be a happy, healthy community.”
Ventura Phares said she is seeking in particular an understanding of the similarities and differences in the communities that she will represent should she secure a seat in the Assembly. So far she has noted a lot of similarities in the education systems and in the makeup of the workforce.
Ventura Phares credits her long history of public service, particularly with regards to work for the Santa Cruz County government, with enabling her to “see all the angles” of government. “I’ve learned to be an advocate, to make good change happen but also to work with the community, to be a part of a team,” she said.
Her primary goal as an Assemblywoman, should she be elected, puts education dead center in middle of the target.
“I want to improve the learning caliber in grades K-12,” she said. “Having well-educated students who get good grades and go to college strengthens the community as a whole,” said Ventura Phares, who hopes to be a part of getting the resources released to make better educated communities a reality.
Health care and insurance coverage for working families are also right at the top of Ventura Phares’ priorities.
“A large percent of them (working families) do not have health insurance,” she said. “And it ends up being more costly.”
Both with regards to education and health care Ventura Phares advocates a preventative strategy.
“It’s more cost effective whether you’re talking about youth or crime or health to spend one dollar now and not 10 dollars later,” she said. “It’s financially sound to be preventative.”
Ventura Phares and her team hit many key community hot spots on their tour including the offices of Gilroy Unified School District, Gilroy High School, Gavilan College, Saint Louise Hospital, and South County Housing.
Ventura Phares hopes to continue to make inroads in her understanding of how Gilroy operates as a community in the coming months.
“I hope to be able to come every other week to meet with different businesses and nonprofits in order to understand the people of Gilroy,” she said.
Ana Ventura Phares
– Married to Joseph Phares with two children
– Grew up in a family of migrant farm workers traveling between the Salinas, Imperial and Pajaro valleys.
– Graduated from Watsonville High School, B.A. from Santa Clara, J.D. from Western State College of Law.
– First Mexican-American woman elected to the Watsonville City Council in 1998.
– Appointed Mayor in 2004.
– Worked as an attorney for CA Rural Legal Assistance from
1989-1994.
