Ana Ventura-Phares, the Democratic Mayor of Watsonville, will
run to replace Sim
ón Salinas, D-Salinas, as Gilroy’s representative in the state
Assembly.
Gilroy – Ana Ventura-Phares, the Democratic Mayor of Watsonville, will run to replace Simón Salinas, D-Salinas, as Gilroy’s representative in the state Assembly.
“I’m running because I love working on public policy issues. I’ve always been a bigger picture person,” said Ventura-Phares, who’s served on the Watsonville city council for seven years and was previously on the city’s planning commission. “I look forward to representing the whole area in Sacramento.”
Salinas’s third and final term in the Assembly expires at the end of 2006. He will take on incumbent Senator Jeff Denham, R-Merced, for the 12th Senate District seat.
Also running for Salinas’s Assembly seat is Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.
Perkins, a Republican, vied for the seat in 2004, losing to Salinas, who represents Gilroy and is ineligible for another term.
“I look forward to a positive campaign that will explore ways to improve the Central Coast’s effectiveness in the California Assembly,” Perkins said recently.
Ventura-Phares and Perkins will compete in their parties’ respective primaries next June. The general election is in November 2006.
