Riverside County voted overwhelmingly for Republican candidate John Cox on Tuesday, giving him 34 percent of the vote compared to just 23 percent for the leading Democratic contender, Lt.GovernorGavin Newsom.
But that could change in November, when Cox and Newsom will present vastly different visions for some of the most important issues facing California's Inland Empire, from housing affordability and economic growth toenvironmental protection. The candidates have already madethis once-red, increasingly purple part of the state a political priority, and that's unlikely to change in the run-up to the general election.
"In the best of worlds, it will be arobust and mature conversation about the kinds of challenges California faces, on issues from housing to improved job development," saidKarthick Ramakrishnan, a public policy professor and director of the Center for Social Innovation at the University of California, Riverside.
Newsom made regular trips to the Inland Empireduring the primary campaign, in part to counter an effort by his main Democratic rival, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, to build a coalition of voters across Southern California. Newsom participated last year in a speaker seriesorganized by theInland Empire Economic Partnership, where he discussed the challenge of automation in a region where job growth has been driven by the logistics industry. He has advocated for greater access to educational programs thatgiveworkers new skills and preparethem to switch careers.
Overall, Newsom hasvisited the Inland Empiresix times this year, according to campaign spokesperson Nathan Click, including a visit to Palm Springsjustbefore the primary election and a trip to the Salton Sea in April. He pledged state government would do more to reverse the sea's decline under his leadership— a pledge voters helped him with on Tuesday, when they approved a ballot measure that includes $200 million in bond funding to build thousands of acres of wetlands around the shrinking lake.
"I imagine you guys are frustrated because the state hasn't done enough. You're right and that's gotta change," Newsom said during his trip to the Salton Sea.
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Cox, who owns a home in Indian Wells,has visited the Coachella Valley several times as a candidate. During a campaign stop atFantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio in March, he threw red meat to the Republican base, sayingGov. Jerry Brown should be imprisoned for fraud and expressing newfound support for President Trump after having refused to vote for him in 2016. But he also discussed some of the key issues facing Inland Empire voters, including housing affordability and ever-highercostof living.
"The cost of housing is the largest single cost in anybody's budget," Cox said at the March event. "What happens to business — or the government for that matter — when you've got housing costs that high?"
Both Cox and Newsom have called for huge increases in housing construction, although Ramakrishnan, the public policy professor at UC Riverside, said he's still waiting for more specifics fromthe candidates on how exactly they would make that happen.
"How are we going to get significant new housing developmentin this region, which we will need?" Ramakrishnan asked. "What kinds of solutions are they going to propose?"
In general, Ramakrishnan said, Cox's positionon housing is "the standard Republican line...cut regulations including (environmental rules)to makebuilding up housing easier to do." Cutting taxes and regulations has been a major theme of Cox'scampaign.
During his campaign stop at Fantasy Springs in Indio, Cox also discussed climate change, which is expected to impact the California desertby contributing to more severe droughts and heat waves, and by exacerbating the hazardous air pollution that already plagueslow-income communities in areaslike the eastern Coachella Valley.
"I'm not going to say that I don't believe climate change is here. I think it's here," Cox said at the time. I don't know how much of it is caused by humans. I don't even know how much of it is negative.I think there are some benefits to it."
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Newsom has made environmental protection andfighting climate change key parts of his campaign. He has called for California not only to get 100 percent of its energy from climate-friendly sources, butalso to exportclean energy to other states. Newsom's vision could be a boon for the Coachella Valley, where the solar and wind industries are key players.
Newsomhas also taken a stand on issues affecting the Mojave Desert. He has opposed Cadiz Inc.'s plan to pump groundwater from an aquifer in the heart of the Mojave Desert, which activsists and some scientists say could harm a sensitive cosystems. He also supported a resolution criticizing Trump's decision to revisit the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which protects millions of acres of public lands in the desert.
Ramakrishnan said he expects Newsom and Cox to spend more time in the Inland Empire between now and November.
"We do represent the future of Southern California, the future of the state.Most of the population growth is going to be happening in inland California. But this is also where a lot of the challenges are most significant, in terms of the structuring of the economy," he said. "Hopefully by focusing on these problems, the Inland Empire will be important stops in both of those campaigns."
Sammy Roth is a reporter for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at sammy.roth@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4622 and@Sammy_Roth.
