Three North State Republicans are vying to represent California’s 3rd State Assembly District.
Assemblymember James Gallagher has long held the seat. But with Gallagher terming out, it’s now up for grabs for the first time in over a decade.
Former Marysville city councilmember Dom Belza is one of the candidates running in the competitive race. He’s been endorsed by Gallagher.
In an interview with NSPR’s Claudia Brancart, Belza laid out his plan to address some of the top issues facing residents in the district.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
For voters who are just getting to know you, what life experience or work has best prepared you to represent this region in the State Assembly?
My family's been here for four generations. I'm the fourth, and my kids are the fifth generation growing up here in the North State. We understand North State culture, values, the communities, and the issues and challenges that we all deal with on a day-to-day basis, living in rural Northern California.
I started getting involved in public service, probably about 15 years ago, just volunteering through our local church and different organizations. That ended up landing me on the Marysville Planning Commission, and then eventually, on the Marysville City Council.
What do you see as some of the big issues that residents in our district are facing right now?
Just right off the bat, one of the biggest issues that we all deal with is affordability, cost of living, just the cost of doing business in the North State. Fuel prices are through the roof, power, electricity, utility prices are through the roof. For example, when fuel prices go up, it has an impact on everything that we use and everything we purchase. So, figuring out ways to cut our gas prices is going to be huge going forward.
In the ag community, farming, water is going to continue to be an issue and an item of focus, and it will be forever in California. And it's not just how it affects farmers, it’s how it affects the entire state. We haven't added any new storage capacity to our system since, I think, the mid-1970s was the last time we built a reservoir, yet our population in the state has doubled. We're farming twice as much irrigated acreage. We have an exuberant amount of environmental policies, but we need to increase storage capacity, and we also need strong accountability on how that resource is managed.
How would you plan to try and address those issues?
Just on the water topic, advocating for increased storage, advocating for the resources, but also, cutting through some of the environmental policies that hinder these projects from moving forward. I don't want to be misunderstood on that. I think that we need to be good stewards of our environment. I think that we need to be conscientious of that, but some of the policy in California has opened up the door for frivolous lawsuits and for things that have really held up the advancement of these projects. Even after they've gone through extensive environmental review.
So, cutting through some of that red tape and the bureaucratic red tape in regards to permitting, and then, really advocating for funding for these types of projects. And the one I'll reference is Sites Reservoir. That's a great model. It's a great plan for high-precipitation years to be able to catch that excess runoff that we've been missing for years, for decades. I think there should be 10 Sites reservoirs up and down the state on each one of these tributaries. I think if we manage our surface water well, then that is the solution to sustainable groundwater.
Wildfire is a constant concern in this district. What are your plans for dealing with wildfire in our region?
I think that continuing to stay after fuel reduction is a huge, huge focus, and needs to continue to be a huge focus. I've received the endorsement of Cal Fire firefighters, and I think giving them the resources that they need to continue to reduce fuel is going to be key moving into the future. We have the ability to manage our forests much better than we have. Growing up here in the North State, we didn't have forest fires that were 100,000 acres or 500,000 acres, these massive complex fires that burn so hot, they damage our forest to the point that it's not just a matter of a few years of recovery, it's a matter of decades now that these forests aren't going to be able to recover.
So I think that there's ways to be able to have private industry come back into the forest. There's discussions about that with cattle grazing, there’s discussions about that in the timber industry. Obviously, there were some violations during those years that we need to be conscientious of when we used to operate that way. But I think that incorporating private industry into management's got to be a step in this next era, along with Cal Fire, along with fuel reduction and I think that we can do it well. It just isn't a one size fits all.
You mentioned affordability being one of your big concerns. How would you push in the Assembly to try and make some tangible differences for families here in the North State?
The thing I highlighted with affordability is our gas prices, right? That's the immediate thing that we're dealing with right now. This is a California issue. When fuel prices on the East Coast are around $3.50 and $4 a gallon for gas, and we're paying $5.50 to $6 a gallon of gas? That tells you that California has its own issues. It's not just the issue in Iran. It's policy that's come out of Sacramento for the last 15 to 20 years. It's the caliber, the type of fuel that we're running in our cars, right? It's only two other refineries that actually make the gasoline that we use here in California, and that's South Korea and Singapore. So now, with the shutting down of the refineries in Benicia and in Southern California, we have to buy that refined fuel and ship it over here. That adds a tremendous amount of cost to it.
Democrats hold a super majority in the California State Legislature. As a Republican, how would you plan to work in the Assembly?
How did we get into this mess? I think there has to be some accountability, and Democrats taking some responsibility for the issues that we're dealing with in California. Wildfire policy is because of Democrat-led policy. Gas prices right now that we're dealing with is because of Democrat-led policy. I highlight that because I think there has to be some responsibility. I hope to be able to bring some real solutions to it, and be able to communicate and work with folks on what those solutions are, right?
I'm running as a very conservative Republican, and I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not afraid to share that, right? And there's some things that come along with that, as far as rural California, some values and principles that come along with that that I think represents our district very well. We have half a million people in this district, and the majority of them are in alignment with our political stances.
But at the same time, you also have to have the ability to communicate with other folks, recognize where there's common ground, discover where there's areas to be able to work with people on specific topics. Hey, we might not agree on all these issues over here, but there's two issues over here, on this other side, or in this other component that we can have a sensible conversation about, that we can find sensible solutions to. And so let's work together, let's discover what those are, and let's figure out how to make California a little bit better for everybody.
What's your message to Independents and Democrats out there who are deciding how to vote in this race?
It's about getting to know people. It's about understanding where people are coming from. Whether you're a Democrat in your political beliefs or Republican in your political beliefs. I saw a reel a little while ago, and it was a fella talking about how we actually have more in common with the person that we're standing in line at the grocery store with, that you don't even say two words to, than we do with the person that we're electing on the ballot. And what that relays to me is that it's about relationships with people in the district, right?
Whether you're Democrat, Republican or Independent, we're all dealing with the same issues. And being able to have those conversations, build relationships and communicate with everybody, regardless of political stance, I think is key in representing the entire district.
