Your guide to California’s Senate District 23 race: Santa Clarita Valley

Three Democrats and two Republicans will face off to replace state Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Saugus), who is vacating his seat in 2024 because of term limits.

The candidates are running for office in Senate District 23, which includes the Antelope, Santa Clarita, and Victor valleys.

The region is a swing district and both parties are fighting to win the seat. As of October, about 40% of the 575,318 registered voters in Senate District 23 were registered Democratic and about 30% were Republican. About 21% of voters had no party preference and the remaining identified themselves as part of other parties, according to data from the California Secretary of State’s office.

The competitive race includes familiar political faces such as Democratic challenger Kipp Mueller, who narrowly lost to incumbent Wilk in 2020, and former Republican Assemblymember Suzette Valladares. Mueller has raised at least $465,775 in contributions, data from the California Secretary of State’s Office shows. Valladares has raised at least $407,854.

The Los Angeles Times asked the candidates to respond to written questions about why they’re running and how they would address major issues as a state lawmaker. One of the candidates, Victorville City Council member Blanca Gomez, didn’t respond to the questions despite multiple attempts to contact the candidate.

• Kipp Mueller, Democrat, civil rights attorney.

Mueller works for the law firm Brent & Fiol and his areas of practice include employment and labor. Mueller previously worked at the U.S. Department of Justice Consumer Protection Branch and the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office. Mueller grew up in California and lives in Santa Clarita. The California Democratic Party, major labor unions and politicians including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta have endorsed his candidacy. “Our district has always been last in line. I’m running to finally secure the resources our community deserves,” Mueller said in a statement.

• Suzette Valladares, Republican, nonprofit executive director.

Valladares is the executive director of the LAPD Devonshire Police Activity League Supporters, a nonprofit that teams up with law enforcement to offer activities for young people such as mentoring and tutoring. The Republican candidate previously served as an Assembly member from 2020 to 2022. Valladares has also worked for the Republican National Committee and former Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon. She lives in Acton, a small community in Los Angeles County. The San Bernardino County Republican Party, law-enforcement groups and politicians including Wilk and Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) have endorsed Valladares. “In the State Assembly, I was a problem solver and delivered on new protections for victims of crime, led the charge on lower costs on energy, and helping homeless families get needed shelter,” she said in a statement. “We can lower taxes & protect our communities.”

• James “DJ” Hamburger, Republican, battalion staff officer in the Army National Guard.

Hamburger is also a high school French teacher, firefighter and a board member of the iLEAD Charter Schools District. A resident of Santa Clarita, Hamburger says he’s lived in the region his whole life. “Now I teach in our district and have witnessed our schools decline,” he said in a statement, adding that he’s concerned about crime and homelessness. “I am passionate about finding solutions to these problems.”

• Ollie McCaulley, Democrat, business executive.

McCaulley is the chief executive and president of Gonzales-McCaulley Investment Group, which provides online training on contracting, risk management, appropriations law and other topics. He’s served as a police officer and in the United States Marine Corps. He has also worked as a minister. His campaign touted him as “a compassionate leader committed to fostering unity, trust, and equity within his community.”

• Blanca Gomez, Democrat, Victorville City Council member.

Gomez also works as an American Sign Language interpreter for the deaf. During her time as a City Council member, Gomez faced allegations of unemployment fraud and was arrested in February on suspicion of disturbing a council meeting, according to reports from the Victorville Daily Press. She lives in the High Desert region in California and has three children.

This district encompasses parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, and includes the cities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Victorville and Hesperia.

Addressing homelessness is a top priority for the candidates. In California, 181,399 people were experiencing homelessness in January 2023, more than other states, according to a report released in December from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Mueller pointed to funding for affordable housing, expanding mental health services and assistance for those on the brink of homelessness as part of the solution.

Valladares said the state should “replace open drug markets with mandated treatment.” Her campaign’s website says that homeless people who are on “unhealthy and dangerous public sidewalks” should be moved into care facilities and housing that can treat mental health issues and addiction even if they refuse to leave the streets.

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Hamburger said lawmakers should support charities that help the homeless but also be wary about how they go about trying to solve the problem. “Our cost of living, mental illness/substance abuse, crime rates, and homelessness are all inextricably intertwined. These factors should be assessed on an individual basis because we know that blanket solutions do not work,” he said in a statement.

McCaulley said he would seek to “find the root cause of homelessness and tackle it from that point.”

Californians will also vote on a $6.8-billion bond measure this year known as Proposition 1 that aims to address homelessness by funding more than 11,000 new treatment beds and supportive housing units along with mental-health and drug-addiction treatment. Mueller said he supports Proposition 1 while Hamburger opposes the measure. Valladares and McCaulley said they were undecided.

Mueller, who’s endorsed by labor unions that represent teachers and school employees, says on his campaign website that he’ll push to provide more resources for students, teachers and other school staffers. His mom was a longtime community college counselor for students with disabilities. One of his priorities also includes “ensuring our children are safe from gun violence.”

Valladares’s campaign’s website says she would support public charter schools and empowering parents with more choices. She served as the executive director of the Southern California chapter of Autism Speaks and ran Little Steps of Faith, a nonprofit that provides childcare to underserved families in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys. While she was in the Assembly, she authored a bill that became law that made low-income dual-language learners eligible for priority enrollment in state subsidized child-development services programs. She also authored legislation aimed at school safety, but it didn’t reach the Senate floor for a vote.

Hamburger, a teacher, is advocating for smaller class sizes, a reform of public education funding, along with more teacher, parent and community involvement in education. To address school safety, he’s pushing for more funding for school resource officers, closed school perimeters, single points of entry and helping students with resiliency and mental health. Hamburger was a teacher at Saugus High School during a 2019 shooting that left two students dead.

School safety isn’t the only issue on the mind of parents and teachers. McCaulley said he thinks trade schools need more support. “Trade schools have but disappeared and traditional college is not for everyone,” he said in a statement.

The candidates were asked their position on policies that would require that teachers notify parents if their child asks to use a different pronouns in class or otherwise makes gender identity decisions. Mueller didn’t provide an answer to that question. McCaulley and Valladares said they were undecided. Hamburger said that parents should be involved but not by the teacher. “Gender identity issues should be handled through the Health Office as teachers nor the school board are mental health experts,” he said in a statement.

Valladares, Hamburger and McCaulley said they would support limiting regulatory red tape to decrease costs to consumers, and support proposals to pause or repeal the gas tax.

Valladares says on her campaign website that she would work to keep property taxes low and combat fees that would increase energy prices. She also supported expanding the eligibility of the state’s safety net.

Mueller’s campaign website said he would work to “build a robust middle class so that jobs are available, businesses are thriving, and all of us feel secure that our bills will be paid, food will be on the table, and we’ll be able to save money for our families’ futures.” He supports rebuilding infrastructure and a “green energy economy.”