California State Assembly

What does a California Assemblymember do?

An Assemblymember is one of 80 people elected by their various communities to serve in the California State Assembly, the state’s largest legislative body. 

Being an Assemblymember is a full-time job. Legislators receive a base annual salary of $114,877. They serve two-year terms, and can be re-elected up to six times.

Assembly members write new laws, oversee and approve state budgets, and help residents in their districts (also known as constituents) access state resources or navigate state bureaucracy and red tape.

In the Fresno and Madera area, assembly members play an important role in getting state money for important local projects – like new fire stations or a senior center for Fowler – or to get more state attention on an issue of local importance. 

Who is running for State Assembly to represent Fresno and Madera Counties?

There are four assembly districts that include parts of Fresno and Madera Counties. Each district includes about 500,000 people. 

Think you know your assembly member? Thanks to redistricting, you might want to check again. Redistricting happens every decade, following the census.

About the District

Assembly District 8 is a very large district that includes large swaths of eastern California and the central Sierra Nevada, but also many parts of northeast Fresno, Clovis, the Madera Ranchos, and the foothill communities of Fresno and Madera counties. The district is nearly 70% white – in an otherwise majority-Latino region. 

The race is likely to be won by Republican Jim Patterson, who has served in the Assembly since 2012, and has previously represented northeast Fresno, Clovis, and mountain communities in the former Assembly District 23. He faces Thomas Nichols, a libertarian write-in candidate who received fifteen votes in the June primary.

About the Candidates

Thomas Nichols, a Libertarian, is a resident of Squaw Valley. He is a telecommunications specialist and also breeds and trains quarter horses. Nichols is the Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Fresno County and a member of the Judicial Committee for the Libertarian Party of California. 

Incumbent Jim Patterson has served five terms as an assembly member since 2012 after serving as Fresno’s mayor for eight years from 1993-2001. Patterson is the Vice Chair of the Accountability and Administrative Review, the Communications and Conveyance and Utilities and Energy Committees. 

Patterson has advocated for human trafficking survivors, widening Highway 41, and relieving bureaucratic red tape for unemployment claims at the state’s Employment Development Department and at the DMV. He has a 83% approval rating with the California Chamber of Commerce, one of the state’s largest business groups. Conversely, he received a 11% rating by the California Environmental Voters, one of the state’s largest environmental lobbying organizations.

Patterson was a businessman and broadcast executive, owning radio stations in California and Idaho.

About the District

Assembly District 27 covers several parts of Fresno, Madera, and Merced counties on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. It includes northwest Fresno, the cities of Madera, Merced, Los Banos, and many other west side communities, including Kerman, Mendota, San Joaquin, Huron, Coalinga, and Caruthers. The district is majority-Latino and there are more registered Democrats in the district than any other party preference. 

The race for this district is predicted to be very close, with democrat Esmeralda Soria – who currently serves in the Fresno City Council – running against republican Mark Pazin, who was formerly the Merced County Sheriff.

About the Candidates

Running against Soria is former Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin, a republican. He was also the former chief of law enforcement for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services under both the Brown and Newsom administrations.

Pazin’s priorities include defending public safety officers and emergency responders, addressing unaffordability, providing drug and mental health services for the unhoused and increasing water storage capacity for agribusiness.

Fresno City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria was born in Tulare County and raised by Mexican immigrant parents. She graduated from UC Berkeley and UC Davis School of Law, where she focused on immigration law. 

She was elected to the Fresno City Council in 2015. She’s been appointed as a member of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Transition Team and Homeless Taskforce and was chosen as the president of the League of California Cities Latino Caucus, according to her official Fresno city profile. She is married to Fresno developer Terance Frazier.

This is Soria’s second attempt to reach the state legislature. During her tenure on the city council, Soria has prioritized setting aside additional funding for affordable housing and preserving the character of the Tower District.

About the District

Assembly District 31 includes most of Fresno south of Shaw, Sanger, and many of the southern Fresno County communities, including Selma, Fowler, Parlier, Riverdale, and Laton. The district is majority-Latino, and there are more registered Democrats in the district than any other party preference.

Joaquin Arambula, a democrat who has been elected to serve this district since 2016, is running again, and is favored to win over republican and real estate agent Dolce Calandra.

About the Candidates

Dr. Joaquin Arambula is the state assembly member currently representing District 31, including the western part of Fresno County. He was elected in 2016 and is now running for re-election.

Arambula was born in Delano and grew up in Fresno. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine and the University of Minnesota Medical School. Before venturing into politics, Arambula worked as an emergency room doctor in Selma.

He has focused his legislative efforts on improving healthcare, public safety, job development and support for veterans and service members. Arambula is one of the more pro-labor democrats of the San Joaquin Valley, casting critical votes for a bill that would make it easier for farmworkers to unionize and another bill that expanded overtime pay to farmworkers. He also led efforts to expand health coverage to undocumented residents in California and provide more accountability and oversight to local boards, including the San Joaquin River Conservancy and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

Arambula has a 33% approval rating from the California Chamber of Commerce and a 29% approval rating from the California Environmental Voters in 2021.

Dolce Calandra is a real estate agent with London Properties in Fresno.

The “dolceforassembly” Instagram page is followed by 21 users as of Sept. 28; it doesn’t feature any posts and isn’t following other accounts.  His campaign Facebook page didn’t feature any posts either.

About the District

Assembly District 33 covers parts of Fresno, Tulare, and Kings Counties, including the communities of Kingsburg, Dinuba, Reedley, Hanford, Lemoore, Tulare, Woodlake, Porterville, Lindsay, Corcoran, Avenal, Pixley, and Tipton – many agricultural and farmworker hubs. The district is majority-Latino. 

Devon Mathis, a republican who has represented parts of this district – especially Tulare County – since 2014, is expected to win against democrat Jose Sigala, who serves on the Tulare City Council.

About the Candidates

Jose Sigala is a Tulare City Council member, representing the predominantly working class District 1, which he has done since he was first elected in 2016. Sigala was appointed Mayor in 2018 – the city’s first Latino mayor; he served in the position until December 2020. Sigala is the chair of the board of directors of the Tulare County Regional Transit Agency and a longtime labor organizer. 

Sigala, the son of Mexican immigrants, has over 25 years of legislative and public policy experience working in the California State Legislature and local governments. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. 

Devon Mathis is a republican assembly member currently serving the 26th district. Mathis is currently the vice-chair of the Agriculture Committee, and serves on the Governmental Organization Committee, Natural Resources Committee, Veterans Affairs Committee, Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials, and Rules Committee. 

He assumed office as assembly member of the 26th district on Dec. 1, 2014. After serving two tours in Iraq, in which he earned a Purple Heart, Mathis received his Bachelor’s degree from Fresno State, and more recently a Master’s degree in Strategic Public Relations from George Washington University. He and his family live in Porterville. 

Mathis has a 83% approval rating from the California Chamber of Commerce – one of the state’s leading business groups, and a 20% approval rating from California Environmental Voters, one of the largest environmental advocacy groups.