In this year of the anti-candidate, it’s critical we recognize those politicians who are doing an awesome job. Assemblyman Scott Wilk is one of those candidates.

Wilk was expected to be a shoo-in for a return to his State Assembly seat, but our State Senator Sharon Runner experienced severe health problems that later lead to her death, and Wilk was suddenly thrown into running for Runner’s vacant Senate seat.

As our Assemblyman for the past four years, Wilk has proven he can navigate around the polarization in Sacramento, working across the aisle by finding solutions both parties can accept. The trust he has built with his peers from both parties has allowed him to have our backs in Santa Clarita on many occasions.

The biggest challenge we face in California is the dysfunction in Sacramento. Our Senate and Assembly have evolved into a polarization on both sides of the aisle. Democrats are controlled by the rigid Union lobby and many republicans are so far to the right compromise isn’t part of their vocabulary. So we have a Legislature that often isn’t making decisions that is best for our residents and most often it is simply punting and not addressing tough challenges that need immediate solutions.

Wilk has proven he is one of Sacramento’s few legislators who has the respect from both his Republican and Democratic peers.

Wilk knows the issues impacting Santa Clarita better than anyone. He served as a trustee at College of the Canyons. He has worked closely with our City Council and City management.

He’s worked on solutions for the proposed Cemex mega-mine on the east side of our valley. He’s been on top of our environmental issues, from our water crisis, Chloride levels and the Gas leak at Aliso Canyon. His heart is with education strongly supporting programs at College of the Canyons, the William S. Hart Union School District and our four elementary school districts. As a small business owner, we’ve seen Wilk in action supporting legislation to ease some of the burdensome regulations on small businesses and also working to increase jobs. He’s been a huge supporter of increased filming in Santa Clarita and supporting initiatives to keep the film industry from leaving California.

Twelve years ago, we created the annual KHTS Sacramento Road trip with then Assemblyman Keith Richman. Every March, we take a cross-section of our community, 110 residents in leadership roles on a bus for two days of advocacy on behalf of the top issues impacting Santa Clarita. It’s a unique experience because no other community does anything like it. We meet with many key legislators. We’ve had Gov. Jerry Brown as our keynote speaker at dinner. It’s an opportunity to see first-hand the challenges in Sacramento and let Sacramento have a better understanding of our challenges and frustrations. Scott Wilk has been on most of our road trips, initially as a private citizen, then representing College of the Canyons as one of its trustees and for the past four years, partnering with us in hosting and facilitating the trip. Our group has personally seen the respect Scott has generated from his other legislators, both republicans and democrats. We also know Scott doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk.

Scott’s opponent, Jonathon Ervin, is an engineer from the Antelope Valley with almost no government experience. He’s been virtually non-existent in Santa Clarita and while he may have a grasp of local issues impacting the Antelope Valley, we suspect he hasn’t taken the time to discuss many of the unique challenges we face in Santa Clarita. He certainly has no history of the local issues our Valley has navigated in our State Capitol. We fear he would be representing Santa Clarita from a vacuum.

We believe Scott Wilk will continue to be a stellar representative for our valley as he moves from the State Assembly across to the State Senate. We encourage you on November 8 th , to vote for Scott Wilk to represent the 21st Senate District.

KHTS AM-1220 is also urging you to vote for Congressman Steve Knight for United States Congress, Kathryn Barger as our County Supervisor, Dante Acosta for the California State Assembly; and Mayor Bob Kellar and former Assemblyman and City Council member/mayor Cameron Smyth for City Council.