Editorial by Carl Goldman

Santa Clarita’s Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo Uses The Wizard Of Oz as Her Template For Her Current Policy Shifts.

We have an opportunity to oust a representative who stands for policies that are the exact opposite of most Santa Clarita residents. Pilar Schiavo has now shifted her stance to appear more moderate, as November 5th is only a few weeks away. KHTS urges you to vote for retired deputy sheriff, Patrick Lee Gipson whose views and policy positions are much more in alignment with our valley.

Recently the Los Angeles Daily News endorsed Gipson. I suspect it’s the first time they supported a Republican in our district for decades. Why did they do this? For the same multiple reasons, we’re supporting Patrick Lee Gipson.

Schiavo has proven to be a disaster, and she is one of the reasons businesses and the middle class are fleeing our beloved Golden State. Sacramento now has three parties, the Democrats, the Republicans and the Progressive Democrats. With a supermajority in place, it’s the Progressive’s and their extreme far-left policies that are controlling and ruining our state. A supermajority of any party is unhealthy, eliminating any checks and balances or even discussion of the consequences of any insane policy proposed.

What about Patrick Lee Gipson? Unlike Schiavo, who has supported “Defund the Police,” Gipson is a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy, having served for 24 years. Before the primary last spring, Gipson was an unknown in Santa Clarita. He visited us at KHTS. We liked him and his vision. But we were skeptical. We felt he stood little chance of defeating the incumbent and heavily funded Schiavo. We even kidded in our annual April Fool’s prank that Gipson had to use his airline mileage to fund his campaign. Gipson surprised all of us when he narrowly missed defeating Schiavo in the California primary. As we got to know him better, see his commitment by attending local events, listening to our valley’s leaders as they shared our local challenges, and watch him accept their guidance, we became even more impressed and knew he would become a stellar representative for us in Sacramento.

Gipson was born and raised in Granada Hills. During a part of his childhood, his family became homeless, living in a campground here in Santa Clarita, off Bouquet Canyon. One of his first jobs was working as a Castaic Lake lifeguard. All five of our Santa Clarita City Council members have endorsed Gipson.

For all of five of them to endorse Gipson and all five to shun Schiavo speaks volumes since it is critical for our city to have a close, strong working relationship with our two Sacramento representatives, no matter which side of the aisle they come from.

Back to the Daily News. They share that Schiavo switched from literally advocating her “Defund the Police” stance and supporting Proposition 47 in 2014, to now flip-flopping to supporting Proposition 36 (which KHTS supports) which will tighten some of the mistakes made in Proposition 47 if Proposition 36 is passed on November 5th.

We witnessed Schiavo attend the recent 9/11 memorial held by the Santa Clarita Guardians a group made up of retired police officers and other first responders. Schiavo manipulated her way onto the stage at the end of the event. Most of the audience turned their backs and walked away. Throughout her speech, Schiavo boasted of her accomplishments. She never uttered one word about the theme of the event, 9/11, nor did she say anything about the thousands who were killed, the bravery of those first responders, or those who later died from exposure to toxins during the rescue. Shame on her. Don’t believe us? We filmed it. You can watch it at the end of our linked video. Schiavo, like George Gascon is a San Francisco transplant. She has no roots in Santa Clarita.

The Daily News goes on to say other negative points about Schiavo’s performance in Sacramento, for instance, “Schiavo’s economic policies saying oil companies are “price gouging” California customers, although California Energy Commission investigations found that the state’s high gasoline prices are the result of state policies.” Schiavo is calling for government price controls, a state-run health care system for everyone, and other policies that will force an even further increase in taxes. California already has the nation’s highest taxes, and we suspect the worst waste of our taxpayer dollars. Schiavo’s record in Sacramento already proves she has no fiscal common sense. Look at her record. Because she represents a purple district, her Progressive party has allowed her to run cover by abstaining on votes on some of the extreme proposed laws they knew wouldn’t sit well with Santa Clarita residents, but her party could still pass without her “yes” vote.

Whenever we’ve questioned her on this, we’ve been told an abstention is the same as a “no” vote. Not in our book. Schiavo’s true colors are very clear by following her voting record. As the Daily News elaborates, “A mainstream understanding of economics would do her well.” As recently as yesterday, Schiavo didn’t show up in Sacramento a second time for a crucial vote on the proposed gas hike. The first time she avoided her vote she said it collided with another appointment. Do we really want her representing us for another term?

We urge you to join us by putting a yes vote next to Patrick Lee Gipson for our California State Assembly and Suzette Valladares, who is set to replace our termed-out Senator, Scott Wilk as our California State Senator, (and yes, the Daily News also endorsed Valladares).

What’s most important, we encourage you to vote and enroll ten of your friends to fill out their ballots early. This year your vote is more critical than any previous election. It will either shift us on a path that will begin to correct the many disastrous policies of the past few decades or continue to send California crashing down the cliff. Which will it be?

Click here to see a full list of KHTS endorsements.

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.