In her four years in office, Laurie Davies has served well in a difficult position: one of just 17 Republicans out of 80 California Assembly members. GOP members are a superminority, meaning less than two-thirds compared to the supermajority Democrats. Despite that, she has advanced legislation helping the state and her 74th District, which stretches along the coast from Laguna Niguel to Oceanside.

“I pride myself in making sure that I work across the aisle” with Democrats, she told us. “And I think the more we work together, the better the policy.”

She said her priorities now include housing affordability, women’s health and coastal erosion in her district.

On the latter, she touted Assembly Bill 1881, which was signed into law this year by Gov. Gavin Newsom. It requires the California Coastal Commission to include in its panel on coastal erosion persons with expertise and training in that topic. 

She also got signed into law Assembly Bill 2179, which requires school districts to inform parents of 11th and 12th graders about local apprenticeship programs. “Not every student needs a four-year degree and we should inform them about other viable options after they finish high school,” she argues. “We need to expand the status quo away from the ‘high school-to-Harvard’ mentality.”

And on housing, she correctly observes, “The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been weaponized over the last two decades to hinder many homes from being built simply because a certain group may or may not like where the development is being proposed.”

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Running to replace Davies is Chris Duncan, who has served as a senior attorney at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security and currently is a councilmember in San Clemente. He has run twice before for Assembly. He criticized Davies because “we haven’t gotten the money that other districts have gotten for public safety. So I intend to bring that to the table and finally give us a say in Sacramento.” He has a point. As part of the Democratic majority, he likely could bring more state dollars back to the district.

While that is a reasonable appeal, the ability to bring money back to the district is just part of what a member of the Assembly is for. While we’d like to think Duncan would be a genuine moderate Democrat who might buck his party on occasion, we have all seen how the hive mind works in Sacramento and the glut of bad policies that result from it.

The problem is the state desperately needs a return to the two-party system. The supermajority must be broken, not reinforced. Laurie Davies has been a sensible representative of the district. We see no need to oust her from office. Re-elect Laurie Davies.