59th District Stretches on And On
By Monrovia Weekly
Published: Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Two years ago, a number of prominent San Gabriel Valley and San Bernardino political leaders talked about running for the 59th Assembly District seat being vacated by Republican Dennis Mountjoy.
In the past, the district has been represented by such local leaders as John L.E. “Bud” Collier and Richard Mountjoy, who ran as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate last year.
In 2006, the last man standing when the election was over was Hesperia’s Anthony Adams. Two years later, he is running for re-election with no opposition in his primary.
The district is so unwinnable this time around that no Democrat even qualified for the ballot. Once Adams gets through to November, he will face an opponent from the Libertarian party, educator Maureen Keedy.
The 59th District started as a Republican district uniting Northeast Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. Through two redistrictings, the district drifted to the east, to the point where it is about evenly divided between Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
The district today sounds like a railroad timetable. It includes all or part of the cities of Apple Valley, Arcadia, Bradbury, Claremont, Glendale, Hesperia, Highland, La Verne, Monrovia, Redlands, San Bernardino, San Dimas, Sierra Madre, La Crescenta, Lake Arrowhead and Crestline.
The district, with a connecting arm running through the Angeles Forest, became one of the major exhibits in the case against political gerrymandering, and is likely to change considerably when the new lines are drawn. Mountjoy quipped that many of his new constituents were coyotes when he saw the map.
The district has 1220,977 voters in LA County, and 116,894 in San Bernardino. Republicans total 45 percent, to 33 percent for Democrats. Declines to state registrants total 16.5 percent.
Adams, the former chief legislative affairs officer for San Bernardino County, has served as whip for the Republican caucus in the current session. He helped reorganize the Hesperia fire department and hosted a radio talk show.
A major bill he sponsored in the current term would ban the sale of the hallucinogenic plant “Salvia Divinorum” to any person under the age of 18, a bill he introduced at the request of the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department.
Adams also introduced a bill to eliminate the fees imposed on individuals who collect biodiesel fuels for their own personal use as a diesel fuel alternative.
The bill, sponsored by Green Earth Grease Haulers from Monrovia, would help support small scale biodiesel production and encourage individuals to obtain the required license and insurance.
Adams said, “Government should be encouraging the development of green technology, not hindering that development with excessive fees.”
The first election in new district lines will likely be in 2012, when Adams is term limited out and a who new group of candidates will take on the 59th District, wherever it ends up settling down.
By Charles Cooper
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