Josh Newman (D) is running against incumbent Ling Ling Chang (R) to represent California’s 29th Senate District, which is in Chino Hills. Newman, who narrowly beat Chang in the 2016 election, was recalled in 2018 during a special election, primarily because he voted in favor of raising California's gas tax.

Newman said he was one of 81 legislators who voted for an increase in the state's fuel tax.

“The larger truth was I won a very narrow election in a county that had been historically red, in fact it was thought of as the ‘red-est’ part of California,” Newman said. “And so my vote on the gas tax created a very convenient pretext to instigate a do-over in that election. So having said that, I’ve given a lot of thought to what I might have done differently in the lead up to that vote, and I think the one thing I have learned sort of irrespective of the outcome is the legislature, in making these kinds of big decisions that certainly cost people real money, has an obligation to explain to the taxpayer, to explain to the voter, to explain to Californians, what we’re doing, and why it’s necessary, and to give them every assurance that we will be good stewards of their hard-earned money. So having learned that, I think I would apply that in every subsequent vote, particularly those that have a similar set of characteristics.”

To be running against Chang again for the 29th District Senate seat "feels like Groundhog Day" for Newman.

“I’ve been effectively running for the same job if you think about it for about five years straight, so hopefully if you do the same thing every day for a long time, you get good at it,” Newman said.

Newman’s top concerns, like many people right now, are the pandemic and how California will climb its way out of the recession.

“Orange County is a good example,” Newman said. “There’s a big discussion going on right now about how and whether to open Disneyland again. So Disneyland employs a huge number of workers in the local area but there is that question: How do you do it safely and balance economic growth and safety? And so as we move out of the pandemic, assuming I get elected, I think the primary goal will be something similar, which is how do we work our way out of this recession?”

Newman recognizes that there’s a fine balance between reopening the economy and keeping citizens safe from the novel coronavirus. If elected into office, Newman wants to address issues such as educational funding, homelessness, mental health and substance abuse problems, childcare struggles for working parents, the high cost of housing in California, and economic displacement.

Newman launched an ad campaign that claims his opponent Ling Ling Chang is "just like Trump." The imagery shows Chang shaking President Donald Trump's hand with a wide black line between the two of them. While the picture is clearly edited, and Chang and Trump are not actually greeting each other, Newman said he thinks "the larger message is valid."

“My opponent has a history of misrepresenting many things including her credentials, and in this pandemic, she has behaved in many ways the same as Trump and others, not particularly supportive of some of the policy needs that many of us agree are necessary in the face of the pandemic. And also, not particularly active about taking solid measures about addressing the pandemic itself. So politics is, you know, it’s a dirty business I guess, is how I put it. We all play by the same rules that if I could, I would change them,” Newman said.

In an interview with Inside the Issues, Chang said she’s actually “very, very different” from President Trump. She also defended her COVID-19 response record, claiming that since the beginning of the pandemic, she has called seniors to check on them and delivered thousands of meals and masks to her constituents.

This year, Newman does not have a candidate statement on the sample ballot that was sent to voters. He said that’s because he didn’t accept the campaign spending cap of $1.3 million.

“In 2000, the voters passed a proposition, Prop. 34, that did two things. It created limits on how much you could give to a politician. The current limit is still a fairly substantial number, it’s $4,700 per cycle for a state legislative candidate. But on the other side, it also created something called the Voluntary Expenditure Limits that stipulated that if a candidate is willing to adhere to a limit that’s adjusted continually for the cost of campaigns, they are then eligible to have that ballot statement in the voter guide that everybody gets in the mail,” Newman said.

Newman is running again to represent California’s 29th Senate District because he “found serving this district and being a part of the California legislature among the most rewarding things [he has] ever done.”

Read about Newman’s opponent Ling Ling Chang here. 

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