The Los Angeles Times tghinks its high time to retire Rep. Michelle Steel and in a crowded Democratic field, they believe that Kim Nguyen-Penaloza is the best candidate for the job. Read the entire endorsement here.
From the editorial:
Steel doesn’t represent the values of her district. A majority of the voters there cast ballots for Joe Biden in 2020 — and for California’s abortion rights measure, Proposition 1, in 2022.
Four Democrats are vying to run against Steel in November. The strongest among them, and the one with the best chance of knocking Steel out of her seat, is Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, a Garden Grove City Council member who has expertise and passion for improving healthcare and medical insurance — she works as a manager for Blue Shield’s Medi-Cal program — and who is a strong advocate for reproductive rights. She thinks she can do a much better job than Steel of bringing federal dollars to the 45th.
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At age 25, she was the youngest person elected to the City Council, where her accomplishments include spearheading a mobile mental health program that serves mostly the city’s homeless population. That progam is about to be expanded into a wraparound service center for the homeless, providing food, job training and shelter. She’s now in her eighth and last year as a council member.
What’s notable about her achievements is that she was working with a council that, although officially nonpartisan, is dominated by Republicans. Even so, she was able to find areas of commonality to get important legislation passed, such as an agreement that requires the contractors on public projects to hire a certain number of veterans and local workers. The ability to work successfully with members of another political party is a rare quality in the divided Congress.
Nguyen-Penaloza is strong on local and national issues; as a member of Congress, she will need to study up on thorny international problems. But there is no doubt she has the smarts and determination to do that, and a lot more.