On the heels of election offices in Inyo, Kern and Tulare counties completing their count of Presidential Primary election ballots, the Latino Political Action Committee of Tulare County has endorsed Ruben Macareno for the 26th State Assembly.
“Ruben has been consistent in supporting issues that directly support the Latino community and has demonstrated a commitment verified by a long history of being engaged with the Latino community, efforts and advocacy,” said Sesar Carreno, chairman of LPAC.
“We support anyone despite party affiliation, Latino or non-Latino, who supports our community as a whole and Ruben fits the bill. We believe he will do a good job representing the district as a whole.”
Macareno’s long relationship and engagement with his community started in high school where he was president of MEChA, a Latino student organization and some years later was president and founder of the Student Organization of Latinos at Los AngelesCity College .
He worked for Proteus which one of its many missions is getting farm workers out of fields into other vocations and professions. When on staff at the LA Times one of his assignments included helping young Latinos and other minorities enter the journalism field under a specialized mentorship program. He also participated in the newspaper’s charity to send underprivileged children to summer camp. His resume includes the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials inWashingtonDC, vice chair of the California Democratic Party’s statewide Chicano Latino Caucus and founder of Latino Democrats of Tulare County.
Mathis’ Latino engagement and history with the community doesn’t compare to Macareno’s. However it was his more recent actions that LPAC additionally felt Macareno is the definite clear choice. LPAC cites in its endorsement that Mathis voted against Assembly Bill 2757 which is the farm worker overtime bill where over 90% of the district constituents live in TulareCounty where 63% of its population is Latino and a large number of those are farm workers. A major Monterey
County newspaper reported that Mathis spoke against the bill on the assembly floor, “Farmers need their employees to work well beyond the eight-hour days. The problem with the bill, they’re
trying to put ag work in the box of a 9-to-5 (job).”
LPAC stands with proponents of the bill that overtime work should be recognized with overtime pay
Another point cited was that Mathis in his first term terminated his Latino staffers for non-Latino tea partisans. “Mathis’ theme ‘People over Politics’ in practice is actually ‘Politics over People,” said Carreno of Mathis’ first term and votes.