Jack Fernandes, a Republican and biotech entrepreneur, is one of six candidates running in the crowded race for the open 75th Assembly District, representing a vast swath of inland San Diego County.
To help inform voters, the San Diego Union-Tribune asked all the candidates a series of the same questions about their priorities, positions and campaigns. Their emailed answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
Why are you running, and what makes you the best candidate?
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”
It is time to elect candidates who will stand up to the status quo and bring transparency and results to the people of our county. I am running to give a voice to the people of North and East County by fighting for local control and outcomes based solutions. Some would say that I am the best candidate for this seat due to my extensive business background and the fact that, unlike career politicians, I can prioritize the needs of San Diegans over special interest groups or lobbyists. One candidate in this race has accepted money from Big Tobacco, Big Casinos, Big Unions and various groups who rule our county on the backs of us, the workers.
In a time where 500,000 Californians have fled the state in the past two years because they don’t believe our elected officials can fix things, is this the type of representative we want fighting for us, San Diego?
(Jack J. Fernandes for Assembly 2024)
What are the top 3 issues facing this district and California generally?
— Border Security: We must secure the southern border immediately while stopping the flow of human and drug trafficking from Mexico into San Diego.
— Public safety: We must prioritize the rights of crime victims while getting violent criminals off of our streets. California is developing a reputation for lawlessness. That must end so that we can take our rightful place as an economic epicenter of the United States.
— Economy and cost of living: I will negotiate winning deals to bring businesses and good paying jobs back to North and East County San Diego. San Diegans should be able to afford to live and work in San Diego without being taxed to death, so I will fight at every juncture to stop tax increases and lower existing ones. I do not believe that there is compassion in throwing taxpayer money at failing protocols, so I will bring a data-driven approach to the assembly, holding other legislators accountable who vote to make our lives objectively worse.
What are the first 3 things you would do in your first term in the Legislature?
1. I will vote against any and all proposed tax increases, no exceptions, from Day 1.
2. I will fight to roll back hostile legislation against the small and mid-sized local-owned business by advancing a package we call the “Citizens Investment Opportunity Initiative.” This will provide incentives to locally-sourced products and local-owned businesses while making it easier for companies to hire workers who actually live in San Diego County.
3. I will support our local district attorney to increase penalties on our harshest criminals while advancing policies to protect victims from violent crime and property theft. This includes fighting to secure our southern border and to improve our security against narcotics and humans being trafficked from Mexico into San Diego. If elected, I will be spending a lot of my “off time” from the legislature at the U.S.-Mexico border to monitor progress and ensure that our agents are properly equipped to defend our country.
What would you do to curb climate change and its effects on California, including the fact that those effects are often borne disproportionately by communities of color?
The problem with this loaded question is that it is based in fallacy. By framing your opinion as a “fact” you reject intellectual integrity in order to advance social agendas that usurp the best interests of the people. The term “communities of color,” for instance, is just a sanitized acceptance of a segregated San Diego. I reject that. I want the best for all San Diegans, and that means fighting for innovation and a strong economy that will allow us to remain on the cutting edge of new technologies — including those that protect our environment.
What would you do to combat California’s housing, affordability and homelessness crises?
We must lift the bureaucratic burdens that make it difficult to build new housing. The Union-Tribune actually published an article (in 2015) titled, “Regulation adds 40% to housing prices, study shows.” This means for every $1 spent on building, $0.40 is lost to the bureaucratic process. I will be an advocate for San Diegans to control their own housing. We don’t want Sacramento elites or downtown administrators telling us how, when and what we can build.
Do you personally support Proposition 1? Why or why not?
No, I don’t. It’s another thinly-veiled Sacramento power-grab that hopes to “finesse the bag” from San Diegans. Sacramento already takes 5 percent of San Diego’s tax revenue in the areas covered by Prop. 1, and this would allow them to double that and take 10 percent of San Diego’s tax. This is in addition to being able to force us to use the remainder in certain areas.
Bottom line: Horrible deal for San Diego negotiated by career politicians who lack business experience. Prop. 1 = more rules and costs for San Diego with no benefit.
Do you support or oppose stricter gun laws and background checks? Which, and if you support them, to what extent?
California currently has the strictest gun laws in the United States. Background checks are already required to purchase firearms, and additional background checks are required each and every time a person wants to purchase ammunition. I believe we simply start by enforcing the laws that already exist. This is not limited to firearms but should be extended to property theft, illegal immigration, narcotics trafficking and sexual violence. Once we begin to enforce our laws, I guarantee the rates of all cause violence will plummet and our people will feel safer.
Do you support or oppose asking voters to roll back elements of Proposition 47, by which they recategorized some nonviolent crimes as misdemeanors 10 years ago? Why or why not? Do you personally support or oppose making changes to Prop. 47?
I personally hope that we can roll back Prop. 47 because it contributes to California’s culture of lawlessness. However, I support letting the voters of San Diego decide whether or not they’d like to change Prop. 47 if it makes it to the November ballot. The measure change, titled “Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act,” appeals to the San Diego sentiment that we are becoming a county of degeneracy where criminals are allowed to flourish while victims are left unprotected.
Californians will vote this year on whether to repeal Proposition 8, a 2008 same-sex marriage ban that has been unenforceable since the Supreme Court ruling legalized same-sex marriage but that remains on the books. Will you personally vote for or against repealing Prop. 8?
The American dream is on life support in San Diego. This does not have anything to do with the rampant crime, high cost of living, open border and terrible business climate in California.
I’ll be voting not to repeal Proposition 8, because it sets a bad precedent — I do not like when the voice of millions upon millions of voters is usurped by a judge.
As for my personal opinion, all citizens should be treated equally, with equal protection under our laws, regardless of orientation. No exceptions.
