There are a half-dozen State Assembly seats representing San Diego up for grabs this election. Among them: District 79, which spans from Southcrest to Spring Valley and El Cajon.
Candidate Colin Parent, La Mesa City Councilmember
Colin Parent, a La Mesa city councilmember, and LaShae Sharp-Collins, a community engagement specialist with the San Diego County Office of Education, are vying for the seat. They are both Democrats. The district was represented by Shirley Weber and then her daughter, Akilah Weber, for more than a decade. (The younger Weber is now running for State Senate.)
“I believe in public service. And I think through effective public policy, we can really improve the lives of the people we represent,” said Parent. “There's really no substitute in terms of training for serving in the legislature to serving in local government.”
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LaShae Sharp-Collins, Community Engagement Specialist at the San Diego County Office of Education
Sharp-Collins served as district director for Shirley Weber.
"I've already done this work. And it's important that I continue on with the legacy of being the moral compass of the assembly,” said Sharp-Collins. “I have a vested interest in this district. I'm a mother of two children. And what's going to be in place for them once I'm gone?”
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Affordable housing is one of the key issues motivating each campaign.
“As a city councilmember in La Mesa, I've champions of affordable housing being developed, including the 140 plus units that are being constructed right behind me,” said Parent, who noted that parts of the majority-renter district, like City Heights, are increasingly unaffordable, and that the state has a responsibility to invest in those communities and prevent people from being priced out. “I think we're not taking homelessness seriously in California ... we're not, we're not seeing the kind of crisis-level response that we need to be getting from Sacramento.”
Along with housing and homelessness, Sharp-Collins honed in on education and reproductive rights as cornerstones of her campaign.
“It's important that you be the change that you want to see. And as you vote down ballot, that's where things are going to change for your local municipality,” said Sharp-Collins.
