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Blog: Looking for Signs of Candidates Holden and Lowe from Newly-Formed 41st Assembly District

There is a 41st Assembly District. Does anybody care?

A drive around Sierra Madre this weekend shows an astounding lack of passion regarding this election season.  On street after street, there are few signs stuck on front lawns for a favored candidate, and that is true for either a national or a local candidate.  One thing for sure: locally there is a decided lack of information from the candidates and almost nothing in any local press. 

Even though Democrat Chris Holden, running against Republican Donna Lowe in the newly formed 41st Assembly District, hit a hot button by embracing the Feds latest plan for completing the Long Beach-710 freeway extension into Pasadena, we hear nothing from Lowe.  So far Lowe has not reacted.  Given the public sentiment against this intrusion, we wonder why the candidates remain missing in action.

As a reminder, Democrat and Pasadena City Councilman Chris Holden is running against Republican newcomer Donna Lowe of Claremont for the newly formed 41st Assembly District. 

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You have to wonder about their campaigns.  I don't remember any campaign literature about either candidate.  The lack of fervor from the Republican side makes it appear that Ms. Lowe may have conceded to political-savant Holden, whose candidacy for the 41st Assembly District has been characterized as "a walk in the park" for Holden.  I think Sierra Madre deserves a better reading on who could serve us better. 

Holden follows in the footsteps of his father, Nate Holden, who was a Los Angeles City Councilman.  That is, Holden, now 62 years-old, entered the race for a spot on the Pasadena City Council at age 24, but lost that race by a bare thread.  He returned to campaign successfully in 1988 for City Council where he has remained for the past 15 years.  He served as mayor for two years, from 1997 to 1999.  As a small businessman, Holden owns CHMB Consulting, a real estate firm.

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Lowe is a newcomer to politics, although she has been active as a founder of the Claremont Conservatives Tea Party, board member of the Mountain View Republican Club, and a spokesperson for Claremont Taxpayers for Common Sense.  In Claremont she serves on the Claremont Community Services Commission and presumably was encouraged to enter this campaign after serving as an alternate on the 59th Assembly District Committee that has been disbanded under the re-districting plan now in effect.  Lowe has been a business career-woman, and currently is employed by SafeNet, Inc., a data protection company headquartered in Maryland as Channel Sales Manager, Western Region.

On the issues, Holden hopes to seek common-sense solutions to creating and building a strong economy.  He says he will fight for state investment in education, transportation and preserving natural resources.  He recently announced his support of the Long Beach Freeway extension to Pasadena.

Lowe opens issues conversations with "jobs, jobs, jobs".  She says as an assemblywoman she will work to make California business friendly, push back against the notion that government creates jobs as opposed to businesses, tap California's oil and natural resources as a viable revenue stream, bring fiscal responsibility to the State, and fight to stop illegal immigration, among other issues.  We have not heard any positions on local issues.

Holden has lived in Pasadena his entire life.  He attended Pasadena High School (where he was elected Senior Class President), graduated from San Diego State with a Bachelor Degree in Business.

Lowe is from Ft. Worth, Tx, but has been in Southern California since she was 20 years-old.  It was the California-golden-opportunity that has formed her love of California and its innovative business climate.

Holden 's campaign has raised $455,759 and holds a cash balance of $145,170 as of Oct. 5.  His campaign contributions come largely from labor groups.  Endorsements of his candidacy include an array of Democrat politicians, Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, Monrovia Council members Mary Ann Lutz, Joe Garcia, Clarence Shaw and Larry Spicer.

Lowe's campaign has raised $127,548 and maintains a cash balance of $40,798 as of Oct. 5.  Her funds have been raised through local fund-raiser committee activities and from State Republican candidates.  Endorsements to her campaign include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and a slew of Republican elected officials, among them Sierra Madre City Councilman Kris Koerber, Monrovia Council members Tom Adams and Becky Shevlin, and former Monrovia Mayor Rob Hammond.

Events have been scant throughout the campaign since the June Primary.  Don't you wonder where they are?  At least whoever wins will be more local than our current Twin Peaks representative.     

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