PASS ELECTIONS: Nestande Disputes Orozco in Assembly District 42 Race

Incumbent State Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, responded Wednesday to a Banning-Beaumont Patch blog post from his opponent's campaign during a visit to Banning.

Nestande took issue with the Sept. 28 post headlined "Assemblyman Brian Nestande Shuns Voters!" composed and published by the campaign for Mark Orozco, D-Beaumont.

"When he told me of the forum, it was . . . a few days prior to, well I already had my schedule booked for that week," Nestande said. "He had known of it for a couple weeks. If I had that kind of lead time I certainly could have made it.

"So my staff called the sponsor of the forum, a particular class at Mt. San Jacinto College and asked them for the details, because that was the first I'd heard of it," Nestande said. "They said they had sent over an email, and we had never received it. It was once again unbeknownst to us that there was an event until a few days beforehand."

Nestande and Orozco did get to appear together before the editorial board of the Desert Sun recently, and they will appear before the editorial board of the Press-Enterprise tomorrow in Riverside, Nestande said.

"I'm happy we debated out in the desert, and we're debating tomorrow at the Press-Enterprise," Nestande said. "The editorial board is having us come in to see who they're going to endorse."

Nestande said he's in his second term as an assemblyman, he's had more than 20 town meetings with constituents during his time in office, and it's misleading to characterize a scheduling conflict as anyone shunning voters.

"It is misleading and it does a disservice to people in the area," Nestande said. "Since I've been in office I've been very accessible. In four years I've had over 20 town hall meetings in my district. I've tried to be as accessible as I can. It cheapens the process when someone uses the term 'shunning voters' when I didn't have advance notice of the debate."

To read the Orozco campaign's blog post click here.

Nestande has represented the 64th Assembly District and he is running for re-election in the redrawn 42nd District.

The new District 42 includes the communities of Banning, Beaumont, Cherry Valley, Calimesa, Cabazon, Whitewater, San Jacinto, Hemet, Palm Springs and Palm Desert in Riverside County, and Yucaipa, Oak Glen, Yucca Valley, Morongo Valley and Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County.

A pdf map of District 42 is attached to this report.

For more info about Nestande's campaign visit www.briannestande.com.

For more info about Orozco's campaign visit www.markorozco.com.

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