AS VOTERS PREPARE for Election Day, they face a choice between two Stockton City Council candidates with vastly different resumes.
Gina Valadez-Bracamonte brings roughly 15 years’ experience running the Stockton food bank Bread of Life, which she founded, and more than two decades of work as a local credit manager, her campaign website says.
Meanwhile, Mario Enriquez’s leadership development and policy experience has taken him across the country, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.
Even with contrasting experience levels between the candidates, the race for District 4 is relatively subdued — at least compared to Jason Lee’s vitriolic run against incumbent Kimberly Warmsley in District 6 and a largely one-sided contest in District 2, where Mariela Ponce has yet to campaign publicly against Waqar Rizvi.
“I found (both Valadez-Bracamonte and Enriquez) very strong in their commitment to serving their constituents,” said Joel Blanks, a political scientist at San Joaquin Delta College.
While “(Valadez-Bracamonte) brings a very strong background of county politics and city politics,” Blanks said, “Enriquez brings this really national level experience to Stockton, which I think is very valuable.”
Gina Valadez-Bracamonte
Valadez-Bracamonte worked for 25 years at Zuckerman Companies Inc., her campaign site says. She founded Bread of Life in 2008, and in 2020-21, the nonprofit donated nearly $4 million dollars in food to people in need, according to its website.
She has won several awards for her civic engagement, including Stockton’s Key to the City in April and the Minerva Empresaria Award from the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2021.
The District 4 race is Valadez-Bracamonte’s first political campaign.
“My lifetime of experience has honed my ability to problem-solve and find practical solutions to complex issues, ensuring sound decision-making for effective policies. I will bring this same approach to the City Council,” Valadez-Bracamonte said.
She said her priorities are addressing crime and homelessness in the city.
“I have heard from my fellow District 4 neighbors that crime and homelessness are the most significant issues affecting our community,” she said. “I support recruiting new public safety personnel while retaining veterans who have proudly served our community. The recent Supreme Court ruling on Grants Pass v. Johnson, is a significant opportunity for us to move our unhoused off the street and into shelters, programs or affordable housing.”
Mario Enriquez
A graduate of the University of the Pacific with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, Enriquez is director of the Center for Identity and Inclusion at the college in Stockton. He received his master’s in public administration from the USC Price School of Public Policy.
After graduate school, Enriquez went to Washington, D.C., and was selected as the higher education graduate fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. He recently served as Victory Institute’s director of constituent engagement in Washington, leading the programming for the annual International LGBTQ Leaders conference.
Enriquez has touted a platform he says reflects the main concerns of his district’s residents.
“I talk about economic development, our unhoused population, public safety,” Enriquez said. “Unhoused and crime are always the top two across the board. But I also want to highlight the importance of infrastructure.”
When asked whether he plans to stick around Stockton or pursue bigger political ambitions down the road, he stated: “I plan to run for reelection if I do win in November, and I say that vocally, out loud, because I want people to hold me to it.”
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.
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