Behind the rise of Katie Valenzuela, poised to upend an election and the City Council
Rarely is an incumbent politician defeated in Sacramento. Rarer still is when two incumbents go to bed on election night while facing the possibility of being unseated. But for the first time in a decade, that is what happened on Tuesday night.
City Councilmen Steve Hansen and Allen Warren did not prevail over challengers ranging from the proverbial long shot to the insurgent outsider.
Hansen is losing by more than 500 votes in the District 4 race to Katie Valenzuela, the progressive community organizer who received a big boost from organized labor money in the form of nasty mailers featuring Hansen’s darkened face on one side and a photo of President Donald Trump on another.
Meanwhile, at last count, Warren has barely garnered 1,300 votes and 38 percent of the vote in the District 2 race against a field of three community members. Warren faces a November run-off against whoever finishes second. Right now that’s grocer Sean Loloee, but school board member Ramona Landeros is less than 100 votes behind Loloee.
Because only two candidates ran in District 4, there will be no November runoff. Whoever wins now wins for good.
Hansen faces the possibility of a major setback in his promising career if Valenzuela’s lead holds up. Hansen is only 40. He is the first openly gay person to serve on Sacramento’s City Council. He’s achieved much, from tackling transportation issues to downtown development.
One could see him on a track to be mayor one day because it is well known that current Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who was re-elected easily Tuesday night, has kept his eye on bigger political offices.
Valenzuela, the progressive
But all that gets upended if Valenzuela prevails. She would easily be the most progressive member of the City Council if elected. Even if community organizer Mai Vang holds onto to win in her District 8 race to replace retiring incumbent Larry Carr, Vang has worked for Carr inside City Hall for years.
Valenzuela is the outsider who was tabbed by labor as the person who could be a stronger voice than any current council member on the issue of rent control. Valenzuela has no direct ties to the downtown interests which have cultivated Hansen as an ally for transforming boarded-up buildings into new developments for rent at market-rate prices.
The Downtown Partnership, a consortium of downtown business leaders, hosts a big breakfast each year touting the progress of development in the urban core. A decade ago, these breakfasts were depressing because nothing was happening and slum lords were winning.
But now, since the construction of Golden 1 Center, new development has blossomed and the downtown is looking better than it has in generations.
Valenzuela has no real ties to this renaissance or the people driving it. Her primary interests are slowing gentrification if not outright opposing it. It’s fair to say that she would want to push harder for measures to promote low-income housing, rent stabilization and fair eviction policies than the current members of the council.
She also wants stronger police oversight, an issue that all Democrats support publicly, and yet making tangible progress on that is elusive because California Dems typically are deferential to cops despite occasional rhetoric to the contrary.
Hansen, the moderate
Hansen has been a moderate voice on these issues and others. He’s been a deal maker. He’s brokered compromises. He gets things done and yet he could fall victim – emphasis on the word could, because the numbers could change in his favor – to the Bernie Sanders wing of Democrats.
Valenzuela certainly comes from that wing of the party. She is supported by progressive Democrats and not business Democrats. When Valenzuela talks about business opportunities, she means making survival for small businesses easier. She supports urban agriculture.
Those who know her and like her say she could bring a necessary voice of opposition to a board of moderate Democrats. They say she could be a necessary thorn in the side of some colleagues who would bring a voice of opposition on housing and rent issues in particular. The flip-side to that is she could be isolated and on the losing end of 8-1 votes.
Steinberg would lose a major ally in Hansen if the current numbers held and Hansen lost. And if Hansen eventually lost, the next question would be why he lost. We would be left to wonder whether negative ads benefiting Valenzuela and condemning Hansen had an impact.
Homelessness or familiarity?
Did Hansen lose crucial Land Park voters angry over an increase in homelessness? Did progressives in the downtown core of District 4 want change? Or did Hansen simply suffer from familiarity?
Hansen and Warren have almost nothing in common except that both are Democrats and both may be getting punished for a similar reason: Both are seeking third terms in office. That’s plenty of time to build a record – or not build one – that opens the door for challengers.
In Warren’s case, the lack of a record or of a presence on the council have him facing a runoff. He talks a great game but has very little to show for his two terms in office and is not respected among several of his colleagues. His opponents all spoke of his lack of presence as a reason for challenging him.
For Hansen, the story is different. Win or lose, he took Valenzuela too lightly early on. He’s a young man and, in past years, he’s had a young man’s proclivity for arrogance and disdain for people who questioned him or challenged him. Win or lose, this race against Valenzuela has been humbling for Hansen.
It proves that if you are gong to run for three terms, you had better work as hard as you did the first time. The last time two council members didn’t was 2010, when Ray Tretheway and Robbie Waters were both unseated.
Warren and Hansen could survive. But what they can’t deny is that they opened the door for a very uneasy election night and a period of waiting to see if voters will ultimately reward them or punish them for taking them for granted.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 11:50 AM.
