photo credit: Ballotpedia
Steve Schwartz, Holli Thier, Eryn Cervantes 

Continuing our ongoing coverage for the June second primary election, we’re bringing you interviews with the candidates on your local ballot for the race for California’s 12th Assembly District.

KRCB News covered part one of this race which can be found in our election coverage. 

This is part two of a two-part feature with the six candidates running for the Assembly District 12 seat. 

The first three candidates on the ballot are Eli Beckman, a councilmember and business owner from Corte Madera, Jackie Elward, a Rohnert Park councilwoman and educator and Eric Lucan, a Marin County supervisor from Novato. 

The final three candidates are Steve Schwartz, a nonprofit executive and farmer from Sebastopol; Holli Thier, a Tiburon councilmember and attorney; and Eryn Cervantes, a previous correctional counselor at San Quentin.

They all spoke with KRCB’s Shandra Back.

KRCB: The fourth candidate appearing on the ballot is Democrat Steve Schwartz, a non-profit executive and farmer from Sebastopol. He says he's spent decades working on sustainable agriculture and food access.

SCHWARTZ: I founded two non-profit organizations. One is California FarmLink, which works to build the local sustainable food system by working with immigrant farmers, beginning farmers, women farmers, helping them get access to land and capital. And it's now a 26-year-old organization that's done $90 million in loans to people who would otherwise not be able to get access to credit.

KRCB:  Schwartz also points to his work with faith communities on food and land use.

SCHWARTZ: I also started the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative, which is working with churches and mosques, synagogues, Buddhist temples. 

We're working on food access and also helping folks get land access for gardens and farms from land owned by churches and other faith groups. And that's grown. We've now engaged people and worked with groups in 28 states. 

KRCB: Asked why he's running, Schwartz says he wants to take his local work to the state level.

SCHWARTZ: I want to take the work that I've been doing to help build a more sustainable local food system. I want to take that work to the next level. I want to take the work that I've done as a school board president to the next level. 

KRCB: Schwartz says his personal background informs his focus on equity. 

SCHWARTZ: I'm the son of an immigrant and my dad came here with a suitcase full of food. He was an orphan. He didn't know the future and he did not have papers.

He was terrified of the immigration office. He told me that many times. He became a citizen, but he relayed that, and that's really changed and influenced the way I do my work and the I've taken equity lens for everything I do. 

KRCB: He says that he wants voters to know he sees himself as a public service candidate with legislative experience.

SCHWARTZ: My whole career has been public service. I'm not a career politician, but I know how to get things done because I've worked in the legislature.

I know Sonoma County and I know the rest of the district. I know Marin. I've been on the food policy council there. I've worked with farmers and ranchers there. I'm a community person and I'm proud of the opportunity to represent our community. 

KRCB: Next on the ballot is Democrat Holli Thier, a Tiburon council member and attorney. She says she's spent her career working on public issues.

THIER: I've spent the last 30 years fighting for the North Bay as mayor, as a civil rights and environmental attorney, as Sierra Club chair, Golden Gate Bridge Board Director, and a past president of the League of Women Voters. 

KRCB: She explains her record and the experience she'll bring to the seat.

THIER: I've protected voting rights, reproductive freedom, and our environment.

I banned toxic chemicals from our parks, prevented police from cooperating with ICE, and I helped create new open space right here in our own communities. 

KRCB: Thier also highlights her work taking on large industries.

THIER:  I don't just take on powerful interests, I beat them. As mayor, I beat big tobacco. I passed the nation's first tobacco ban without exemptions. I beat greedy chemical companies. I protected our kids by banning toxic Roundup that was being sprayed in our parks and our playgrounds. 

KRCB: She says her priorities include wildfire prevention, insurance reform, and infrastructure. 

THIER: A lot of people who suffered from the fires still have not been reimbursed by insurance companies and have not been able to rebuild their homes in our community. We also need to upgrade infrastructure. 

KRCB: Thier says that she wants to expand education funding and civil rights.

THIER: I will fully fund education. I want to see free CSU and UC tuition. We also need to protect reproductive, LGBTQ and senior rights and make housing, health care, gas, and groceries affordable. Our working families cannot afford to live in our communities. 

KRCB: The final candidate on the ballot is Republican Eryn Cervantes, a correctional counselor who worked at San Quentin State Prison.

She says she's spent her career in public safety and corrections, including work during the pandemic.

CERVANTES:  I was overseeing the specialized housing units during COVID,  which was especially daunting. 

That includes our death row inmates and any of our inmates that were in max custody housing units. So, it was a tough time. I think we all had a little bit of PTSD from everything that we experienced during that time. 

KRCB: Asked why she's running for the District 12 seat, Cervantes points to affordability.

CERVANTES: The California dream is just really becoming so far out of reach for many of our citizens. It's harder to maintain and achieve. 

So those that have lived here for all their lives, raised their families here. They're watching their children take their grandkids and raise them in a different state. 

KRCB: She says that she's concerned about the pressures facing agriculture in Sonoma and Marin counties.

CERVANTES: The farmers and ranchers in Sonoma and Marin County are the backbone of our economy. And so, when you look at how much they contribute to our community, it's really kind of a hard pill to swallow to see how tough we make it for them to be successful in those industries. 

KRCB: Cervantes says her priorities center around one theme.

CERVANTES: I see an unmistakable lack of accountability almost in every corner of our political environment in California. But in order for us to truly address the core issues, we have to hold the programs that we've installed accountable. 

KRCB: Cervantes says she's running because she wants to bring a different approach to state government.

CERVANTES:  I just have always really had a draw to public service. I'm part of the community too. So, it's not like, you know, I sit and I look from a certain vantage point and see things differently. I see things the same way.

So, I feel like I'm able to empathize with a lot of the things that people are going through. We do have a lot more in common than what we realize. And I just wish we could build more on that.

All registered Sonoma County voters should have received their ballot in the mail and can drop off their completed ballot at one of Sonoma County's 23 official drop boxes through June 2nd.