Manny's The Man

Habemus Papem (We have a Pope) is the cry heard at Vatican before the introduction of a new Pontiff. Today Governor Brown, a former seminarian, shouted Habemus Perez as after 4 months, the Valley has a new Supervisor after the death of John Benoit.

The appointment of Coachella council member and former Assemblyman Manny Perez to the position of Riverside County Supervisor by Governor Jerry Brown is a victory for the Valley's local Democratic party who openly campaigned for him over Elizabeth Romero. While technically non-partisan, (with the exception of Chuck Washington from Temecula.) 3 members of the BOS (Board of Supervisors) lean far right GOP. In fact one of them, Marion Ashley was a Trump delegate in 2016.

What makes this more remarkable is the fact that the city of Coachella now can boast of being home to a Congressman, an Assemblyman, and now a Supervisor. All within the last 10 years. When I first started covering local  politics, Coachella was as dysfunctional as it got with one councilmember arrested for selling meth and another one for  trying to take a swing at a Congressman from LA. Now it stands as the ground zero of political power in the Valley

The road ahead for Mr. Perez may be rocky. He will be up for election for a full 4 year term in June 2018. He will not only have to motivate his base but also reach out to the West Valley and try and tap into the LGTBQ community in Palm Springs which sometimes forgets it is part of Riverside County.

Already, Palm Desert council member Jan Harnik, a local Republican, is raising money to challenge Perez. She is very well thought of in the Valley and has 60 grand in the bank. Also a challenge from fellow Democrat Greg Pettis can not be ruled. Pettis is the de facto political strongman of Cathedral City and applied for the job of Supervisor himself. While not a serious candidate for appointment, he could cause Perez a lot of trouble.

20 year ago, local Democrats struggled to even find a place to meet. They had to meet at the Swiss Donut Shop in Palm Desert. Today they have grown to the point where they got one of their own selected as Supervisor.

Steve Kelly can be followed on twitter @skellynj or sverickerr12@gmail.com.T