Panetta resoundingly wins seat in Congress his father Leon once held
Published in the November 23- December 6, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek Aromas students Sierra (left), Ray and Riley Hankemeier pose with Jimmy Panetta Nov. 9.
The morning after Election Day, Jimmy Panetta found himself sitting in the front row of a packed audience in the Aromas School gym watching elementary school students singing and dancing on a stage in a patriotic pageant. He grinned as a young girl dressed as Lady Liberty and a young boy dressed as Uncle Sam belted out a song about their love for America with other children behind them waving flags in unison.
Seven hours earlier, Panetta had gone to bed at 3 a.m. knowing he will soon start a new job representing the people of California Congressional District 20, which includes Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties and a section of Gilroy. His eyes flashed bright as he talked about the promise of America conveyed in the students and their performance.
“You see our children — they’re not politically inclined, they’re about our country, about America, and that’s what gives me hope,” he said. “It’s the foundation you kind of springboard off into the community and into our country. It’s about transcending party lines and political lines and appreciating what this country is about.”
Panetta, a Democrat, won the district race against his Republican Party opponent Casey Lucius with 71 percent of the vote. He will replace Rep. Sam Farr who was elected to Congress in 1993 in a special election held when longtime Rep. Leon Panetta, Jimmy’s father, resigned to become director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Bill Clinton. Jimmy lives with his wife Carrie and their two daughters in Carmel Valley and remains firmly connected to the Central Coast community where he grew up.
Although the South Valley is a “sliver” of his district, he considers it just as important as Monterey County, he said. He feels proud to serve Gilroy as the garlic city’s representative in Washington, D.C., because of the vibrant agricultural industry here and the opportunity for the South Valley region to better connect the Central Coast farming region with the high-tech industry a few miles north.
Jimmy Panetta shakes hands with American military veterans Photo by Marty Cheek
“There’s a lot of agriculture in that area,” he said of Gilroy. “I also see in that community there’s a lot of people who live in that area working in Silicon Valley. I see them as a bridge to Silicon Valley and that’s important. And the Central Coast for too long has been separated from the Silicon Valley and, due to the redistricting, I see it as a bridge to the Silicon Valley.”
Jimmy has met several time with San Jose-based Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who also represents a portion of Gilroy as well as the people of San Martin and Morgan Hill, and they have discussed issues that have a common focus. He has made it a point to meet the people of Gilroy and learn what their concerns are and how he can best serve them in Congress. He said he felt pleased to see Measure A, an affordable housing measure, and Measure B, a half-cent sales tax for the VTA to improve transportation infrastructure, passed in Santa Clara County because many citizens told him those were concerns.
“Three weeks ago, we went to Gilroy and knocked on close to 100 doors in about three hours and we got great responses,” he said. “Based on the limited discussions that you can have on a doorway, they had the same concerns as people on Central Coasts. And that is making sure there is affordable housing there, making sure in transportation the issues and the infrastructure is there. People in Gilroy have to drive up to Silicon Valley and they do get stuck in traffic and there’s got to be a better system to make public transportation more effective.”
Growing up in the Panetta household, Jimmy watched his father Leon and mother Sylvia working together to represent the people of the region when Leon was elected to Congress in 1977. While on the campaign trail himself, Jimmy often heard citizens tell him how his parents had helped them with personal issues that impacted them. Those stories helped reinforce his belief that politics is about making people’s lives better, he said.
“It was rare that people (during the campaigning) talked to me about what was going on in D.C.,” he said. “Inevitably, the conversation would always go back to the service that they received from their congressman right here in this district. And I know it’s cliche to say that ‘politics is local,’ but I’m telling you, it may be a cliche but it’s true. That service can actually affect people’s lives. You can actually give people an opportunity for a better life in this position, and that’s what I hope to do.”
As a freshman congressman, a major goal for him to make lives better is working to achieve comprehensive immigration reform in America.
Immigration directly impacts the farming industries in the communities he will serve as a congressman, he said. As a grandson of an Italian couple who came to California to start a new life and a new family, Jimmy has personally witnessed how good immigration laws can empower people to live the American dream.
“In this area, we have people who come here to live that dream and continue to contribute to our community by working in an industry that relies on a labor force coming in here from other countries — and that’s agriculture, the number one industry in the tri-county area, a $10 billion industry,” he said. “You talk to farmers, you talk to farm workers, and they will tell you they want immigration reform. And you just hope that the rest of country understands that.”
The key to success in any future legislation is to make sure the immigration reform is comprehensive and that other regions of the United States receive what they need for their communities.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to piecemeal it because I don’t think other parts of the country understand how important changing the visa process is, how important it is for areas like Salinas that have a high number of undocumented people deserve to have a pathway to citizenship,” he said. “That’s why you’ve got to give those areas that don’t understand it border security. That’s what’s important to them. It’s about compromise, but at the same time it’s got to be comprehensive.”
Based on President-elect Donald Trump’s election night speech where a national healing was addressed, Jimmy sees an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to move beyond the current political dysfunction and work together to better the lives of the American people. It something that politicians often did when his father worked in Congress.
“Donald Trump is ‘The Art of the Deal,’” Jimmy said. “Let’s hope the speech he gave is a good sign that he plans to be presidential. He has to continue with that,” he said. “The things said during the campaign hopefully won’t be done during his term. And hopefully he realizes that to get things done, he’s going to have to bring it back a bit and focus on realistic goals. I hope to work with him. That’s why I’m optimistic about it. My job is not to be an obstructionist. My job is to get something done. And hopefully we’ll get something done for the betterment of this country.”
