KCRA 3 is sitting down with the candidates running to be the next mayor of Stockton.Six candidates are vying for the seat in the March 5 primary election. Kevin Lincoln, the current mayor, is not seeking to keep his seat and instead is running for Congress.Below are profiles of and the top issues for three of the six candidates: Jesús Andrade, Jessica Velez and Dan Wright. On Friday, we’ll publish a second report with profiles on the other three candidates in the race. Jesús AndradeJesús Andrade was born and raised in Stockton and served on the city council from 2017 to 2020. He has been involved in politics and also now heads a nonprofit. He said serving the community has been a lifelong mission for him.“That’s what led to me to get involved in public service right after college, which has been my career. I worked for the Obama campaign. I worked for some policy-oriented organizations. I ran some campaigns in the past and then had the good fortune of representing my childhood district on the council, and so it was four fantastic years,” Andrade said.Andrade said his top priority is boosting the economy and cultivating local businesses.“It’s economic development. We have to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have to be able to bring in new businesses. We have to increase our revenue. We’ve been stagnant as far as our budget,” Andrade said. “I want to increase tourism dollars. We’re here today right now doing this interview in the waterfront. I think it’s the most, it’s the biggest asset that we have that’s been underutilized for generations, and I think that this is the area that we have to look at in terms of bringing in tourism dollars.”Andrade said his other top priorities are addressing homelessness and reducing crime.On homelessness, Andrade said while it is important to increase the number of shelter beds, the city also needs to adhere to rules and regulations when it comes to preventing unhoused individuals from setting up encampments in certain areas.“It’s a matter of providing temporary shelter. It’s a matter of providing permanent supportive housing as well,” Andrade said. “We have to enforce the law. I think residents are also taxpaying residents, obviously, and they have the freedom, and they should have the flexibility to access schools, libraries, parks without feeling like they can’t. And sometimes, there are major encampments in these areas, and we have to clear them out. We must. We have to do the will of the people, but we also have to think of how do we also work with the unhoused, safe campsites, tiny homes? We have to look at other, again like I said earlier, temporary shelter programs that they can move to, but it’s time that, we have to enforce the law. We have to get our city back.”On reducing crime, Andrade called his solution a two-pronged approach: adding more officers and developing violence prevention programs. He said the number of police officers needs to be increased. The Stockton Police Department told KCRA 3 that it currently has 344 sworn officers on the force. According to Andrade’s campaign website, he would add 120 additional offices for better coverage, especially in high-risk areas.“We have to incentivize our current officers. We have to retain our current officers. Some of them have been here for years, five years, we have to make them feel like they’re invested in, and that we’re listening and that we believe in them, so it’s a matter of retention as well… There are incentives. There’s pay. There’s salary. There are benefits that we have to look at seriously to attract officers here, and to keep officers here,” Andrade said. “The other prong is also violence prevention. We have to invest in violence prevention. We also have to invest in tech. There are probably six or seven hotspots in the city, citywide, where the vast majority of violent crime happens. There’s tech that we can invest in to monitor those areas, and there’s also violence prevention programs like the Office of Violence Prevention, there’s another program, Advance Peace, are also doing the work on the ground to prevent violence from happening.”Jessica VelezJessica Velez is a longtime Stockton resident, moving to the city in 1982, who also created and runs the nonprofit Red Rabbit Advocacy, which works with unhoused people to provide them with resources and help connect them to housing.“It started out being focused on just supplying people with food or clothing, and then about a year and a half ago, I started doing housing referrals with the housing authority and Central Valley Housing. So far to date, we have been able to get 45 different households either housed or with a voucher in hand for a total of 108 people,” Velez said.Velez said her top priority is addressing the issue of homelessness in Stockton, which includes her vision to create a transitional village.“I personally was interested in the plot of land at Lafayette and Stanislaus. It’s just under two acres. It would house and support up to 47 to 50 people at a time. It would be program-based. It would not be the same shelter model that we have currently, so that would cut down on traffic because it would be designated for only participants. At that point with the basic amenities for sanitation and just providing case management for those individuals in the program, we would then be able to triage them out, to get them to either mental health or maybe some are ready to go to work. Just providing the basic stability, so that then we can redirect people,” Velez said.Velez said her other top priorities include tackling crime and transforming Stockton into a cultural and artistic hub.On crime, Velez said she wants to engage in a proactive approach to public safety, including looking into the root causes. She also said attracting and retaining more police officers is crucial to address public safety concerns.“I think that engaging solutions for lower mortgage rates for officers that purchase in the neighborhoods that they’re serving, as long as they stay there for a certain number of years, will prevent the coming to get trained and leave. I think that there’s multiple different options, even with support for daycare for officers. Thinking of innovative ways to help them be successful here in Stockton and want to stay,” Velez said. “I think that the Office of Violence Prevention, Advance Peace, where they engage peer solutions and have people go into the community and really target the youth that are susceptible to becoming victim to gangs and gun violence, I think that needs to be pushed a lot more.”On upgrading the city, Velez said that will only be a reality after issues such as crime and homelessness are effectively dealt with.“I think after we spend a couple of years really cracking down on the streets, getting things cleaned up and everything in the right pipeline to success, then we’re going to be able to explore more funding for our parks, different art installations, really revitalizing downtown, bringing a cultural district or an arts district to downtown. I think that by forcing the hand of some of the investors that own a lot of the vacant properties in this town, being that either through a land tax that will incentivize them to actually make something productive and that will bring income to their piece of property, I think that will help greatly with creating a much more appealing city to live in,” Velez said.Dan WrightDan Wright has lived in Stockton since 1993. He currently serves on the Stockton City Council and has been on the council since 2015. He is also a longtime educator, serving as a teacher in Southern California and then a school administrator within the Stockton Unified School District.“I’ve led in the city prior to this point, kind of in a different role, not in an elected position, but it’s one of the highest appointed positions in the city, being superintendent of Stockton Unified,” Wright said. “Stockton needs consistent leadership. That’s the main reason I ran. I’ve got the most experience on the city council.”Wright said his top priority is combatting corruption and increasing transparency in local government.“It’s got to be the issue of corruption and incompetence, and the big example I give to everybody is the IEQ air filter scandal in Stockton Unified. I’m outraged about that. We have a situation where almost $4 million was wasted. We have some air filters that can’t be used anywhere in the district, just sitting there gathering dust,” Wright said. “As mayor, I’ll have a bigger pulpit to speak from, and I’ll be demanding that we get an answer on what happened there. That’s not the only corruption we see in this city. People are always looking and trying to game the system to make shortcuts for themselves. I can promise you, when I take over in City Hall, it will be the most transparent City Hall we’ve had in a long, long time.”Wright said his other top priorities include tackling the housing crisis and keeping families safe.On the housing crisis, Wright said that includes the issue of homelessness. He said he supports funding options to prevent homelessness, as well as demanding progress on projects that are already underway.“One of our biggest issues with homelessness in Stockton is making the projects finish. We’ve spent a lot of money, but two of our biggest expenditures, the navigation center at the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless and the St. Mary’s Pathways Project, I think between the two of them, that’s about a $17 million expenditure. Those haven’t been completed yet… As mayor, I’d be agendizing that, at least quarterly, probably monthly for reports on where we are with those projects to make sure that they get built,” Wright said. “We use most of our HAP funding now for Project Homekey projects, but I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of making some of that an emergency housing Trust Fund… We have to be ready to keep people in the houses they’re in, that’s our best bet.”On public safety, Wright said more needs to be done to keep Stockton police officers to stay within the department. He said that would allow for more coverage and also more direct interaction within city neighborhoods.“We have to make sure that we’re attractive both financially and culturally, that officers feel supported here, that they also feel like they can make a living to support their families,” Wright said. “Part of the problem that we’ve had with a reduction in the number of police officers is they can’t get out of their cars. They’re going from one call to the next. We get back up to 425, we’ll see some of those teams being deployed to get out go to community events, you know, and get to be a part of the community they police.”Profiles on and interview responses from the other three candidates for Stockton Mayor – Shakeel Ahmad, Christina Fugazi and Tom Patti – will be available on Friday.If one of the six Stockton mayoral candidates gets more than 50% of the vote, they will be elected outright. If not, the top two candidates will move on to the general election in November.
KCRA 3 is sitting down with the candidates running to be the next mayor of Stockton.
Six candidates are vying for the seat in the March 5 primary election. Kevin Lincoln, the current mayor, is not seeking to keep his seat and instead is running for Congress.
Below are profiles of and the top issues for three of the six candidates: Jesús Andrade, Jessica Velez and Dan Wright. On Friday, we’ll publish a second report with profiles on the other three candidates in the race.
Jesús Andrade
Jesús Andrade was born and raised in Stockton and served on the city council from 2017 to 2020. He has been involved in politics and also now heads a nonprofit. He said serving the community has been a lifelong mission for him.
“That’s what led to me to get involved in public service right after college, which has been my career. I worked for the Obama campaign. I worked for some policy-oriented organizations. I ran some campaigns in the past and then had the good fortune of representing my childhood district on the council, and so it was four fantastic years,” Andrade said.
Andrade said his top priority is boosting the economy and cultivating local businesses.
“It’s economic development. We have to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have to be able to bring in new businesses. We have to increase our revenue. We’ve been stagnant as far as our budget,” Andrade said. “I want to increase tourism dollars. We’re here today right now doing this interview in the waterfront. I think it’s the most, it’s the biggest asset that we have that’s been underutilized for generations, and I think that this is the area that we have to look at in terms of bringing in tourism dollars.”
Andrade said his other top priorities are addressing homelessness and reducing crime.
On homelessness, Andrade said while it is important to increase the number of shelter beds, the city also needs to adhere to rules and regulations when it comes to preventing unhoused individuals from setting up encampments in certain areas.
“It’s a matter of providing temporary shelter. It’s a matter of providing permanent supportive housing as well,” Andrade said. “We have to enforce the law. I think residents are also taxpaying residents, obviously, and they have the freedom, and they should have the flexibility to access schools, libraries, parks without feeling like they can’t. And sometimes, there are major encampments in these areas, and we have to clear them out. We must. We have to do the will of the people, but we also have to think of how do we also work with the unhoused, safe campsites, tiny homes? We have to look at other, again like I said earlier, temporary shelter programs that they can move to, but it’s time that, we have to enforce the law. We have to get our city back.”
On reducing crime, Andrade called his solution a two-pronged approach: adding more officers and developing violence prevention programs. He said the number of police officers needs to be increased. The Stockton Police Department told KCRA 3 that it currently has 344 sworn officers on the force. According to Andrade’s campaign website, he would add 120 additional offices for better coverage, especially in high-risk areas.
“We have to incentivize our current officers. We have to retain our current officers. Some of them have been here for years, five years, we have to make them feel like they’re invested in, and that we’re listening and that we believe in them, so it’s a matter of retention as well… There are incentives. There’s pay. There’s salary. There are benefits that we have to look at seriously to attract officers here, and to keep officers here,” Andrade said. “The other prong is also violence prevention. We have to invest in violence prevention. We also have to invest in tech. There are probably six or seven hotspots in the city, citywide, where the vast majority of violent crime happens. There’s tech that we can invest in to monitor those areas, and there’s also violence prevention programs like the Office of Violence Prevention, there’s another program, Advance Peace, are also doing the work on the ground to prevent violence from happening.”
Jessica Velez
Jessica Velez is a longtime Stockton resident, moving to the city in 1982, who also created and runs the nonprofit Red Rabbit Advocacy, which works with unhoused people to provide them with resources and help connect them to housing.
“It started out being focused on just supplying people with food or clothing, and then about a year and a half ago, I started doing housing referrals with the housing authority and Central Valley Housing. So far to date, we have been able to get 45 different households either housed or with a voucher in hand for a total of 108 people,” Velez said.
Velez said her top priority is addressing the issue of homelessness in Stockton, which includes her vision to create a transitional village.
“I personally was interested in the plot of land at Lafayette and Stanislaus. It’s just under two acres. It would house and support up to 47 to 50 people at a time. It would be program-based. It would not be the same shelter model that we have currently, so that would cut down on traffic because it would be designated for only participants. At that point with the basic amenities for sanitation and just providing case management for those individuals in the program, we would then be able to triage them out, to get them to either mental health or maybe some are ready to go to work. Just providing the basic stability, so that then we can redirect people,” Velez said.
Velez said her other top priorities include tackling crime and transforming Stockton into a cultural and artistic hub.
On crime, Velez said she wants to engage in a proactive approach to public safety, including looking into the root causes. She also said attracting and retaining more police officers is crucial to address public safety concerns.
“I think that engaging solutions for lower mortgage rates for officers that purchase in the neighborhoods that they’re serving, as long as they stay there for a certain number of years, will prevent the coming to get trained and leave. I think that there’s multiple different options, even with support for daycare for officers. Thinking of innovative ways to help them be successful here in Stockton and want to stay,” Velez said. “I think that the Office of Violence Prevention, Advance Peace, where they engage peer solutions and have people go into the community and really target the youth that are susceptible to becoming victim to gangs and gun violence, I think that needs to be pushed a lot more.”
On upgrading the city, Velez said that will only be a reality after issues such as crime and homelessness are effectively dealt with.
“I think after we spend a couple of years really cracking down on the streets, getting things cleaned up and everything in the right pipeline to success, then we’re going to be able to explore more funding for our parks, different art installations, really revitalizing downtown, bringing a cultural district or an arts district to downtown. I think that by forcing the hand of some of the investors that own a lot of the vacant properties in this town, being that either through a land tax that will incentivize them to actually make something productive and that will bring income to their piece of property, I think that will help greatly with creating a much more appealing city to live in,” Velez said.
Dan Wright
Dan Wright has lived in Stockton since 1993. He currently serves on the Stockton City Council and has been on the council since 2015. He is also a longtime educator, serving as a teacher in Southern California and then a school administrator within the Stockton Unified School District.
“I’ve led in the city prior to this point, kind of in a different role, not in an elected position, but it’s one of the highest appointed positions in the city, being superintendent of Stockton Unified,” Wright said. “Stockton needs consistent leadership. That’s the main reason I ran. I’ve got the most experience on the city council.”
Wright said his top priority is combatting corruption and increasing transparency in local government.
“It’s got to be the issue of corruption and incompetence, and the big example I give to everybody is the IEQ air filter scandal in Stockton Unified. I’m outraged about that. We have a situation where almost $4 million was wasted. We have some air filters that can’t be used anywhere in the district, just sitting there gathering dust,” Wright said. “As mayor, I’ll have a bigger pulpit to speak from, and I’ll be demanding that we get an answer on what happened there. That’s not the only corruption we see in this city. People are always looking and trying to game the system to make shortcuts for themselves. I can promise you, when I take over in City Hall, it will be the most transparent City Hall we’ve had in a long, long time.”
Wright said his other top priorities include tackling the housing crisis and keeping families safe.
On the housing crisis, Wright said that includes the issue of homelessness. He said he supports funding options to prevent homelessness, as well as demanding progress on projects that are already underway.
“One of our biggest issues with homelessness in Stockton is making the projects finish. We’ve spent a lot of money, but two of our biggest expenditures, the navigation center at the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless and the St. Mary’s Pathways Project, I think between the two of them, that’s about a $17 million expenditure. Those haven’t been completed yet… As mayor, I’d be agendizing that, at least quarterly, probably monthly for reports on where we are with those projects to make sure that they get built,” Wright said. “We use most of our HAP funding now for Project Homekey projects, but I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of making some of that an emergency housing Trust Fund… We have to be ready to keep people in the houses they’re in, that’s our best bet.”
On public safety, Wright said more needs to be done to keep Stockton police officers to stay within the department. He said that would allow for more coverage and also more direct interaction within city neighborhoods.
“We have to make sure that we’re attractive both financially and culturally, that officers feel supported here, that they also feel like they can make a living to support their families,” Wright said. “Part of the problem that we’ve had with a reduction in the number of police officers is they can’t get out of their cars. They’re going from one call to the next. We get back up to 425, we’ll see some of those teams being deployed to get out go to community events, you know, and get to be a part of the community they police.”
Profiles on and interview responses from the other three candidates for Stockton Mayor – Shakeel Ahmad, Christina Fugazi and Tom Patti – will be available on Friday.
If one of the six Stockton mayoral candidates gets more than 50% of the vote, they will be elected outright. If not, the top two candidates will move on to the general election in November.
