State Assemblymember Heath Flora has faced a challenging few years, and now he is up against a challenger for his legislative seat. With a decade in the California Legislature, Flora has built a reputation as a calm and cooperative lawmaker. However, his personal and political life have been under scrutiny, and these issues may put an otherwise safe district in play during the general election. Flora has been accused of extramarital affairs, including one with a lobbyist, and records show he was not paying child support until threatened with wage garnishment. Questions have also been raised about how he spent campaign funds, including dozens of charges totaling $16,000 at a Sacramento tavern, some of them listed as “district meetings.” And after joining Democrats on a vote that could raise local taxes, he was ousted as the Republican leader in the Assembly.
Normally, those kinds of troubles might doom any candidate seeking reelection. But in District 9, which tilts Republican by a 10 percentage-point margin, it’s yet to be seen whether Flora’s Democratic challenger, Matthew Adams, can capitalize on his opponent’s struggles. None have in the past. In the June primary, Flora easily bested the next closest Republican candidate, Jim Shoemaker, securing 30.6% of the vote compared with Shoemaker’s 22.7%. At the time, the GOP committees in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Amador counties had all passed on Flora and endorsed Shoemaker.
In the same contest, Adams, a former middle school teacher, garnered the second highest overall vote, earning 25.9%. He quit his teaching job in San Leandro to focus on his campaign. Assemblymembers serve two-year terms and are limited to 12 years in the Legislature, either in the Assembly alone or through a combination of Assembly and Senate service. They earn an annual salary of $134,694, set by the California Citizens Compensation Commission.
If Flora wins the election, this would be his last term in office. But Adams said he believes voters will be willing to reject Flora once they know the full scope of the allegations against him. “This guy needs to be held accountable,” he told Stocktonia in an interview. Faced with a huge fundraising gap, Adams, who lives in Woodbridge, near Lodi, where he grew up, has been taking lots of face-to-face meetings with voters, including Republicans. He had raised $24,715 as of Sept. 19, California Secretary of State records show. Flora had raked in $611,385 over the same period.
Adams was a field organizer for Equality California, a statewide LBGBTQ+ rights organization. He also has been a volunteer services coordinator for Habitat for Humanity. The 9th District is largely agricultural. It stretches across San Joaquin County from Galt and Lodi in the north to Manteca and Lathrop in the south, skirting around Stockton. As such, Adams is trying to appeal to farmers and growers. He said in an interview that he’s opposed to the proposed Delta tunnel that would funnel Sierra water to Southern California. Instead, he said he would like to work with farmers to guide them toward less water-intensive crops. He also said he wants to try to preserve family farms.
