For almost 10 years, Jose Medina and Richard Roth worked together as Democrats to represent Riverside County in the California legislature. Today, Medina, a former state assemblymember, and Roth, a state senator, are on opposite sides. They’re running in the Nov. 5 general election for the 1st District seat on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors that’s being vacated by Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who is not seeking reelection. The winner will get a four-year term representing more than 480,000 residents in Good Hope, Highgrove, Riverside, March Air Reserve Base, Mead Valley, Meadowbrook, Perris and part of Jurupa Valley. Riverside County’s five elected supervisors oversee a government with more than 20,000 employees and a budget approaching $10 billion. Roth, 73, and Medina, 71, finished first and second, respectively, out of a four-candidate field in the March 5 primary. They’re in a November runoff because no one got a majority of the vote in March. While in Sacramento, they worked together on a number of items, including getting state money to launch UC Riverside’s medical school in an effort to bring more doctors to a region lacking physicians. A former public school teacher who served on the Jurupa school board and Riverside Community College District board, Medina, who was first elected to the Assembly in 2012, retired from the legislature at the start of 2012 after redistricting changed Inland Empire political boundaries. “I do think that the success I had in Sacramento as a state Assemblymember, that I can bring that knowledge, that experience and that record to bear as a supervisor and continue the good work that I was able to do in the 10 years that I served in the state Assembly,” Medina said. An attorney and 32-year Air Force veteran who retired as a major general, Roth, who must leave Sacramento at the end of the year because of term limits, sees the office of supervisor as a continuation of his public service in the legislature. “I know there’s more work to be done here,” Roth said. “I have more to give and I’m hoping the voters agree and allow me to continue to serve in a local capacity.” Both candidates have raised six figures for their campaigns. Medina has raised more than $238,000 since January. His top donors include Mission Inn Hotel & Spa Chief Operating Officer Kelly Roberts, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, former Assembly speaker Fabian Nuñez, warehouse developer Howard Industrial Partners and Laborers’ International Union of North America or LIUNA Local 777, which represents thousands of county employees. View this document on Scribd Roth has raised more than $351,000 since the start of 2024. His top donors include Roberts, LIUNA, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and unions representing Riverside County firefighters, deputy prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies. View this document on Scribd Running against each other doesn’t faze either candidate. “For me, it’s not awkward at all,” Medina said. “I think we differ in a few different things and I’m trying to get my message to voters and when I talk to voters, I think those differences resonate with voters.” Roth noted he ran against Democrat Steve Clute — “My good friend,” he said — in the 2012 state Senate primary. He thinks his Air Force management experience and tenure chairing legislative committees that deal with California’s budget gives him the edge over Medina. “I had the education budget, which is 40% of the state’s budget, for two or three years,” Roth said. “And I (chair the) health and human services (committee) and that end of the budget … I’m hoping both the management and the budget experience translate into my ability to have a real effect … at the county level.” Medina said the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department “is one key way that Sen. Roth and I differ in our outlook.” The department and Sheriff Chad Bianco have faced scrutiny in recent years for a series of jail inmate deaths, and the department is currently the subject of a California attorney general civil rights investigation. If elected, Medina said he’d push to split the coroner’s office from the sheriff to avoid a conflict of interest in investigating inmate deaths. He also supports a citizens oversight panel to oversee the sheriff’s office. In March, the county’s executive office recommended the sheriff — as an elected official, Bianco has wide latitude in how to run his department — have formal agreements with other counties to conduct independent autopsies of in-custody and use-of-force deaths. Roth said he wants to see how that plan works before deciding whether to split the coroner’s and sheriff’s offices. “Much of my time in the Air Force was spent … holding people accountable,” Roth said. “I was on a member of the inspector general’s teams and I conducted inspections and investigations all over the United States and … overseas. So I know how to gather the facts and I know how to make determinations as to what the level of accountability should be …” Medina said he wants to give developers more incentives to build affordable housing to address rising rents and home prices. As supervisor, he said he would expand a program that provides down payment help to first-time homebuyers. The Inland Empire’s sprawling logistics industry employs thousands, but is also blamed for air pollution among other ills. As supervisor, Medina said he would “take a very critical eye” toward approving any more warehouses. “I am of the mind that we have more than enough at the present time,” he said. “And we are unfortunately paying the price … for having so many warehouses in our area.” Roth said he’s “grateful” logistics kept Inland Empire residents employed during the coronavirus pandemic “at a time when people in other parts of the state were laid off.” “Having said that, I think it’s time to begin to pivot away from logistics and the jobs that logistics provide,” he said. “We can’t just flip the light switch. But we need to pivot.” Related Articles Local Politics | Donald Trump to speak at Coachella campaign rally Oct. 12 Local Politics | Election 2024: Riverside County voter guide Local Politics | Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz campaigns in Los Angeles and SoCal Local Politics | Candidates in San Bernardino council runoff election pledge to fix homelessness, revitalize downtown Local Politics | Inland Empire school districts want to raise hundreds of millions to fix up aging campuses To that end, Roth wants to assemble a team of experts to create a plan to bring more high-tech, high-paying jobs to the region, such as in the biotech and clean energy sectors. “We’re going to have to, particularly on the western side (of the county, to) be laser focused on following up with what we have built here,” including the medical school and the California Air Resources Board’s Southern California headquarters in Riverside, he said. Roth, a co-author of the Prop. 1 statewide bond to fund mental health services, said he wants to use money from that voter-approved measure to build an acute care inpatient psychiatric hospital next to the county hospital in Moreno Valley to address a glaring lack of mental health beds. “If you wonder why you see the same person in the same clothes pushing the same shopping cart with the same contents, it’s because the person did not have an opportunity to see a psychiatrist and begin any treatment protocol,” he said.