At last it’s official. The clock has run out and the final score for candidates (endorsements) is Lucero 3, The Signal Publisher 2. Let it be duly noted, however, that The Signal WINS (Lucero 4, The Signal 9) on their recommendations for propositions, though. So cheers and congrats! Take a lap, y’all. I wish Nathan Hochman and Suzette Martinez Valladares an abundance of well deserved, long and arduous struggles to bring their versions of (Republican) rhetoric and policy to our current version of the California dream. I advise that they just be careful not to toil in vain simply for (R) pride. I look forward to Hochman’s disclosure of plans/actions to support California’s compliance with the Supreme Court order from 2011 regarding prisoners’ 8th Amendment constitutional rights. Up to now, all we’ve had is an (R) “concept of a plan.” Now we get to see the (R) sausage get made. But, watch out and tread carefully, Nate! Misstep and you could get L.A. County sued by the state! I found his swearing-in by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who openly defies Trumpism, quite poetic.  As far as Valladares: She will be predictably and insurmountably weak, repeating commonly held and reliably faulty misconceptions. She will try to lever frustration through short-attention-span emergent topics that are essentially uncontrollable (legislated taxes and social initiatives, OPEC/market prices for petroleum, etc.): a doomscroll of shared dyspepsia.  Nonetheless, a she is truly representative to local (R) loyalists. A modern, albeit ineffective, populist. Good on that. And finally, to answer Rick Barker (a loyalist to the end) who on Nov. 28 (letters to the editor) requested “an example of something that Rep. Mike Garcia did while he was in office that actually had a negative affect on anyone in the 27th Congressional District.” Well, perhaps Mike’s consistent fealty to Donald Trump and his commitment to preventing the country from becoming like California, or the dozens of messages that set him at odds with residents here was/is patently bad for, wait for it, himself.  I mean Mike counts as somebody, right?  Regards, wishing you Merry Christmas. Christopher Lucero Saugus The post Christopher Lucero | The Final Score appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.