Leon Sit for Assembly

An Independent Voice for Assembly District 59

Vote “Leon Sit” for State Assembly!

Who are you, and what is this website for?

My name is Leon Sit, and I’m running as an independent candidate for the California State Assembly in the 59th district. This is my official campaign website, where you can learn more about who I am, what I stand for, and what I intend to do if elected.

Why are you running?

I started this campaign back in April to make sure that Assemblyman Phillip Chen would face an opponent, after no one in our district of nearly half a million filed to run against him in the election by the March deadline.

I have since won the June primary election, meaning that the Assemblyman and I are tasked with offering our district two choices for voters in November.

I had the privilege to have the support of a broad coalition of voters in the primary. My hope is that a similar union of conservatives, liberals, and moderates will unite for a new kind of local representation in the November election.

Why do you deserve my vote?

Let’s start with some statistics. According to data from the Secretary of State, 39.3% of the district’s voters are registered Republicans, while 32.7% are registered with the Democrats, and the remaining 28.0% are aligned with neither camp.

This means a strong majority (over 60%!) of the district does not affiliate with the Republican Party, so to best reflect the district in its entirety, we should be open to electing a candidate willing to lend an ear to both an unrepresented majority and the two-fifths already represented on the ballot. Letting a Republican candidate go unchallenged would have been a disservice to the community, regardless of your personal political views.

My opponent can be considered as a safe party-line voter for the Assembly Republicans, with CalMatters rating his record as the 10th most conservative out of 80 Assemblymembers, but he abstains on hot-button issues, such as adding a right to an abortion to the state constitution and paying reparations for slavery. When he does cross the aisle, it’s to help take away the voters’ right to approve public housing. This is in combination with an apparent 39% missed vote rate over the course of a month, as reported by the OC Register. I believe our representatives should be prepared to take and defend controversial positions. That’s why we elect them — to give us a voice in Sacramento. But ultimately it should be our voice that rings in the Assembly chamber. That’s why we have elections, and that’s why I worked to give voters a say in the matter in the primary election.

As a candidate in the general election, I want the best representation possible for the district, and that means upholding my responsibilities as a candidate: by being transparent, accessible, and attentive. My goal as a candidate for the State Assembly is to help turn this state around by helping our economic, ecological, and cultural environments flourish. This means driving down living costs to build a more robust economy, taking on a culture of single-use plastics, and supporting an open and honest government. Our community’s future depends on our ability to work towards solutions to both the problems of today and tomorrow.

I’m a free-thinking outsider who is accountable only to his voters. I haven’t, and won’t, take money or orders from political parties and special interest groups. The alternative is a partisan Assemblyman who has no clear incentive to step back from party orthodoxy and weigh each issue individually.

I funded myself through the primary, but I’m open to receiving donations via PayPal.

If you want a candidate you can trust to serve his only constituents and not party bosses or lobbyist groups, then I am your candidate.