California State Assembly District 25 candidate surveys, 2022

Elections in California, 2022

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This article shows responses from candidates in the 2022 election for California State Assembly District 25 who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

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• Click here to see Candidate Connection survey responses.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for California State Assembly District 25

Incumbent Ash Kalra defeated Ted Stroll in the general election for California State Assembly District 25 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ash Kalra (D)	70.0	74,546
		Ted Stroll (R)	30.0	31,893

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 106,439
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Survey responses from candidates in this race

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Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Ted Stroll (R)

To solve homelessness, we must reactivate in-patient care for street dwellers’ mental illnesses and drug addictions. Currently, unhoused people brain-damaged by drugs or otherwise seriously mentally ill can only be asked to accept treatment, and if they refuse, as many do, they’re not treated, because state law makes it almost impossible. This must change.

Incumbents in Sacramento proposed legislation that would have reduced the penalty for certain injury-causing muggings to the minor crime of petty theft. I will oppose such mistakes. We need to address serious traffic violations like street racing with the same innovations that other places are using.

California universities take tax dollars from parents whose last names are Chen, Christensen, Kumar, Nguyen, Núñez, Pereira, and Smith. They should not grant or deny admission to your children on the basis of them.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Ted Stroll (R)

1. California's housing crisis is solvable. We have it because of decades of governmental distortion of the state's housing markets. It's like a hose that delivers only a trickle of water because it's kinked in multiple places. Those kinks didn't occur naturally; they are the result of many policy mistakes. Unkinking that hose requires changes to state and local law.

2. The state's and this county's responses to the Covid pandemic gave public health directors too much authority over the economy. Various mistakes harmed many small businesses. State lawmakers must reconsider county health directors’ ability to govern single-handedly.

3. The real political divide isn't so much between left and right; it's more between a society that aims toward openness or doesn't. Government must always aim toward improving human flourishing, which means knowing when to help and when to stand back and let people make their own decisions.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Ted Stroll (R)

Currently, Elon Musk comes to mind. Just through Tesla, he may have done more for humanity and the environment than any number of large organizations. I would like to follow the example of any elected official who ran for office in a desire to improve things, rather than for self-promotion or self-enrichment, and stuck to that goal.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Ted Stroll (R)

"A Man for All Seasons," by Sir Robert Bolt, which was made into a movie of the same name. It won Best Picture in 1967.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Ted Stroll (R)

Honesty; intelligence; caring; life experience.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Ted Stroll (R)

To improve the quality of life in the state through lawmaking.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Ted Stroll (R)

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. I was in second grade. We were sent home from school.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Ted Stroll (R)

Sweeping floors in the service department at La Jolla Chevrolet during high school. I think it paid the then-minimum wage of $1.60 an hour.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

Ted Stroll (R)

That the legislature is both productive and principled in enacting or repealing laws and the governor executes the remaining laws efficiently and in a principled manner.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Ted Stroll (R)

1. The housing crisis, which is a governmentally caused problem and can be corrected by governments.

2. The chaotic presence of tens of thousands of seriously disturbed people who inhabit our sidewalks, parks, creek banks, road and bridge infrastructure, who desperately need treatment but who don't get it because state law makes it difficult—until, that is, they commit a serious crime and then are housed in our de facto mental institutions of last resort, namely jails and prisons.

3. The disorderly behavior we saw during the Covid epidemic, which continues after it. In my area, going through red lights after stopping and looking around has become almost routine. Stop signs have become, pardon the play on words, stoptional. (That's called a portmanteau word, for grammar fans.) If people cannot exert internal discipline, they will have to be subject to external discipline in the form of law enforcement, or we will descend further into the kind of society we couldn't have imagined even 20 years ago.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

Ted Stroll (R)

Yes, but state legislators without such experience can still be extremely valuable.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

Ted Stroll (R)

Naturally. In the Assembly, I would be one of 80 legislators and, at this writing, in a minority party. Lone wolves will accomplish nothing.

What process do you favor for redistricting?

Ted Stroll (R)

The current one that California is fortunate to have: an independent commission that draws boundaries to preserve communities of interest.

If you are not a current legislator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

Ted Stroll (R)

Public safety and judiciary.

Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?

Ted Stroll (R)

No.

Both sitting legislators and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

Ted Stroll (R)

A number of people have told me about family members who became addicted to brain-damaging drugs, are living on the streets, and go untreated. The family can't afford private in-patient psychiatric or detoxification care, and the state doesn't provide it in any way close to the need, which is why we see people yelling at imaginary demons while trundling their shopping carts.

Should the legislature oversee or grant the use of emergency powers?

Ted Stroll (R)

That is essential. California law gives the governor enormous powers in an emergency. They need some sort of oversight, lest we have one-person rule by decree.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Ted Stroll (R)

Absolutely.

See also

More about these elections:

• California State Assembly elections, 2022

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