Pilar Schiavo is the harm reduction vote for this seat. Her public safety record is not aligned with La Defensa’s values, but she is the only Democrat in the race.

Schiavo explains that as an Assemblymember, she “has made community safety a priority by directly engaging with those impacted by crime, bringing essential resources to the district, funding key safety and infrastructure improvements across schools and youth centers, domestic violence and mental health centers, as well as bringing back funding for our local government to invest in police, fire and sheriff resources.” She has brought more than $178 million in state funds to Assembly District 40. Among other things, those funds went toward responding to the fentanyl crisis by “supporting local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies,” further criminalizing her constituents, alongside some harm reduction measures such as test strips and greater availability of naloxone (a fast-acting, life-saving medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses by binding to opioid receptors in the brain and restoring normal breathing). The funds also provided grants to police to address retail, motor vehicle, and cargo theft, and funded “research and grants to support peace officers’ physical, mental, and emotional wellness, which is essential for creating safer communities,” as well as the “Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for trailer repair.”

Schiavo takes pride in “helping to lead the state effort to address the escalating issue of retail theft by authoring legislation, bringing together key stakeholders from across the community, and serving on the Assembly Select Committee on Retail Theft.” These policies, however, have created more criminalization at the behest of corporations rather than addressing labor issues such as wage theft. The bills she has introduced have increased criminalization and sentence enhancements for low-level theft charges and for people experiencing addiction, and she has increased state spending that expands mass incarceration. She is proud to have been a “strong advocate for fully funding Proposition 36,” the 2024 ballot measure that increased penalties and enhancements for petty retail theft and fentanyl-related charges. She also touts her efforts to keep children safe from gun violence by preventing “firearms from falling into the wrong hands, regulating new technologies, and improving accountability for gun-related crimes.”