The Lodi District Chamber of Commerce endorses newcomer Mikey Hothi in District 5 and incumbent JoAnne Mounce in District 4 for the upcoming Lodi City Council election.
 
Over the course of the last week, the Lodi District Chamber of Commerce has interviewed candidates for local, county, state, and congressional elections. The goal of the candidate endorsement process is to question all candidates in selected races and choose the candidate who best reflects the business values and polices of the Lodi District Chamber of Commerce. The endorsement panel was comprised of local business owners, prominent company representatives, Chamber board members, and members of the Government Relation’s Committee who discussed and scored candidates accordingly. 
 
The Chamber Endorsement Panel interviewed Mikey Hothi, Mike McKnight, and Hector Madrigal for District 5. After hearing from each candidate, the Chamber Endorsement Panel discussed the necessity to fill the vacant seat with a person who has experience and can also bring new vision to the City Council. Mikey Hothi was the wisest choice as not only is he able to bridge the generational gap, his experience working as a District Director to Assemblyman Cooper solidified his endorsement. Mr. Hothi is deeply rooted in the community, is active with the Government Relations Committee, is a board member on the Lodi Fire Foundation, and has endorsements from the Lodi Police Officers Association, Lodi Professional Firefighters, Lodi Mayor Doug Kuehne, and numerous community leaders. 
 
The panel also interviewed Natalie Bowman, Ramon Yepez, Shakir Kahn, and JoAnne Mounce for District 4 on Monday evening. While it was evident that each candidate had passion for making a difference in their district, the combined inexperience of the challengers caused some worry amongst the panel. This is the first time the city of Lodi has been broken into districts for the Lodi City Council elections. It is the Chamber’s hope this decision does not dissuade candidates from staying involved and continuing their education on how our great city functions as all of the challengers had innovative ideas. JoAnne Mounce has served the city since 2004 and in these unprecedented times, the Chamber Endorsement Panel believed she would be the best choice for the district to continue improvements to infrastructure, safety, and wellness of business. From a city-wide perspective, Ms. Mounce sees a challenging year ahead and the panel agreed that experience is the gamechanger to getting things accomplished in the midst of uncertainty, . Ms. Mounce is endorsed by the Lodi Professional Firefighters, San Joaquin County Supervisor Chuck Winn, retired Lodi Chief of Police Tod Patterson, along with numerous community leaders and businesses. 
 
The Lodi District Chamber of Commerce advocates on behalf of their members and the business community of Lodi as a whole. The week’s interview list included candidates from: Lodi City Council from district 4 & 5, San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees, LUSD School Board Members, San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional Representatives.