Grapevines and cherry orchards nuzzle the shoulder of California Highway 99 as it plows through the Central Valley. In cities, the crops give way to thick cinder block walls that shield workers in their beige ranch-styles from the clatter of the state’s busiest trucking route.
Between the trees and behind the walls, a region struggles. Foreclosures surround a Stockton family. A widowed Tulare hot dog stand manager can’t afford to see the doctor. A Merced beautician watches her customers fade like the hairstyle they used to request every two weeks.
No California voters need the ear of the men and woman seeking the presidency more than those in the region, whose population is about 6.5 million, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The area is more populous than 38 states, according to 2005 census figures, and poorer than Appalachia. The people who live here embody the plight of the nation’s poorest areas. But the candidates missed this area when they breezed through Simi Valley or Hollywood last week. They are not stopping in to listen, because of time, money, distance and — most of all — the stampede to hold nominating contests Tuesday.
Blue-collar wine country
In the fields around Lodi, a blue-collar Napa 35 miles south of Sacramento, the workers crush chardonnay and cabernet grapes. Steve Merrell left a career as a journeyman lineman to manage the cellar of a family-owned winery just outside town. He is 51, with a red-gray mustache and thick hands. He is a registered Republican but says, like many Valley residents, “I’m not one for sticking to party lines.”
A year ago, a French oak barrel cost the Vino Con Brio winery about $500. Now it’s $800, because of the weakening power of the dollar. Imported wines from New Zealand and Australia are challenging the local vintages on supermarket shelves. Vino Con Brio’s owners, Mike and Renae Matson, spent $25,000 on health coverage last year. Daughter Anne, their general manager, spent a quarter of her salary on coverage.
The Matsons are Republicans who worry about fairness in the wine trade. Anne is deciding between Mitt Romney and John McCain.
Her mother is voting for McCain in the primary but wants to see Democrat Barack Obama win the White House: “We haven’t had idealistic leadership in this country since John Kennedy,” she explains. “More than anything, that’s what we need now.”
Foreclosures spreading
Down the road in Stockton, “for sale” signs replace grapes as the bumper crop. Lenders foreclosed on more homes per capita in Stockton than any city in the nation in the third quarter of 2007, according to RealtyTrac.com. Jeff Dunn sees the evidence all around him. He holds little hope of any presidential help. “It’s mind-boggling how quickly things can start going down” in the local economy, he says.
Dunn, 33, has four children and a wife studying nursing. His job is building city transit buses, but a recent auto accident left him home on disability leave. On the first sunny afternoon in days, he hobbles to play with his kids in the driveway.
He is a Republican and plans to vote in the primary, but a week before the election he has not paid attention to the candidates.
“I just hope that whoever wins does the best they can,” he says. “It’s getting a little bit depressing.”
Immigrants struggle
The empty chairs in Hair Studio One, an hour away in Merced, tell a story of economic depression among the Latino immigrants who are helping fuel the Valley’s population boom. A couple months ago, young transplants from Mexico or Central America would drop in twice a month for a fade cut — shaved from the top of the ears down, very short above that, a little longer on the top.
These days, Rosario Inga’s customers have cut their fades back to once a month, if they come at all. The 29-year-old Peruvian immigrant doesn’t do highlights anymore, either. She has watched friends sink their savings into houses, then lose them when they lose their jobs. Many have moved to Texas or back to their home countries.
Inga is a Democrat who hasn’t decided on a presidential candidate. “I’m angry,” she says. “Most of my friends, they don’t vote. … I’m going to vote.”
No health insurance
Past the eerily quiet downtown of Fresno and a humming raisin plant in Fowler, in a little town called Tulare, Nancy Davis stands in the fuselage of a 1950s-era cargo plane and spoons chili and cheese onto a bun.
Davis, 60, took three jobs after her husband died three years ago, just to get by. Now she’s down to one, managing the Aero Dogs stand in the belly of an old plane. She’s a Democrat who opposes abortion — “I feel that a child should have a chance” — and wants “to get a little peace in this world.” She also wants health coverage, which Aero Dogs doesn’t provide and which she can’t afford.
“I know I need to be going [to the doctor], but I can’t,” she says. “I just put it in the Lord’s hands.”
Oil wells appear off the side of Highway 99 near Bakersfield. Mountains rise up ahead. The road barrels toward them, toward Interstate Highway 5 and Los Angeles, where candidates stopped last week to debate, campaign and raise money.
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Central Valley in brief
Size: Roughly 450 miles long, averaging 50 miles wide. Stretches from Mt. Shasta in the north to Tehachapi Mountains in the south and encompasses 19 counties.
Largest cities: Sacramento (state capital), Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, Bakersfield.
Population: Approximately 6 million people and rising. The Central Valley is the fastest growing region in the state.
Per capita income: $24,550 and falling; 26 percent lower than the state average. If the Central Valley were a state, it would rank 48th in per capita income.
Jobs: Agriculture is the region’s economic base; 20 percent of all jobs are related to agriculture.
Source: “The State of the Great Central Valley: The Economy,” Great Valley Center, Calif.
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jtankersley@tribune.com
IN THE WEB EDITION: For some of Central Valley’s sights and sounds, go to chicagotribune.com/highway.
