Andrew Janz avoids political labels. How will that look if he’s Fresno’s mayor?
What is the political identity of Andrew Janz?
Supporters and those who have known him since before he was a Fresno County prosecutor say he’s a man of integrity who works hard and wants to serve his community.
At age 36, he’s a young candidate with a spotless background. While attending college and law school and working as a prosecutor, there weren’t many opportunities to get into trouble or find himself amid controversy.
“The guy is incorruptible,” said Fresno City Councilmember Nelson Esparza, a political ally and longtime friend of Janz.
In an editorial board meeting with The Fresno Bee, Janz speculated he may be the most progressive candidate to ever run for Fresno mayor. Yet he passed up an endorsement interview with Fresno’s most progressive group – the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Plus, being a prosecutor aligns the Democrat with the badge of law enforcement and his Republican boss, Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp.
Nearly six months after announcing his mayoral bid, Janz still was convincing people he was actually running. He focused on his job first and relied on an alternative campaign style that’s not focused on what he refers to as “kissing babies” and “photo ops.”
His chief opponent in a field of eight is perhaps Fresno’s biggest celebrity: Jerry Dyer, who retired just last year after serving as Fresno police chief for nearly two decades.
Janz’s political debut in 2018 made a splash on the national stage against another big name, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare. Campaigning on a moderate platform with an anti-corruption message, he put up the toughest fight yet against the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
While running for Congress, he simultaneously had no political experience and hoped to beat a 16-year incumbent. He raised more than $9 million and amassed a Twitter following of more than 120,000. He spread his message by brushing elbows with celebrities and meeting with groups smaller than a dozen people in backyards and living rooms.
Janz doesn’t really fit into any of the typical boxes that Fresno-area politicians have built. “People always try to put you in a box,” he said. “…Trying to avoid labels is important to me.”
A message he harps on the campaign trail is that Fresno needs “new leadership.” If he wins, he’ll be charged with showing the city what that looks like.
After putting off starting a family while he was running for Congress, he’s now a new dad. His wife Heather gave birth to their first daughter, Wilhelmina Rose, at the end of January.
In a December interview with The Bee, he said the prospect of becoming a father strengthened his political convictions.
“Knowing that I’m going to bring a child into this world, you know, I want to fight as hard as possible to make sure that she grows up in a Fresno that is safe, one that has top-notch education, one that we can all be proud of,” he said. “So I’m fighting even harder now.”
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Prosecutor vs. progressive
Janz thought he was going to be a defense attorney.
But that changed after law school when he clerked for Nevada District Court Judge Carolyn Ellsworth in Las Vegas.
“She told me that if you really want to protect people’s constitutional rights, know that prosecutors are the ones with, really, all of the power,” Janz said about Ellsworth.
“She was able to convince me that being a prosecutor is an honorable endeavor, and I can still hold myself to the same standards that I would have if I was a defense attorney,” he said.
The most important part of being a prosecutor, Janz said, is the pursuit of truth and honoring the Constitution. The most rewarding part is seeking justice for victims, he said.
Janz prosecutes Fresno’s most violent criminals. After his congressional race, he returned to his old unit, where he routinely sends people to prison.
“Something just hit me there when I got back to my office,” he told The Bee in April when he announced his mayoral bid. “I asked myself, you know, what am I really doing to address the underlying issues related to crime and all the problems that we see here in Fresno?
“… I wasn’t satisfied that I was doing enough. … All of those things that I talked about in my congressional race are things that can be impacted from the mayor’s office.”
Janz said he’s not the type of prosecutor who will pursue the maximum sentence for every defendant.
In a recent case, he agreed to grant probation to a younger defendant with no prior criminal history, said Mark Siegel, the defense attorney in the case. The defendant committed two strong-arm robberies at gunpoint, and Siegel said Janz could have pushed for a stiff penalty.
“That’s something very few (deputy) district attorneys would do. … Most DAs are looking to rack up convictions and custody time for defendants even if the equities might suggest different solutions,” Siegel said. “For whatever reason, he was willing to give this guy a break. … I’m very grateful for that, and I’m sure my client is even more grateful.”
The hardest part for Janz in balancing his role as a prosecutor and a political candidate is that his statements on issues end up reflecting on the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, whether or not that’s his intention.
“I’m a prosecutor, first and foremost, and I’m a political candidate for office second,” he said.
If he’s elected, those roles will switch. He said he’d quit his job as a deputy district attorney and work full-time as the city’s mayor.
When it comes to the mayor’s race, Smittcamp likely has valuable insight – she’s Janz’s boss and worked with Dyer for years. She declined to be interviewed for this story, saying only that she has a good working relationship with Janz and has endorsed Dyer.
Trump as an issue
Janz said Fresno needs a mayor who is willing to stand up and speak out against the Trump administration. On the campaign trail, Janz has likened Dyer to Trump on issues ranging from homelessness to immigration.
For instance, Janz has criticized Dyer for saying Fresno will not become a sanctuary city. Yet, Janz himself won’t commit to pushing for the policy locally, saying it oversimplifies the immigration issue and that it’s a moot point considering California is a sanctuary state.
Others in the mayoral race group Janz and Dyer together as “establishment” candidates – the kind Janz says he’s not.
In an endorsement interview with the Fresno Democratic Socialists of America, candidate Rev. Floyd Harris Jr. told the group’s members, “One will lock you up, the other will throw you in jail” referring to Dyer and Janz.
The group’s leadership speculated Janz didn’t show up for an endorsement interview because he’s one of several Democrats who are “afraid of the ‘s-word.’”
Other municipalities in California have shown that ultra progressive candidates can win. John Beynon, Fresno DSA’s co-chair, pointed to San Francisco, which just elected a defense attorney as its DA.
“We now have glimpses of what alternatives might be, and we sort of see what else is possible,” Beynon said. “It makes us think perhaps we don’t need to have these pipelines from law enforcement to politics as one of the traditional routes.”
Janz said he felt having the endorsement from the Democratic party was sufficient and he doesn’t personally identify as a socialist.
Serving the Valley
After growing up in Visalia, Janz worked to either stay in the San Joaquin Valley or make his way back here.
He was born to working-class immigrant parents, Dirk and Siri. His dad was born in Canada and later moved to the U.S. His parents met in Thailand, where his mom was born and while his dad worked in a hospital there with the Peace Corps. They married there and moved to the U.S. to start a family.
Janz’s first language was Thai, and his English wasn’t strong when he started school. His mom learned English by watching daytime soap operas. She worked at McDonald’s and later at a hospital. His father worked in food processing plants.
Janz attended Stanislaus State because it wasn’t as close to home as Fresno State – but it wasn’t too far away, either. He became active in student government and met Heather at a leadership retreat. There, Janz earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public administration. He also attended the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, founded by former CIA Director Leon Panetta.
His work in student government included supervising employees and volunteers and overseeing a million-dollar budget. He also played a role in the financing, planning and construction of a new stadium and student recreation facility on campus.
While in school, Janz thought he’d end up in a local government job. But he graduated right as the economy tanked during the recession and many local municipalities were laying people off instead of hiring.
So he went to Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and then clerked for Ellsworth. Then he had a choice: take a job with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office or in Fresno.
Ellsworth joked with Janz that if he took the job in Fresno, he’d end up prosecuting a case where a defendant sexually assaulted livestock. She was right. (A few years later, a Fresno State student sexually assaulted a sheep. Janz prosecuted the case.)
“Even though he had this offer from Los Angeles, which was far more sexy, he decided to go with Fresno, “she said. “That was one of the things that made me want to hire him. It seems like he’s always been drawn to public service.
“He really cares about people. He’s not the kind of person that does something to get credit or just to be noticed. That’s not Andrew,” she said. “Andrew does things because he wants to make a difference. I think that’s why he wanted to go back to the kind of place where he grew up.”
New leadership
During his congressional race, Janz drew sharp criticism from local Republicans who were staunch Nunes supporters. But in the mayor’s race, the most critical thing his opponents say about him is that he lacks the experience needed to manage the city’s budget and personnel.
Dyer hasn’t personally criticized or attacked him. Even Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes, who vocally criticized Janz in his 2018 race, declined to be interviewed for this story, saying simply that Dyer is the better choice for mayor since Janz has no managerial experience.
While Janz hasn’t supervised employees or managed budgets during his career as a prosecutor, he points to his time in college when he served on the budget oversight committee for California State University and managed staffers working for Associated Students, Inc.
“I don’t think (Dyer) wants to compare what he was doing in his 20s versus what I was doing in my 20s,” Janz said.
Janz isn’t accepting donations from developers, and he vows not to hand out appointments and jobs as political favors. He said he is excited to work with the City Council, which in the last election became majority Latino and majority Democrat.
On the campaign trail, he often focuses on the city’s inequities illustrated in south Fresno – income inequality, pollution, bad health indicators, blight and racial imbalance. Those are all things he hopes to address as mayor.
He supports initiatives such as Measure P, the 2018 sales tax initiative for parks and arts, and D.R.I.V.E., a racially inclusive economic road map for the region with the governor’s support. Early talks of a renewed effort to pass a parks and public safety sales tax indicate Janz will be a major proponent and promoter, too.
“It just seems that that the status quo and the machine that controls Fresno is always telling us, ‘No.’ And I hate to see that, and I think that keeps us back,” he said.
“…There needs to be a culture change here. We’re no longer a small town. We’re the fifth-largest city in the state, and we need to own it, and we need to prepare for the future. And the only way we do that is with leadership and funding and support for good things that are happening here.”
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREThe reporter began work in late 2019 on stories profiling leading Fresno mayoral candidates Jerry Dyer and Andrew Janz after they announced their candidacies.
The reporter researched about a dozen stories in The Bee’s archives as background for these stories. A second reporter compiled violent crime data for nearly two decades to create a data visual for one story. Two photographers compiled the videos.
The reporter conducted in-depth, in-person interviews with each candidate.
For Dyer, that interview covered his career as Fresno’s police chief. Dyer was interviewed several times afterward for other stories related to his candidacy. Content from his interview with The Bee’s editorial board also was included in this story.
For Janz, the interview covered his childhood and professional career. Janz did several follow-up interviews over the phone. Content from his interview with The Bee’s editorial board also was included in this story.
Several people either declined to be interviewed or could not be reached for comment. They include: former Fresno City Manager Bruce Rudd; former Fresno Police Deputy Chiefs Roger Enmark, Keith Foster, Sharon Shaffer and Robert Nevarez, who is now the Delano police chief; Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes; Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and Fresno Superior Court Judge Timothy Kams. The Bee also reached out multiple times to the woman, now age 50, believed to be the person with whom Dyer had a relationship when the girl was 16. She declined to speak to a reporter.
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 7:42 AM.