Congressman Jimmy Panetta
142 W. Alisal St., Room E116, Salinas (district office) (831) 424-2229, panetta.house.gov
Jimmy Panetta is fond of saying it’s all about the data, but really, it’s all about the people and that’s why this two-term congressman (and counting – he got a commanding 65 percent of the vote in a three-way primary) is regularly voted by Weekly readers as Best Politician. He loves doing the work of delivering constituent services. That includes technical stuff like helping solve Social Security problems, veterans benefit problems, resolving passport and visa application delays, to the tune of 850 completed cases in 2019 alone, plus making public appearances (400) and hosting town halls (10) and interacting with real people (100,000 responses to correspondence). That’s what representative government is all about.