Congressional hopeful bikes to La Crescenta

To celebrate Earth Day Russ Warner, the Democratic candidate who hopes to win David Dreier’s congressional seat this November, biked from one end of District 26 to the other, a total of 53 miles. He and his cycling supporters ended their trip at Dominick’s Italian restaurant in the 2900 block of Foothill Boulevard.

“I did this to help bring attention to Earth Day,” Warner said.

And, he admitted, it was a great way to meet the people in the district.

Warner is campaigning to be the Democrat who will run against the incumbent, Dreier, in this November’s election, assuming he beats Cynthia Matthews in the Democratic primary on June 3 and Dreier wins the Republican primary against La Cañada businessman Sonny Sardo.

Warner’s bike trip began just after 8 a.m. on Sunday morning and ended just before 4 p.m. As he pulled into the Dominick’s parking lot, several supporters greeted him with signs and water.

“We made pretty good time,” he said. “We stopped at several places along the way.”

The bike tour first stopped at the Claremont Farmers’ Market, at his Monrovia campaign office, La Cañada’s Memorial Park and then La Crescenta.

“We’ve had a good time,” Warner said.

Along for the ride were two of his three sons, Adam and Greg, who are also two of his strongest supporters. And keeping with the Earth Day focus, both sons picked up trash along the way.

“It wasn’t planned but it had to be done,” Adam said.

He and his brother said they couldn’t ride past it and just leave it there so they balanced garbage bags on their bikes and kept going.

Greg served in Iraq and encouraged his father to run for the congressional seat.

He said that his father had many qualifications for the job including the fact that Warner began his distribution business in his garage and has now built it into a nationally successful company.

The political hopeful said that through events like this bike ride he has been able to connect with the voters of his district.

The day’s ride was capped off by a well-deserved pizza with Warner’s supporters.