Politics in this part of California is mean and stupid. State Sen. Dean Florez, hailed by the anti-asthma activists as the hero who expanded the San Joaquin Valley air board to include three more city council members, a doctor and a health professional, called for the abolition of the state Department of Food and Agriculture on Tuesday. Florez comes from Wasco, deep in the Westlands Water District, but the Farm Bureau has opposed all his efforts to expand the air board and curb air pollution in the worst part of the worst air basin in the nation. So, Florez, chair of the state Senate Agriculture Committee, proposed Tuesday to abolish the state agency with oversight over the farms and ranches of the fifth most agriculturally productive political jurisdiction in the world.

In April he proposed permitting federally recognized tribes to automatically cancel a Williamson Act contract on land that they acquire.