As always at election time, we offer you our thoughts on local candidates and ballot items.
Fire District: This race for three seats has the three incumbents running for re-election and one challenger. The incumbents have all shown they are on top of the issues and clearly take pride in how well the district is running. The challenger has not made a case for having superior knowledge or wanting to lead the district in a different direction, and we suggest returning to office Dawn Mittleman, Bill Norton, and Ray Brunton.
Hospital Board: Four candidates, only one of whom is an incumbent, are running for three seats. None has expressed a coherent vision that the old board had lacked, as it tried and failed to get large bond measures passed. The candidates instead have stressed their experience and knowledge, and of the four, the most relevant experience and depth of knowledge are found in Peter Hohorst, Bill Boerum, and Bill Gurry.
County Supervisor: This run-off from the June primary pits challenger Will Pier against incumbent Valerie Brown. We had endorsed neither before the primary, preferring the candidate whom the voters rated third, and we endorse neither now. Though the candidates are local (Pier in El Verano and Brown in Kenwood), District 1 extends into Santa Rosa, where they have been campaigning, as well, for this high-paying job. There are differences in experience and causes, but both seem well aware of the important issues facing Sonoma Valley and both appear capable of representing our interests.
State Assembly, US Congress: These races tend to be quiet, partly because two of three split the valley right down Sonoma Creek (Congressional Districts 1 and 6, and State Senate Districts 2 and 3); at least State Assembly District 6 covers the entire valley. But frankly, we’re not excited because we really don’t have a choice, thanks to gerrymandering by the Democratic legislature after the last U.S. Census. (The Republicans would have done it, too.) Something like 97 percent of all incumbents running for re-election to the legislatures are returned to office, so successfully have the career politicians created “safe” party seats for themselves.
Sonoma County Office of Education: The four-term incumbent is being challenged by a two-term member of the Santa Clara County Office of Education, who was defeated in his 2004 re-election bid and has since retired to Sonoma County. The incumbent knows our local interests and continues to have them at heart, and we recommend re-electing John Musilli.
Measure P Hospital Bond: As we wrote on Sept. 4, supporting Measure P is absolutely the right thing to do. This time around, the bond covers only the crucial needs of the emergency room and the infrastructure support it needs from the hospital itself – no land purchase is involved, nor are designs for new structures or real estate development. As part of our recent series of roundtable discussions on SVTV27, we tried to include someone representing the opposition, but found none. Don’t fail to vote, though, and vote YES.
Measure Q SMART Train: The SMART train is a dumb idea, as we said in 2006, the last time this issue was on the ballot. The problem here is that the California state legislature wants to spend our money and has created a new bureaucracy, spanning both Sonoma and Marin Counties, whose job it is to get a new train built from Cloverdale to Larkspur. They will bring it back and bring it back and bring it back before the voters, until it squeaks by. One of these times, it will, or maybe their funding will get cut first. We’re wary any time big government proposes to spend huge chunks of tax money contracting with big business. Like such boondoggles elsewhere, this will deliver a fraction of the benefit at a multiple of the cost. And it wouldn’t reach us in Sonoma Valley, anyway. Vote NO.
Whether or not you like our endorsements, your opinion counts, literally, only if you vote. Get informed and vote. In our great nation that’s not only a privilege – in our view, it’s a duty.
Next week: We review the statewide propositions.
