Sonoma City Councilmember Joanne Sanders said Monday she intends to run in 2010 for the 2nd District state Senate seat currently held by Pat Wiggins.
The district encompasses parts of Sonoma and Solano counties, including the cities of Vallejo, Benicia and Santa Rosa, and all of Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties. Wiggins has recently announced she will not seek another term.
“I am running because I want to bring a dose of citizen’s reality to Sacramento,” said
Sanders, who will run as a democrat in the June 8, 2010 primary. “People have lost faith in California.”
Sanders has filed forms with the Secretary of State, and begun fundraising, obtaining endorsements and recruiting volunteers. She said her goals were to raise $200,000 and recruit 500 volunteers by the end of this year.
She said the legislature has avoided hard decisions because its members are more interested in preserving their positions and raising money than representing the people. “I want to break through the old stalemates and work to meet the challenges of our economy, our water supply, our jobs and our public safety,” she said.
Sanders was elected to the city council in 2004 and reappointed in 2008, when she served as mayor, and represents Sonoma County mayors and council members on the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. She is a graduate of Sonoma State University with a Bachelors Degree in Business Management
Sanders said she decided to explore a senate run when the state raided the Sonoma city coffers of $2.5 million to balance its budget. It has been too easy for legislators to blame the state’s budget problems on the governor, she said. “So they just let it slide, massage the numbers, steal from the cities and let the next generation of politicians deal with it.”
Sanders said it will take fundamental changes in the way California is governed to rescue the economy. “Since I’ve been in local government, we have always balanced our budget,” she said. “We’ve had the same challenges as everyone else and public safety services have actually improved. That’s what I’ll do, and more, when I am in the state Senate.”
One early endorsement came from Santa Rosa City Councilmember John Sawyer. “In Sonoma County, cities’ budgets are being ravaged,” he said. “It’s time for our representatives in Sacramento to stop the bleeding. Joanne Sanders is prepared to start that process.”
Sanders is the founder and president of BOLT Staffing Service, which serves Solano, Sonoma and Napa counties. She said the company has created approximately 3,800 jobs in District 2. “While the State legislature has been cutting jobs, I’ve been creating them.”
