It’s a New Year and yet another election cycle in California’s seemingly endless election cycle.
December 30th of 2011 marked the opening of the filing period for candidates seeking state legislative and Congressional seats.
For San Mateo County many new faces will appear on the scene despite the fact that among the counties legislative and Congressional delegation there is only one forced retirement – that being third-term Assemblywoman Fiona Ma who is ineligible to seek another term in the State’s lower house.
Despite the lack of impact of term limits, there are two dramatic factor driving changes on the Peninsula. Primarily, the changes in legislative and Congressional District boundaries resulting from the decennial redistricting process that was completed by a voter-created independent citizens’ commission last August.
Many Peninsula Communities will inherit new candidates and vote in another State Senate Election despite the fact that current State Senator Leland Yee was just reelected to a second four-year term in 2010.
Residents of what is now the new 19th Assembly District, which includes western San Francisco, Daly City, Colma and approximately a third of the City of South San Francisco, will have the opportunity to elect a new Assembly representative – more or less replacing Ma whose previous district alignment was similar to the new one but took in less of San Mateo County.
The only declared candidate known is current San Francisco Assessor Phil Ting who ran for Mayor of San Francisco in November of 2011. In that race Ting finished well out of the money in 11th place but benefitted greatly from utilizing San Francisco’s public financing for local campaigns, spending $279,668 to garner 1016 votes out of nearly 200K votes cast – or about $363 per first place vote under that city’s ranked choice voting system.
Almost as soon as the Mayoral contest had ended Ting was off and running again for the State Assembly and thus far has the field to himself. This means that Daly, Colma and South San Francisco residents should dust off the welcome mat for Mr. Ting sometime soon.
San Mateo County will also likely be welcoming in a new State Senator from San Francisco in that of Mark Leno who is now in the last year of his first term in the State Senate and will be seeking reelection for a newly drawn 11th State Senate District that includes all of San Francisco, Daly City, Colma and the same cut from South San Francisco as 19th Assembly District.
Leno, like Ting, is this far unopposed and is at this point a lock. But the new State Senate District includes a lot of territory Leno has not necessarily represented before in Western San Francisco and certainly San Mateo County so while time is short for another candidate to jump in anything is possible but more unlikely.
The real fun will be in what is now the 13th State Senate District which runs from Pacifica and Brisbane and South San Francisco in the north all the way through Mountain View in Santa Clara County. Bidding for the newly created seat will be currentAssemblyman Jerry Hill who is now serving his second term in the State’s lower house.
Hill’s opponent, former Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, hails from the southern end of the district having previously served terms on the Mountain View City Council and three terms in the State Assembly from 2002-2008 where she was the Assembly Speaker pro Tempore in her last year in office.
The district and the election favor Hill at this point with the lion’s share of the district is within the borders of San Mateo County and Hill has the power of incumbency on his side. For Lieber, the challenge will be to introduce herself to San Mateo County voters who don’t know her and to run without an incumbent title.
The twist in this election is really a test of the new open Primary Election system authorized by voters via Proposition 14 on the June 8, 2010 ballot.
Proposition 14 changed the Primary Election process for congressional, statewide, and legislative races and allowing all voters to choose any candidate regardless of the candidate's or voter's political party preference. The new system ensures that the two candidates receiving the greatest number of votes will appear on the general election ballot regardless of party preference. In a district such as Senate District 13 in which approximately 50 percent of voters are registered Democrats and only 22 percent are registered as Republicans, it is very likely that the top two vote-getters will both be Democrats.
What this means for voters is that the November General Election for the 13th State Senate District will be between two Democrats and for the first time in a generation the November General Election will actually decide something in a legislative race locally.
Hill’s pursuit of the State Senate seat and early departure from the State Assembly has opened the door for a new legislative candidate to seek higher office – sort of.
At present there is only South San Francisco Councilmember Kevin Mullin seeking what is now the newly created 22nd AssemblyDistrict. If Mullin’s name sounds familiar it’s for a good reason, he is the son of former Assemblyman Gene Mullin who served in more or less the same seat from 2002-2008 and also served on the South San Francisco City Council before that.
San Mateo County has a long tradition of sending political scions into local and state office including current San Mateo County Assessor Mark Church who occupies the same elected office now as his father Marvin Church did for 20 years. Former longtime school board and councilmember Sue Lempert’s son Ted Lempert also served in the State Assembly, Board of Supervisors and now on the County Board of Education. Former Assemblyman Lou Papan’s daughter Gina Papan is serving her second term on the Millbrae City Council and has made a few bids for higher office. There are many more examples in San Mateo County and it is clear that local voters don’t mind intergenerational representation.
Finally, first term Assemblyman and former County Supervisor Rich Gordon will seek a second term in the lower house in the newly created 24th Assembly District. Gordon’s new district will take in a bit more of Santa Clara County and a bit less of his base in San Mateo County but he is unlikely to draw heavyweight competition.
In all, San Mateo County will see limited fireworks for the legislative races but voters will be forced to adapt to a greater relationship with San Francisco based legislators and at least one two-round battle for a new State Senate seat.
Much more to come on this topic.
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