Chan’s bid for the Broadmoor Police Protection District Commission ended in a predictable defeat.
Brisbane
The City of Brisbane saw an upset with the victory of Planning Commissioner Cliff Lentz. On the losing end of the election was two term incumbent Michael Barnes. Brisbane has two major issues, the potential Baylands development which could – if it includes new housing which Barnes opposed – remake Brisbane. Lentz, in his campaign material indicated that he generally supports additional housing, at least somewhere in Brisbane.
Lentz states: “We need progressive leadership that will acknowledge Brisbane's responsibility to contribute to our region's sustainability -- while never losing focus on the importance of preserving our city's small-town character.”
While Lentz’s election does not necessarily mean that Brisbane voters have suddenly embraced big-time housing development, it does appear that representatives of the old guard may no longer have a lock on the Brisbane electorate and a new generation is moving in.
South San Francisco
All three incumbents in South City were reelected to the City Council. That outcome was never really in doubt. But what is more telling is that the now perennial candidate and local activist Kamala Wolfe has now lost three straight city council elections and actually earned fewer votes this time around despite the fact that she was running in a race with fewer candidates in the 2009 election than in 2007.
San Bruno
This permitted longtime Councilman Jim Ruane to step up from this group of veteran council members as the mayoral candidate. Facing only one opponent, Miguel Araujo, Ruane garnered nearly three-quarters of vote, which caused there to be a vacant seat on the council. This means that either there will either be a special election or the Council will appoint someone early next year.
This could be an unusual turn of events for San Bruno, which has not had a vacant council seat in in decades. In fact the only change of face that San Bruno has seen in decades was when Rico Medina defeated long-time incumbent Chris Pallas in 2005.
Burlingame
The Burlingame City Council election produced the most dramatic results to in the county. Five term incumbent Rosalie O’Mahony lost her reelection bid, coming in fourth behind two-term incumbent Cathy Baylock but 111 votes and counting. O’Mahony’s departure marks a significant change for the City of Burlingame and represents another shift away from San Mateo County’s old guard politics.
But what has been little discussed outside of Burlingame is the surprising first place showing of planning commissioner and new candidate Michael Brownrigg. The newcomers’ vote topped that of incumbent Mayor Ann Keighran whose plans to run for the County Supervisor seat now occupied by Mark Church are well known.
Keighran, backed by her well-healed family’s development interests, is considered to be Burlingame’s political heavyweight. But Brownrigg’s big win has shaken up the order of things in Burlingame and a new political star may have been born. Moreover, Brownrigg won without the backing of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council, the Democratic Party or any of heavyweight elected officials with the notable exception of State Senator Leland Yee who did endorse Brownrigg in addition to Burlingame Councilwoman Terry Nagel and San Mateo Union High School District Trustee Dave Pine.
San Mateo
Newcomer David Lim rocketed to the top spot in the San Mateo City Council election as had been expected by almost everyone in San Mateo. But what was less obvious was the second place finisher Robert Ross, a former police lieutenant for the city who did not enjoy the backing of the local political class, although he was supported by the both the police and fire fighter unions.
Ross beat out two incumbents including Mayor Brandt Grotte who was seeking his second term. Ross’ victory also prevented appointed incumbent Fred Hansson from successfully winning a full term on the council making Hansson’s tenure on the council one of the shorter stints in San Mateo’s history.
But more significant is the fact that Ross was not the preferred candidate of the San Mateo political class and is again another example of the county’s political applecart being upset.
San Carlos
San Carlos voters proved once again unwilling to invest in their community by rejecting a 0.5-cent sales tax increase known as Measure I. For San Carlos, this has been a perennial problem as voters and even a member of the council have consistently opposed just about any increase in taxes for any reason – including additional funding for their public safety services.
The loss was particularly interesting as a variety of new taxes including a sales tax, hotel taxes, parcel taxes and utility taxes were approved by voters in eight other cities except Redwood City.
The New Demographics
Elections always have interesting consequences but the subtleties are sometimes lost. This year, the most significant story may be the number of Asian American and Pacific Islander candidates who ran for local office.
Incumbents such as South San Francisco Mayor Karyl Matsumoto, Half Moon Bay Councilmember Naomi Patridge, and San Bruno Councilman Ken Ibarra all ran for reelection and easily won their respective seats.
But many newcomers such as David Lim of San Mateo and Jeff Gee of Redwood City won council seats in their respective cities and will serve as likely the first APIA council members in those communities.
In addition, newcomer Julie Chan won a seat on the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District Boars of Trustees.
In addition there were as many as six other APIA candidates who ran for local office and did not win but nonetheless represented the largest number of APIA community members running for local office at any one time in San Mateo County.
For those not paying attention this means that the APIA vote is growing, members of those communities will run for office and many will win and further change the face of San Mateo County.
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I recently ran across this SF Examiner article "More madness at Millbrae - BART's gigantic error", written by Guy Span, and thought it was well written, though it did have a few factual errors that I felt needed to be corrected. Here is my response that I posted in the author's comment section:
