More prospective 2010 San Mateo County candidates

Battle brewing between Ruskin and Church

Following the announcement by Warren Slocum that he would not seek reelection this year, San Mateo County Supervisor Mark Church, announced that he would go ahead and seek the seat Slocum now holds, San Mateo County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder.

Slocum is currently the only second Elections Chief and Recorder for San Mateo County, having taken the reigns from the former Clerk Marvin Church since 1967, the father of Supervisor Mark Church, who is now seeking his dad’s old seat.

Church has moved fast by garnering endorsements from all over San Mateo County; however, despite his fast actions to lock up the seat, he may still yet have competition. It is rumored that Assemblyman Ira Ruskin may be interested in running for the Assessor-Clerk-Recorder seat.

Ruskin, who is being forced from office due to term limits from his seat representing southern San Mateo County, would make a formidable opponent able to raise resources from Sacramento and who would easily win in the southern portion of San Mateo County where he enjoys a degree of popularity.

While Church has been in countywide office for a decade, he has never had to seriously campaign for office and is not particularly well known. In fact, Church has never been particularly visible as a county Supervisor, never championing any particular issue of note nor doing anything beyond the usual to outreach to his constituents. As a result, there is little reason to believe that an adequately funded competitor, with a good title and a degree of name recognition, wouldn’t give him a run for his money.

If Ruskin runs, Church will face the first real test of his near 20 years in local office.


San Mateo County Coroner may finally face the music

San Mateo County Coroner Robert J. Foucrault will seek his third full term in office this year, but unlike most incumbent elected county administrators, Foucrault has an opponent, as well as some issues to be concerned about.

Foucrault will face a former Coroner’s Office employee, Stacie Nevares, in the June 8, 2010 Primary Election. Nevares is currently an employee of the University of California, San Francisco Police Department managing personnel policies, media and community relations activities among a variety of ministerial duties.

Prior to her work at UCSF, Nevares was an assistant to the San Mateo Coroner. At the Coroner’s department, she was responsible for all communications and public outreach, and helped develop the San Mateo County Homicide Protocol.

Foucrault has worked in the County Coroner's office since 1992, including positions as Chief Deputy Coroner and Acting Coroner. Foucrault previously worked in various capacities in positions with San Bruno, Millbrae, San Francisco and San Mateo County. Foucrault was first appointed to the Coroner’s post in 2001 following the death of former Coroner Bud Moorman.

Nevares ran against Foucrault in an ill-fated write-in campaign attempt in 2006 as a protest effort in response to a raft of allegations against Foucrault and his administration just prior to the June 2006 election.

Only weeks before Foucrault’s reelection bid for a second term, the county was rocked by numerous allegations of sexual harassment and a variety of lewd and highly salacious behavior within the department that stretched back many years. The allegations, made primarily by a former deputy coroner, included “…sexual banter, innuendo, decorations of a sexual nature on a birthday cake and teasing about one employee’s sexual orientation” according to one investigator’s report.

Other findings included a birthday cake for an employee that was decorated with a naked woman figurine, the fact that employees accessed adult Internet sites on their work computers and a life-size fake skeleton had breasts drawn on it. Most embarrassingly, Foucrault himself denied a claim by employees that he "mooned" two deputy coroners after hours in 2003 - a claim that was never directly substantiated but one that an investigator concluded likely happened.

Despite the allegations against him Foucrault won a landslide reelection in 2006 simply because it was just too late in the election cycle for anyone to mount a campaign against him. Four years later, many voters have likely forgotten about the scandal – but not Nevares and perhaps not many in the County’s progressive political faction.

Still, Foucrault’s foibles have not deterred current and former county politicians from actively supporting him, including current San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks, who was himself embroiled in a sex scandal a year later when he was detained by federal and local law enforcement at a Las Vegas brothel in April of 2007, and former San Mateo County political boss Mike Nevin, who both are raising money for Foucrault.

It will be interesting to see who will publicly support Foucrault despite the scandal. Despite the scandals, Nevares will have an uphill battle to oust an incumbent in an elected office that few voters pay attention or even understand.

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San Mateo County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder Slocum Announces Retirement

Today, San Mateo County’s veteran Elections Chief Warren Slocum announced that he would not seek reelection this year for what would have been a seventh four-year term.

Slocum announced his retirement in a brief and undramatic press release emblematic of his understated style.

I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election as San Mateo County’s Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder. It has been an honor, a privilege, and a pleasure to serve the people of this great county.

I was first elected in 1986 and have served in government since 1976 – over thirty years. I am ready to consider doing other things – making other contributions to our community.

During my terms of office, I have had the good fortune to work with some of the best and brightest elected officials and the finest men and woman in government.

The residents of San Mateo County are blessed with a stable, well-run county government.
My father always taught me that one person can make a difference. I believe this to be true. This belief is shared among the people that have worked for me and together we have created a legacy of excellence and innovation. While I will miss these outstanding men and women, I will find new opportunities and continue to make a difference in the community.

My current term of office will end in January 2011. I will use the remaining months of my term to complete some of my initiatives. I have talked with the County Manager and the President of the Board of Supervisors and made my plans known.

The election for all elected county positions will be on June 8; the filing period for these offices will open on February 16 and close on March 12. However, as in my case, if an incumbent does not file by March 12, the filing period is extended to March 17.

Slocum has been the elected Assessor-Clerk-Recorder of San Mateo County since 1987 and is known in the State and nation as a dynamic elections chief and recorder. Slocum is known to have pushed the frontiers of technology in all aspects of the services he provides through the various offices he oversees. Slocum is also known for delivering a consistently good and customer friendly product particularly on the elections front. While many counties in California have struggled with technological changes and a myriad of challenges, San Mateo County elections were almost always smooth.

Slocum is only the second Elections Chief and Recorder for San Mateo County since 1967 having taken the reigns from the former Clerk Marvin Church, father of current San Mateo County Supervisor Mark Church.

Marvin Church served as the San Mateo County Clerk - Recorder and Registrar of Voters from 1967-1987 and had previously served as a councilmember and Mayor of Millbrae for a decade.

That history is important as Mark Church, now a sitting supervisor, who will term out of office in 2012, is rumored to be mulling a run for Dad’s old seat.

And thus another round of musical chairs.
If Church exits his post early, his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors will be again forced to either call a special election or appoint someone to fill out the term for two years.

In 2008, following former Supervisor Jerry Hill’s ascendance to the State Assembly, the remaining four members of the Board appointed former San Mateo City Councilmember Carole Groom to Hill’s seat. The appointment process – in lieu of a special election where people actually get to vote - drew howls of protest from many corners of the county including many local newspapers, the San Mateo County Democratic Party, The Republican Party, the League of Women Voters and the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club to name a few. Groom was appointed anyway and is at present running unopposed for election this June.

One of the most outspoken advocates for holding an election over an appointment for the open seat was Dave Pine, a San Mateo Union High School District Trustee.

Pine organized much of the opposition and argued the case for an election before the Board of Supervisors which voted 3-1 with only Rich Gordon dissenting to give voters the chance to choose their representative.

Pine is also a likely candidate for Supervisor should Church run for Slocum’s seat. Other local pols who have made their interest in the seat known include Burlingame councilmember Ann Keighran, Millbrae council members Gina Papan and Nadia Holober among several possibilities.

Of course, if any of those incumbent elected officials win the coveted Supervisor seat, then a few more chairs get shuffled.

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Explosion in San Mateo County Treasurer’s Race

In August 2009, when 25-year Tax Collector/County Treasurer Lee Buffington had announced to a local press that he would be retiring, a rare and valuable elected county administrative seat went up for grabs.

Buffington’s announcement prompted for, at least, two candidates to formally enter the race, including Sandie Arnott, Buffington’s Deputy in the County Treasurer’s Office and Joe Galligan, former Burlingame Mayor and councilmember—either to replace him several months ago.

The race has recently become more complicated, however, with the ensuing entrance of two additional candidates.

It is rumored that Burlingame-based investment advisor Richard Guilbault will likely be jumping into the fray. Guilbault ran for the seat against then incumbent Buffington in 1998, but unfortunately lost by a wide margin with the support of Congressmember Anna Eshoo and then soon-to-be State Senator Jackie Speier.

Also rumored to be in the running is two-term San Mateo County Community College District B Dave Mandelkern, who has already set up a website at www.davemandelkern.com for the campaign. The otherwise blank website states that a formal announcement will be made on February 15, 2010 that will “…make your heart sing.” Mandelkern is in the middle of his second term on the San Mateo County Community College District Board of Trustees. If elected to the Country Treasurer’s seat in 2010, an early opening would consequently be created for the College Board.

For his part, Buffington has been at the epicenter of a controversy surrounding his management of the county investment pool, a half-billion dollar fund comprised of local city and school district funds, and largely sums of money held in reserve or bond funds earning short-term interest through the large investment pool. The fund lost approximately $155 million in the wake of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment firm, which Buffington’s office did considerable business with.

The loss of funds has stung many cities and school districts already struggling with challenging budgets and has prompted the county to file suit against Lehman. The Lehman losses hit the Community College District particularly hard with losses of nearly $25 million in unrecoverable bond funding. Such a massive loss may be what has prompted Mandelkern to jump into the fray. Many districts and cities have additionally questioned the oversight of the county investment pool as San Mateo County was one of the hardest hit in the state in the wake of the Lehman collapse.

The record of the office will be the central question in the race and one in which Deputy Treasurer Arnott will be forced to answer from now three candidates in an atmosphere where voters have a great deal of anger toward the government at all levels for a range of oversight failures related to the financial industry meltdown.

The upcoming election for this open seat may also bring into question the fact that San Mateo County has yet ratify the CA Government Code 27000.7, which requires a candidate for County Treasurer to have served as a senior manager at a public financial agency and to be a licensed CPA or have earned a college degree. But such an issue will be a distant second to the overriding issue of the Lehman losses, particularly from Mandelkern, who will likely represent the perspective of the wounded parties.

Rarely are there elections for any county administrative offices as incumbents often serve decades, and ultimately hand off their seats to subordinates. But the San Mateo County Treasurer’s race is surely looking like it may be just that whopper.

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Peninsula politicos swap seats

Newswires all over California are burning with the rumblings that first-term Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) is contemplating a run for Attorney General of California, a seat that will likely be vacated by Jerry Brown, who will be seeking a second turn at the Governor’s wheel.

If Speier makes the jump, she will vacate a coveted seat in Congress – a political office with no term limitations and a commodity much in demand by any politician. Speier currently represents the 12^th Congressional District, which encompasses the southwest corner of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County.

Speculation is already running rampant as to who will replace Speier.

There are many possibilities being mentioned, including State Senator Leland Yee, who succeeded Speier in the 8^th State Senate District seat that overlaps the majority of the Congressional seat. There are of course two Assemblymembers who could also run for the seat, including Fiona Ma who is now serving her second term on the Assembly in the seat previously held by Yee, that is largely located in San Francisco. Freshman Assemblymember Jerry Hill could also be a contender for the seat. Hill, while new to State politics, has been involved in San Mateo County politics for 20 years and would also be a natural fit for the seat.

But the Assembly duo are rumored to be opting out of a Congressional bid in favor of remaining in State politics. That leaves Yee, at present, as the likely heir. However, there may be other contenders seeking this coveted prize who hail from San Francisco, including San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.

But the most likely contender who may want the seat is State Senator Joe Simitian, who represents the 11^th State Senate District based largely in Santa Clara County. Simitian, a resident of Palo Alto, represents the communities of Redwood City and San Carlos in the State Senate, a small portion of the 12^th Congressional District. But Simitian will term out of office in two years forcing him to seek another office if he is to extend his political life.

Simitian has maintained a federal election account for some time in the hopes that one of the Congressional seats around him would open. That account, as of the January 2010 reporting period, has nearly $51,000 in it, not a war chest by any stretch of the imagination for a Congressional seat. Following the election of President Barak Obama, there was some speculation that South Bay Congressman Mike Honda would receive a cabinet appointment, thereby opening his seat. But the appointment never materialized and Simitian has been forced to wait.

At the same time, for added insurance, Simitian opened a State Assembly campaign account in the event that he would need to return to California’s lower house where he remains eligible to serve an additional two-year term under the State’s term limit laws, having served only two terms prior to being elected to the State Senate. Of course, if that were to happen, Simitian would have to oust whichever Democrat replaces Ira Ruskin from the 21^st Assembly District as Ruskin is terming out of office this year with three Democrats vying to replace him.

Although Simitian does not even reside in one of the counties within Speier’s Congressional District, he can legally run for the seat anyway. And one can’t really blame Simitian for making preparations for every possible eventuality in the cold and high stakes poker of big time politics.

But at present, it looks like the seat is Yee’s to lose. In addition to already representing that vast majority of the district, it is also demographically one of the most Asian in terms of demographics of any Congressional district outside of the State of Hawaii. For Yee, that is a natural base and one he will command almost exclusively unless another Asian American candidate does not enter the fray.

In the final analysis, the landscape remains in flux as Speier’s sudden and likely departure from Congress has sparked a potential frenzy that will have many ramifications throughout the political spectrum on the Peninsula as offices are vacated and new offices sought.

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Battle begins in San Mateo Supervisor Race

There has not been a competitive election for a county supervisor since a special election in 1997, in which Supervisor Rich Gordon beat six other candidates in a bruising race for an open seat on the county board. Thirteen years later, Gordon is terming out of office and is seeking to replace Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, who is also terming out of his legislative seat. No less than five candidates have announced their intention to run for the seat now occupied by Gordon and one candidate, Jefferson Union High School District Trustee David Mineta, who has already dropped out of the race.

Candidates running for the 3rd Supervisorial District Seat – although there are no actual districts as Supervisors run at large – include former San Mateo County Sheriff and Sequoia Healthcare District Director Don Horsley; environmental and Democratic Party activist April Vargas; three term San Carlos City Council member Matt Grocott; Libertarian Party activist and Sequoia Healthcare District Director Jack Hickey; and San Carlos activist and frequent critic of the county board Michael Stogner.

Horsley is the San Mateo County political machine-backed candidate who has been lining up endorsements for the seat for three years in anticipation of his run. Horsley has garnered the endorsements of almost every elected official in the county at the city council level and above with only a few notable exceptions including State Senators Joe Simitian and Leland Yee and Supervisor Rich Gordon who now occupies the seat Horsley is seeking.

Horsley commands the most money in the race thus far, and when the reports are made public at the end of January, will likely have a commanding monetary advantage over his opponents. Horsley is considered the favorite in the race but as the field has become more crowded (rather than less) – and with many outspoken critics of the county’s government machine of which Horsley is a product, there may indeed be a race. Horsley’s south county voter base may also be split by the fact that all of the remaining candidates hail from either Redwood City or San Carlos.

Vargas, while not well financed, has been active in county and particularly coastal politics for decades and has many contacts on the Peninsula. While she is not a household name, she is the only woman in the race and voters tend to warm to female candidates as evidenced by the fact that the Board of Supervisors is now more female than male.

Horsley’s colleague on the Sequoia Healthcare District Board, Jack Hickey, holds the same elective title and even lives in the same Emerald Hills neighborhood as Horsley. Hickey, while never holding countywide office, regularly appears on the ballot as he has run for just about every office for which he is eligible. In some elections, he has run for two different offices and is frequently a signatory on ballot arguments opposing just about every tax measure in the county for the past decade or more.

While Hickey’s constant anti-tax positions have angered many in the city government and school district communities, he does command a following of sorts. When Hickey ran against Gordon in 2006 he garnered nearly a quarter of the vote with three candidates in the race. Not a bad showing for a candidate who spent really no money but knows how to generate some name recognition through the news media.

Stogner, who lives in San Carlos, will not be a major factor in the race but Stogner’s ability to raise concerns – and the occasional headline – may cause some additional headaches for Horsley. Two years ago, following the detention of San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks at a Las Vegas brothel – Horsley’s chosen successor – Stogner threatened to file recall papers against Munks and has lambasted the Sheriff’s office ever since. Horsley has a well-known and close relationship with Munks and may be compelled by Stogner to speak to the issue of his chosen successor’s leadership of Horsley’s former office. This will be particularly problematic for Horsley if he has taken large sums of campaign cash from Munks and Munk’s extended – and well known and wealthy – family. In the end, Stogner never followed through with his recall threat and will not likely impact the race beyond his ability to throw bombs.

But then there is the newest entrant in that of San Carlos Council member, Matt Grocott. Grocott is coming in behind the eight ball with little in the way of a campaign infrastructure, endorsements or funding but Grocott does have several things going for him. He will carry the ballot designation of council member – a far better elective title than any of his opponents. Grocott is a fairly popular official in his own community and is considered to be somewhat of a leader in what is left of the Republican Party in San Mateo County.

Grocott has also made a name for himself in the local press as he frequently crosses swords with his council colleagues by opposing efforts to levy local taxes, a well the San Carlos Council has attempted to draw from several times over the past few years. Most recently Grocott publicly opposed Measure U on the San Carlos Ballot in the November 2009 General Election that would have levied a six-year ½-cent sales tax. Measure U was roundly defeated at the polls. While Grocott’s opposition was not welcomed by his colleagues it has helped to solidify Grocott’s base in San Carlos and has given Grocott the broader notoriety as a committed and successful fiscal conservative.

For county Republicans, Grocott may be the Great White Hope for recapturing a seat on the county board of supervisors on which no Republican has served since former supervisor and now Assemblyman Jerry Hill reregistered as a Democrat in 2003 in a public ceremony.

The June election for the coveted supervisor seat is, for all intents and purposes, a Primary Election. Unless a single candidate garner’s 50-percent plus one of the vote, the election will go to a November General Election runoff of the top two candidates. With as many as five candidates in the race – particularly the five candidates who have entered this race – it may be unlikely for one candidate to command an outright majority.

Thirteen years after the last competitive election for a county supervisor, voters may actually get a choice this time around.

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