The moment of truth arrives Tuesday when Morgan Hill voters go
to the polls to choose their favorite candidates. Winners will run
against opposing parties
’ candidates in the November general election. Democrats got a
last-minute surprise.
The moment of truth arrives Tuesday when Morgan Hill voters go to the polls to choose their favorite candidates. Winners will run against opposing parties’ candidates in the November general election. Democrats got a last-minute surprise. Here’s what voters will face:
• Voters will select candidates for the 11th Congressional District. Incumbent Richard Pombo is a Republican who has represented Stockton, Tracy and parts of the Central Valley since 1991. Morgan Hill, but not San Martin or Gilroy, was added to his district in the 2000 redistricting.
Until last week, no one of any party had filed to run for the 11th district seat, other than Pombo, meaning he would run unopposed in November. Now, however, a write-in candidate has come forward.
Gerald (Jerry) McNerney, a lifelong Democrat, a Ph.D. mathematician, wind energy engineer and local business entrepreneur from Pleasanton has decided to run. He said his son, a U.S. Air Force officer and U.C. Davis graduate, urged him to challenge Pombo. McNerney is married, with three grown children.
“Democrats and moderates of all parties need a voice in Washington, especially since the President and Congress are moving so far to the right,” McNerney said. “We need every vote in Congress we can get.”
McNerney said he believes in fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C., in small business investment tax incentives for companies that create jobs on American soil, in upholding the Endangered Species Act, is generally pro-gun control and pro-choice.
McNerney needs 1740 write-in votes on March 2 to be included on the November ballot. His website – www.jerrymcnerney.org – will be up soon. Right now McNerney can be contacted at je******@*****st.net/ Information is also available at www.ebaydemo.com/
Pombo has represented the Central Valley for five terms and only in 2003 added Morgan Hill, Danville and Pleasanton to his largely rural district. He is chair of the House Resources Committee.
Pombo is considered with enthusiasm by central valley farmers and ranchers but not with environmental or women’s’ groups.
Rep. Pombo earned a 97 percent score with Chamber of Commerces during the first session of the 108th Congress and has compiled an 87 percent cumulative ranking during his tenure.
• Since Santa Clara County Open Space Authority district one representative Alex Kennett, the Morgan Hill resident and incumbent, is running unopposed, his name will not appear on the ballot.
• In the 27th Assembly District, (Morgan Hill and San Martin) Assemblyman John Laird is seeking the Democratic nomination for a second two-year term. Laird, a Democrat from Santa Cruz with a long history of public and government service, is unopposed. Jack D. Barlich, the mayor of Del Rey Oaks, is asking to be the Republican candidate who challenges Laird in November.
• The 15th State Senate District (Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy, all of San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties) has long been represented by Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, who is not running again because he is “termed out.”
Margaret A. Pinard, San Luis Obispo County supervisor with a long record of public service including success with getting tough with polluting corporations, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for McPherson’s seat. Ryen Brook Madsen is running for the Green Party’s.
Assemblyman Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, who was first elected to the Assembly in November 2000 and is a member of an agri-business family, will seek the Republican nomination.
Winner of the November 2004 election will replace McPherson in the state Senate; the 15th district was expanded by redistricting to include San Luis Obispo and parts of Santa Barbara counties.
• Incumbent U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, is running unopposed. Republicans Toni Casey and Bill Quraishi, Bill Jones, Howard Kaloogian and Rosario Marin; Don James Grundman of the American Independent Party; James P. Gray and Gail Lightfoot, Libertarian and Marsha J. Feinland, Peace and Freedom are running for their parties’ nominations to challenge Boxer in November.
• Two Superior Court judgeships are on the March ballot. For office no. 7, Deputy District Attorney Griffin Bonini is running against Enrique Colin, a government attorney, and attorney Lance Burrow.
Office No. 18 has Morgan Hill resident and attorney Teresa Guerrero-Daley pitted against attorney William J. Monahan.
California has a “modified closed primary system” in which voters registered in qualified parties can vote for candidates of that party. Voters registered “Decline to State,” non-partisan or an unqualified party will only be able to vote in non-partisan contests.
The “modification” in the California system allows qualified party committees to alter their party rules allowing cross over voting by voters not registered in qualified parties (i.e.: Decline to State, non-partisan or an unqualified party).
The following three parties allow cross-over voting by decline-to-state voters: Democratic (cannot vote for Central Committee), Republican (cannot vote for presidential nominee or Central Committee) and American Independent.
Santa Clara County’s 783,890 registered voters will use touchscreen machines for the first time. Unlike the paper ballots of the past, the electronic versions allow voters to change their minds (during voting) without returning to for a new ballot.
NITTY GRITTY DETAILS
To find more information about the candidates, what they stand for and who endorses them, check out www.smartvoter.org, a nonpartisan voting site sponsored by the equally nonpartisan League of Women Voters in Santa Clara County.
