As intended, the March primary weeded out extra contenders and
set up the opposing players in the upcoming November election. In
Morgan Hill
’s new Congressional district, the 11th, a last-minute contender
qualified as a write-in candidate, which should perk up the race
ahead.
As intended, the March primary weeded out extra contenders and set up the opposing players in the upcoming November election. In Morgan Hill’s new Congressional district, the 11th, a last-minute contender qualified as a write-in candidate, which should perk up the race ahead.
There are 783,890 registered voters in Santa Clara County though fewer than 30 percent voted last Tuesday.
A previously uncontested seat for the 11th Congressional District took on new life when a Democratic candidate, Gerald McNerney, threw his hat in the ring only two weeks before the election. Five-term incumbent Richard Pombo, a Republican from Tracy who received 58,965 votes, was set to run unopposed for the largely Central Valley district that has included Morgan Hill since 2002.
But now, if McNerney has gathered the more than 1,740 write-in votes necessary to make it onto the November ballot, Pombo would have a challenger.
McNerney said he knew 4,393 Democratic write-in votes were cast in District 11 and since he was the only candidate who qualified, he assumes most are for him. The Democratic write-in received 317 from the Santa Clara County portion of the 11th district, mostly from Morgan Hill. The rest of the district lies in three other counties, Contra Costa, Alameda and San Joaquin.
“If it is close, it will take longer (to confirm) because Contra Costa County has consistently said they will not have confirmed results until the end of the month,” McNerney said.
Alex Kennett, president of the South County Democratic Party, said that even if Pombo ultimately wins, as he has consistently done since 1992, all district voters will win.
“With two candidates, now we can discuss the issues,” Kennett said. “If Pombo were to run unopposed we wouldn’t have much of an election.”
15TH SENATE RACE
A second race of interest to Morgan Hill voters will be for the newly redrawn 15th State Senate district, which includes parts of Santa Barbara, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties and all of San Luis Obispo County. Senator Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, has represented the district since 1996 but cannot run again because of term limits.
Abel Maldonado, a two-term Republican Assemblyman from Santa Maria who received 72,623 Republican votes, will run against Democrat Peg Pinard, a long-time San Luis Obispo city and county public official. Pinard received 63,522 Democratic votes. A third candidate Brook Madsen, earned 1,267 Green Party votes in the March 2 primary.
Maldonado, 36, served as Santa Maria City Councilman from 1994-96 and as mayor from 1996-98. He was elected to the Assembly in November 2000. The assemblyman is from an agri-business family, grew up in the Santa Maria area, and graduated from CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, with a degree in agriculture.
While mayor and councilman, according to his website, Maldonado helped to cut the city budget, increased police presence and built a youth center without raising taxes – as Morgan Hill has with its community and aquatics centers.
Pinard, who is in her early 60s, grew up in San Jose and worked her way through Santa Clara University, one of the first in her family to go to college. She served in the Philippines during a stint in the Peace Corps, then prepared migrant workers for the high school equivalency exam opened her own small business.
Pinard was elected to the San Luis Obispo City Council in 1987, elected mayor in 1992 and to the county Board of Supervisors in 1996. She was re-elected in 2000 with 70 percent of the vote, never having lost an election. An important part of Pinard’s past is highly relevant to Morgan Hill residents, battling with Olin Corp. over perchlorate in the underground water system.
While a supervisor, Pinard forced Unocal to finish cleaning up contamination it left in Avila Beach and Guadalupe, after the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board – also the lead agency in the local perchlorate/Olin clean up effort – had said there was no more they could do.
ELSEWHERE
In Santa Clara County Superior Court judicial races, Morgan Hill resident Teresa Guerrero-Daley beat William J. Monahan for Superior Court Office No. 18 with 58.6 percent of the vote. Griffin Bonini and Enrique Colin will meet again on Nov. 2 for a run off for Superior Court Office No. 7, because neither received 50 percent of the vote.
In the 27th State Assembly district, which includes Morgan Hill and San Martin (but not Gilroy), the one-term incumbent John Laird, D–Santa Cruz, and who received 98.84 percent of Santa Clara County Democratic votes and 47,705 votes districtwide will face Jack Barlich, mayor of Del Rey Oaks in Monterey County. Barlich won 22,437 votes districtwide and will be the Republican nominee.
For the U.S. Senate, California’s incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer is the Democratic nominee with 2,321,772 votes. She will go up against Bill Jones, Republican and former secretary of state who received 919,723. Rosario Marin received 410,970 Republican votes to come in second. Boxer was first elected to the Senate in 1992 and was re-elected in 1998. Countywide Boxer received 126,721 Democratic votes to Jones’ 27,630 Republican votes.
John Kerry won the California Democratic vote for presidential nominee with 1,819,193 votes or 64.5 percent. John Edwards came in second with 556,117 or 19.8 percent, followed by Dennis Kucinich, 131,086, Howard Dean, 119,278 and Wesley Clark, 46,995 votes respectively. In Santa Clara County Kerry won 94,461 votes or 67.9 percent; Edwards received 26,449 or 19 percent.
It is widely expected that incumbent President George W. Bush will be the Republican nominee. He received 1,998,989 votes statewide.
