With about a month before the June 8 election, sheriff candidate
Ray Wood publicized an endorsement on his election website that he
did not obtain and he attributed it to a communication error.
With about a month before the June 8 election, sheriff candidate Ray Wood publicized an endorsement on his election website that he did not obtain and he attributed it to a communication error.
The Service Employees International Union Post 521 on Friday asked him to remove its endorsement from his website, and Wood’s campaign removed it this afternoon.
Wood believed he had received the endorsement after conversations with Hollister Utility Engineer Danny Hillstock and SEIU Executive Board delegate Luis Aguilar nearly a month ago.
“He (Hillstock) told me it was clear – I had the endorsement,” Wood said. “But he didn’t have the authority to give endorsements to me so he spoke out of turn.”
Hillstock didn’t remember telling Wood he received the endorsement, he said.
The candidate, a Hollister police sergeant, put the endorsement on his website after he had received the notification by Hillstock, Wood said. He had asked and expected a formal written endorsement within a few weeks.
“It was a miscommunication between the local worker and the office,” Wood said.
The SEIU got in contact with Wood last week after someone brought up the endorsement to the union, Wood said. Its representatives then asked Wood to take it down.
“The local union didn’t go through the right endorsement protocols,” Wood said. “And it’s too late for endorsements now.”
Each candidate hoping to receive an SEIU endorsement must meet before its board months prior to the election, said Khanh Weinberg, SEIU Post 521 communications director. Wood never went through that process.
“There is no relationship between him and us,” Weinberg said.
Aguilar said he informed the main SEIU office of his recommendation to endorse Wood, but was told it was too late.
“There was just too many things going on,” Aguilar said. “I don’t know what happened.”
Wood never was told he didn’t receive the endorsement until the main office called him last week, he said.
The SEIU did not give an endorsement for the sheriff race but did give out one for each of the two supervisor races.
