Council, assembly, SBHS trustee candidates speak to small
gathering; Denham and most school board candidates absent
Not many citizens attended the last political forum of the
season Tuesday night. But for that matter, neither did many
candidates
– most notably State Senate candidate Jeff Denham.
Council, assembly, SBHS trustee candidates speak to small gathering; Denham and most school board candidates absent
Not many citizens attended the last political forum of the season Tuesday night. But for that matter, neither did many candidates – most notably State Senate candidate Jeff Denham.
In a meeting that showcased the candidates for Hollister City Council, 28th Assembly District, the San Benito High School Board of Trustees and the 12th State Senate, many of the would-be politicians didn’t show up. Only two incumbents for the SBHS board spoke: Sylvia Sims DeLay and Judy Rider.
State Senate candidate Jeff Denham was also absent, due to an illness in his family, according to a statement that was delivered to the forum. A group of Denham’s campaign workers arrived while city council candidates were giving their closing statements. They disrupted the meeting as they handed out a copied statement from Denham explaining his absence to each member in the audience.
Denham’s glaring absence gave his opponent Rusty Areias a golden opportunity to use to his advantage Denham’s time slot. Moderator Paul Hain from the Farm Bureau asked the Denham contingent if one of them would speak on Denham’s behalf, but a person in the Denham camp yelled, “Just read the letter.” Hain did.
The race between Democrat Areias, former State Parks Director and 12-year Assemblyman for the 28th District, and newcomer Republican Denham, a business owner, has grown ugly during the last months of the season as many hit pieces against Areias have flowed regularly from the Denham camp to the public and the media.
Although the new 12th State Senate district includes all of San Benito and large parts of the Central Valley, Denham has done little campaigning in this county since the Board of Supervisors endorsed Areias after the primary. Areias is widely popular in San Benito, and before and after the forum the Merced resident personally greeted just about everyone who attended.
“When I got here, I was told that San Benito County was the back doorstep to Santa Clara County,” said Areias, as he stood before the audience and reminisced about his first go-round as assemblyman for the area. “I’m proud of this county.”
Areias elaborated on his accomplishments as an assemblyman. He managed to get 103 bills signed by Republican governors, he said, and he augmented the budget of the Coastal Commission by $1.3 million when he was a member of it. He pushed the legislature to get the Highway 25/101 interchange built and secured $150 million for the Pacheco Pass bypass. He also obtained $2 million for a badly needed new sewer plant in San Juan Bautista.
As head of state parks, he finagled $157 million from the state budget to rebuild the system, got huge billion-dollar bond measures passed to secure the parks’ futures and upped attendance by 22 million people by cutting in half the admission rate.
When asked by the moderator how he felt about the State Housing Authority’s demands on local jurisdictions to build housing, Areias answered, “I think it’s an unrealistic demand,” and called the state’s threat to withhold transportation dollars from local governments “heavy handed.”
At the same time, Areias was passionate about the need for affordable and low-income housing, especially for farm laborers and service people. The issue, he said, was going to be one he would champion if elected.
“The mean cost of a home in Monterey County is $500,000,” he said. “We are one million housing units short in California.”
He suggested that voting for Proposition 46, the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act, would be a start to alleviating the problem.
A question from the audience solicited Areias’ ideas to better the quality and quantity of California’s water. Among them, he suggested increasing the volume of certain massive reservoirs in Shasta and Maxwell and other areas. He was keen on rewarding farmers with tax credits for investing in water-saving technologies and high-yielding crops.
In closing, Areias mentioned that since he started campaigning in January, he has rarely seen his opponent anywhere in the 12th State Senate District.
“Inexperience is not in itself unforgivable,” he said. “But what is unforgivable is not doing the work. I’m prepared for this job.”
He received a big applause.
Both candidates for the 28th Assembly District showed up. The differences between incumbent Democrat Simon Salinas and challenger Republican Jane Howard are classic in the liberal versus conservative tradition, yet the two opponents treated each other cordially before and after the forum.
Salinas, a former Montery County supervisor from Salinas, just survived a grueling balancing of the state budget and emphasized that despite the money restraints he was still able to save funding for Highway 25 improvements and farm worker housing. He emphasized his desires to bolster healthcare, agriculture, schools and public safety, and a “safety net” for poor families.
Howard, a trustee on the Gilroy School District, compared running government to her managing her family’s tire chain store businesses, providing “quality products and customer service.” She stressed the need to give control of schools to local jurisdictions and often cited the need for vigilance against national terrorism
When asked what programs they would be willing to trim in the next budget, neither gave specific answers.
“I don’t believe in balancing the books on the backs of local governments,” said Salinas. “I’m a big believer in working with local governments.”
Howard touted a concept she called “zero-based budgeting,” though what it exactly meant was not clear.
“If you start with zero, you get a good house cleaning,” she said.
She said that in the last three years state expenditures increased 37 percent but the population and cost of living grew only 12 percent in comparison. The out-of-control budget needed some kind of Constitutional amendment to keep it in check, she said.
In a rebuttal statement, Salinas said, “We can have all the slogans we want, like ‘zero budgeting.’ At the end of the day, where are our values? I’m not willing to cut any more of the safety plans that are going to put families out on the streets. Human beings aren’t widgets.”
When the assembly candidates were asked for their solutions to regional transportation problems, both – surprisingly – said that San Benito County has to decide what it wants: Highway 25 widening, the Farm Bureau’s 3-in-1 highway plan, or 152 improvements? They both agreed that working with other, richer regions, especially Santa Clara County, was essential to getting roads built and improved.
All the candidates for the Hollister City Council were present. Throughout the question and answer period, incumbents Peggy Corrales and Pauline Valdivia held the status quo, and many of their statements centered on how difficult the job was and how current council members are doing the best they can.
In contrast the three challengers – Robbie Scattini, Randy Pfeifer and Henry Sumaya – often said that what they read in the newspaper about council actions alarmed them, prompting them to run for office and change the business-as-usual mentality.
“We’re like a losing baseball team,” said Pfeifer. “We need to take the city back.”
Scattini agreed and said that while he’s been going door-to-door with his campaign, the response has been one of exasperation.
“People are really upset with the way the city is run,” said Scattini. “A lot of people want to move out!”
“I haven’t been to one door yet where anyone was happy,” said Pfeifer.
Sumaya had the same response.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people,” said Sumaya. “They’re fed up with it. Hey, I don’t blame them.”
Valdivia repeatedly criticized “the paper,” saying stories were exaggerated and “not the whole story.”
“A lot of people don’t know about the sewer problem,” said Valdivia. “Just what they read in the paper.”
Both Valdivia and Corrales defended the current but controversial sewage fix plan.
“I know people have said a lot about us not caring about the health and welfare of the people,” said Corrales in her closing statement. “We’ve increased the police and fire department.”
The forum was held in the supervisors’ chambers in the Administration Building, but two-thirds of the seats in the audience remained empty throughout the 2½ hour show.
