It’s all about elections
Talk about getting ahead of the ball. A fax rolled through the
phone lines, dated Oct. 21, containing Rep. Sam Farr’s reaction to
the announcement that he has a write-in opponent.
It’s all about elections
Talk about getting ahead of the ball. A fax rolled through the phone lines, dated Oct. 21, containing Rep. Sam Farr’s reaction to the announcement that he has a write-in opponent.
Two days later, the opponent, Republican Jeff Taylor of Salinas, got around to announcing his candidacy in a faxed press release of his own.
Oops!
Farr, a Carmel Democrat, faces Anthony De Maio on the Nov. 7 ballot. Well, he sort of faces De Maio, if he could just find his face to face. De Maio has gone into stealth mode to the degree that a search of the Monterey County Central Committee Web site turns up nothing on him.
“Well, it’s every American’s prerogative to engage in the electoral process as they see fit,” Farr said in a release. “I guess a write-in campaign is one way to do that, though I suspect the real reason the local Republican party is mounting this effort is because their official Republican nominee seems to have disappeared and left the state – and that’s a real embarrassment.”
Taylor is the scion of a prominent Salinas agribusiness family who reportedly has been considering a run for some time.
It’s all in the details
Some years ago I worked at a polling place one election day. I already knew 15-hour days are exhausting, but I learned many things. When I volunteered myself for duty, I thought I knew the process pretty well. Through the day, we were met with questions none of us could answer, and we repeatedly called Kim Hawk in the elections office to bail us out. I learned that elections are an exacting, high-stakes process involving many people. Ultimately, a mistake will be made.
So it was not a tremendous surprise when Shore Road resident Robert Brians presented me with his sample ballot. It’s missing the governor’s race, and some of the candidates for lieutenant governor also failed to make the grade.
Oops!
What’s a guy got to do to get fired?
While we’re recounting elections goofs, Ann Carpenter called the other day to report her absentee ballot arrived right on time, along with her husband, Gene’s, ballot. That’s fine, but Gene is not voting in this election. He’s dead.
Carpenter-the-living dutifully reported to the elections office prior to the June primary, and returned her late husband’s ballot along with a request to have him stricken from the rolls. Looks like that didn’t happen the first time around.
Perhaps I spoke too soon
It seems like only yesterday that I commented on the refreshing civility of local elections this fall.
Uhhhh, let me reconsider.
The recent mailer from Assembly candidate Ignacio Velazquez, linking opponent Anna Caballero to a serial killer. It’s a new low, and it’s unnecessary.
Velazquez just didn’t need to go there. He’s a successful entrepreneur, with an electrical business employing more than 200. He’s done much to revitalize downtown Hollister. He’s smart, articulate, movie-star handsome and charming. In short, he’s got a lot to sell to voters.
But Velazquez pointed out that Caballero once represented Gus Marlow, a teenage monster who tortured and killed two Hollister girls in the 1980s.
He’s right to a point, but Velazquez turned a grain of truth into a banquet of distortions.
Caballero was the court-appointed counsel for Marlow, who was eventually convicted and sentenced to prison. He subsequently choked a prison laundry worker and left her for dead before escaping. He was soon returned to the place where he deserves to live out his days.
Unless Velazquez’s first order of business as an Assemblyman would be to lobby the nation to repeal the Sixth Amendment, he should know that every accused person in the United States has the right to counsel.
Caballero did not pick Marlow. The system picked Caballero.
And for many of us who were in San Benito County during its darkest time, it’s personal.
There’s hardly a person in San Benito County who escaped Marlow’s shadow. The first suspect who was arrested and held lost his home to arsonists and subsequently left the community. My own dental hygienist had reported Marlow exposing himself outside of her workplace prior to the killings.
Police say he is the leading suspect in two rapes – one on a middle school girl and the other on a never-married woman in her 70s. I knew one of the murder victims. Her sister babysat our children. Her father is a friend of mine.
Please, for decency’s sake, don’t go there again Ignacio. You’re a better person.
Anyway, it’s all over at 8 p.m. Nov. 7, and Nov. 8 is looking pretty darn good from here.
Notebook is compiled by Pinnacle publisher Mark Paxton with occasional staff contributions as noted. To contribute an item, e-mail Paxton at mp*****@**********ws.com.
