Ten days later and the District 12 state senate race still is in
doubt, and that’s a travesty. Not that election officials are still
counting — but that it was even a contest.
Ten days later and the District 12 state senate race still is in doubt, and that’s a travesty. Not that election officials are still counting — but that it was even a contest.
Jeff Denham, who has done little for San Benito County but leave his campaign signs behind every two years, is looking like the winner, and I can’t help feeling guilty for being part of a profession that encourages negative campaigning by taking exaggerated accusations at face value, thereby demeaning our electoral process by ignoring the issues.
Political observers say Denham’s District 12 race was the most negative ever waged in the state. If he succeeds – and absentee ballots from conservative Stanislaus County are making it look very likely – Californians can expect more negative campaigns in the future.
Small-town Central Valley newspapers made big to-dos over the stale news that the Areias Family dairy farm went bankrupt in the tough, early 1990s, reinforcing the message of the campaign mailers as if it were blockbuster news, not a revival of Rusty Areias’ defeat in ’96 to Bruce McPherson’s same negative tact.
What are we coming to as a democracy when a human can’t learn from mistakes and go on to accomplish great things in life, including, perhaps, serving in the state legislature as the small businessman’s champion? Business owners should want to be represented by the one person who knows first-hand what it’s like to struggle in a bad economy, and Areias has the added experience of that business being the family farm started by his father. That kind of profound suffering is a powerful lesson for a public servant, especially if that servant has made good on past debts, as Areias has done.
The nasty Denham mailer that lead voters to believe that Areias had been charged with sexual harassment, when it was not he at all, revealed a win-at-all costs attitude that has contributed to an epidemic of voter apathy. Fewer than half of eligible San Benito County residents bothered to vote.
Who are we going to have left willing to run for public office if voters are so easily duped into accepting character assassinations instead of issue-oriented campaigning? Whatever thoughts any of the rest of us might have harbored about trying to make government work by seeking public office must disappear in this age when deceitful negative campaigning seemingly could turn a speeding ticket into a murder conviction. When smart people forsake public office, we’re left with ones who can’t check the flow meter on a sewage pond.
If Rusty Areias loses to Jeff Denham, it won’t be because of Monterey and San Benito counties, whose voters remember what Areias did for them in the assembly. For San Benito, it was Pacheco Pass improvements and the 101/25 exit ramp, which might still be an unprotected left turn like that at Gavilan College if he hadn’t pressured Caltrans for improvements. He convinced the legislature to name Benitoite, found only on San Benito Mountain above New Idria, the state gemstone, giving us a unique place amid California’s bounty. We could have used him in office when head-ons were killing drivers on Highway 25 and nobody could get anything done in Sacramento until 20 people had died.
San Benito County voters apparently remembered those things and gave Areias a 10-point margin over Denham, but now we’re faced with the sobering reality of redistricting. Instead of being aligned as we have been historically with Santa Clara County and coastal communities whose politics are more in tune with those in San Benito (remember, we used to be in Monterey County), we’ve been parceled off to the Central Valley, far more Orange County than Alta California. Voters in the Valley cast a majority of their ballots for Jeff Denham, an anti-choice, anti-gay candidate who was dismissed as Salinas traffic commissioner for lack of interest, a man who two years ago, in his negative and failed attempt at state assembly, was called the most uninformed candidate ever seen by the editorial board of the San Jose Mercury News.
Areias, if he loses, can go back to what must be the best job in the world — Director of the California Parks System, the most beautiful collection of real estate in the world. He’ll get to hang out with Clint Eastwood and other parks commissioners as they ponder coastal access, acquisitions and fee structures.
One almost has to wonder why he’d want to forgo that for bulk mail torture and a chance to schmooze other mail-order schmoes in Sacramento.
I have no idea what Denham cares about, and I once spent the evening seated next to him for dinner at a community function. I can’t tell from his campaign literature either. I did hear two weeks ago that he thinks this newspaper didn’t support him because we believe he’s “racist,” but he told the assembled county Republicans that he’s not racist because his wife is Mexican. I think he must have meant “xenophobic,” because Mexicans are of the same Caucasoid race as Denham. The absurd accusation is another Denham misrepresentation of the truth for his benefit. Do I think he’s homophobic? Yes, most definitely. He prides himself on his support by anti-gay crusader Pete Knight. I know being pro-gay is too much for many San Benito County voters, but I don’t believe any of them are pro-hate, as Knight is.
If Denham wins he will have clawed his way to office over the past two years by assassinating the character of even his past Republican primary opponents – just ask Morgan Hill’s Laura Perry and Tres Pinos’ Peter Frusetta. For someone to win by killing the competition rather than extolling one’s own benefits is a shameful exploitation of the democratic process. One who would do so does not possess the character most San Benito County residents look for in a leader.
If Jeff Denham wins, the San Benito residents should have only one request of him during his term in office. Could he please lobby his colleagues to move San Benito County into another state senate district?
