Contra Costa Times / East County Times / San Ramon Valley Times / Tri-Valley Times Editorial
March 16, 2015
Voters in the 7th state Senate District should not let slimy campaign advertising fool them or discourage them from casting their ballots in an important special election Tuesday.
Polls throughout the district, which includes the Tri-Valley and most of Central and East Contra Costa, will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those with absentee ballots can take them to the polls or they can still mail them in. Under a new state law, they will be counted as long as they are postmarked by Tuesday.
The election will fill a seat vacated by Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, who replaced retired Rep. George Miller in Congress. If no one receives a majority, the runoff between the top two finishers will follow on May 19.
Five names are listed on the ballot, but only four, all Democrats, are actually running and only three are serious contenders. The only Republican dropped out early.
Our recommendation: Steve Glazer, the most centrist of the three candidates. An Orinda councilman, California State University trustee and Gov. Jerry Brown’s former political adviser, he has appealed to Republicans, independents and Democrats alike.
Glazer has called for prohibiting BART strikes, worked to elect moderate Democratic candidates and crossed party lines last year to back Republican Catharine Baker, another centrist politician.
If you want an independent-thinking state senator, he’s your candidate. But if you want someone who will blindly tow the labor line as most Democrats in Sacramento do, he’s not.
Labor leaders know that. That’s why they’ve gone after him with a deceptive campaign of hit pieces, some under the guise of a group called the “Asian American Small Business PAC.”
In mailers to Democrats, they claim Glazer is too conservative. To Republicans, they brand him a tax-and-spend liberal and urge them to instead support the Republican listed on the ballot.
Note to Republicans: Don’t be fooled. Not only did that GOP candidate, Michaela Hertle, drop out of the race early, she also endorsed Glazer, which should tell you something about his bipartisan appeal.
That’s especially important in this district, which is unusually centrist for the Bay Area. While Democrats comprise 44 percent of registration, half the voters are Republicans or independent.
Well over half the voters in the district received absentee ballots.
But as of late last week, only about one-fourth of those ballots had been returned.
There’s still time to mail in your ballot. Or, go to the polls on Tuesday.
For voter questions in Contra Costa, call 925-335-7800 or go to www.cocovote.us. In Alameda County, call 510-267-8683 or go to www.acgov.org/rov.
[Contra Costa Times circulates in Clayton, Concord, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, Pacheco and Walnut Creek.]
[East County Times circulates in Antioch, Bay Point, Byron, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Knightsen, Oakley and Pittsburg.]
[San Ramon Valley Times circulates in Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo and San Ramon.]
[Tri-Valley Times circulates in Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton and Sunol.]