Elegantly attired in red in honor of the late Supervisor Gayle Uilkema, former Danville Mayor Candace Andersen was sworn into office Tuesday as the District 2 representative on the Contra Costa County board of supervisors. (Click here to read story at ContraCostaTimes.com.)

Click here to watch video of Andersen take the oath of office with Clerk-Recorder Steve Weir.

Click here to watch video of Andersen’s post-oath comments.

Andersen, 51, was overwhelmingly elected to the District 2 seat in the June primary election, beating out two competitors.

But her official term wasn’t slated to start until Jan. 1, which would have left the seat vacant for more than six months. In the wake of her decisive win, Andersen, other elected officials and labor leaders petitioned Gov. Jerry Brown for an early appointment, which he did late Monday.

Andersen took the oath of office before a crowd of supporters, her husband, Phil, and former Danville Town Council colleagues.

District 2 includes the San Ramon Valley, Alamo, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga and Rossmoor.

“You will learn that Candace is truly a good person,” Danville Vice Mayor Newell Arnerich told the supervisors and the audience. “She is easy to get along with. She is bright. She has a smile even in the most difficult of times.”

Andersen expressed sadness at leaving the Danville council, where she has served since 2003. And she paid homage to Uilkema, who died in May after a battle with cancer but had endorsed the Danville mayor as her replacement on the board.

Uilkema offered invaluable advice on numerous fronts before her death, Andersen said, including a recommendation that she always keep a classic red suit in her closet for auspicious occasions.

“I have high heels to fill,” said the attorney and mother of six. “But I am looking forward to representing not just Danville but the entire county.”

Before her election to the Danville council, Andersen was elected to the Morgan Hill council.

She began her legal career as a clerk and deputy prosecuting attorney for the city and county of Honolulu in her home state of Hawaii, from 1983 to 1987. She earned her law degree at Brigham Young University.

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Danville Mayor Candace Andersen to the Contra Costa County board of supervisors late Monday night and she will be sworn into office Tuesday at 9 a.m., in Martinez, just in time to join her four colleagues on the debate later in the day over whether to put a fire parcel tax on the November ballot.

Andersen was overwhelmingly elected to the District 2 seat in the June primary election, beating out competitors Tomi Van de Brooke of Orinda and Sean White of Lafayette.

The supervisor-elect’s official term wasn’t slated to start until Jan. 1, which would have left the seat vacant for more than six months.

The late incumbent supervisor Gayle Uilkema died in May after a battle with cancer, and she had been unable to perform many of her public duties since last December.

District 2 includes the San Ramon Valley, Alamo, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga and Rossmoor.

Here’s what the governor’s office said about her in a release that went out a few minutes ago:

Candace Andersen, 51, of Danville, has been appointed to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors. Andersen has served as mayor and councilmember for the Town of Danville since 2003. She was a councilmember for the City of Morgan Hill from 1993 to 1994 and an attorney at the Law Offices of Craig J. Bassett from 1988 to 1991. Andersen served as a clerk and deputy prosecuting attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii from 1983 to 1987. She earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $97,483. Andersen is a Republican.

Contra Costa Public Employees Union Local One may have endorsed her opponent but now that Danville Mayor Candace Andersen has won the District 2 supervisor seat in a landslide, the labor group is graciously asking Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint the victor.

“Ms. Andersen was decisively elected to the District 2 seat,” wrote Local One General Manager Larry Edginton in a letter to the governor’s office. “The voters of that district have spoken. They have elected Mayor Andersen to represent them on the Board of Supervisors. There is no reason not to fill it or appoint someone else.”

The Contra Costa Building Trades and Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo — both endorsed Contra Costa Community College District board President Tomi Van de Brooke — have also sent letters recommending the appointment.

Local One, which represents 2,000 Contra Costa County employees, rightly argues that District 2 residents deserve a representative as soon as possible and the restoration of a fifth supervisor will avert any potential tie votes that might create governance programs.

Andersen beat Van de Brooke on June 5 by 31 percentage points. She will take the office held by the late Gayle Uilkema, who intended to retire at the end of the year but died in May from ovarian cancer.

The district office has been without a full-time supervisor since last winter, however. Uilkema had been unable to work for much of the year although she tried to keep up from home until very close to her death.

Andersen’s term doesn’t  officially start until Jan. 1, 2013, but the governor could appoint her to the post early. As a general law county, only the governor may fill vacant supervisor positions.

The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a similar request of the governor at its June 26 meeting.

There’s no official word out of the governor’s office yet although nothing is likely to happen until after the election results have been certified.

But there is no obvious barrier to the appointment. Partisanship is unlikely to disqualify the Republican mayor because she won by such a vast margin. She also generally opposes new taxes but says she hasn’t taken a position on the governor’s tax initiative, hasn’t signed a “no new taxes pledge” and says she won’t, and has supported all the school bonds and tax measures in the San Ramon Valley.

“I’ve been in contact with the governor’s appointment in office to find out what they need from me,” Andersen said. “I’m hopeful it will happen in July but it is in the governor’s hands.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Eddy McDonald, the lively former Hercules mayor who leveraged a personal tragedy to make Highway 4 in West Contra Costa County safer for all drivers, has died.

Read my colleague Tom Lochner’s story here. http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_20832382/former-hercules-mayor-joe-eddy-mcdonald-dies?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

 

 

Er, it helps to run unopposed.

Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover just put out a press release thanking voters for re-electing him to a fifth term.

“All the work positioning myself in regional policy-making bodies and building relationships are paying paying off,” he said in the statement. “The people see the results of that work.”

All that may well be true.

But his supporters also warned off all potential challengers including Martinez Councilman Mike Menesini, who backed out on the last day to file.

Supervisor Mary Nejedly Piepho, of Discovery Bay, also ran unopposed. She was re-elected to a third term.

Read on for Glover’s full press release.

Read the rest of this entry »

Voters have plenty of campaign mailers to peruse this election, especially in the highly competitive District 2 Contra Costa supervisor fight between Danville Mayor Candace Andersen and Contra Costa Community College board President Tomi Van de Brooke.

Yesterday, I posted mailers put out by independent expenditure committees who support Van de Brooke. Below, you’ll see a pro-Andersen mailer paid for by the Deputy Sheriffs Association PAC and one from her campaign.

Solar energy professor Sean White of Lafayette is also running, but he has no mailers. It takes money to send out mail and White has refused to take campaign contributions on the grounds that the process corrupts politicians.

 

 

 

 

Labor and abortion rights activists have poured nearly $50,000 into the intense county supervisor race between Contra Costa Community College Board President Tomi Van de Brooke and Danville Mayor Candace Andersen.

Funded by two independent expenditure committees, robocalls and mailers remind voters leading up to Tuesday’s election that Van de Brooke is the abortion-rights option while Andersen, a conservative Mormon, calls abortion a social issue irrelevant to the job of a county supervisor.

Whether or not a candidate’s positions on social issues do, or should, matter in a local nonpartisan race has been a combustible thread throughout the campaign.

Read full story here.   See mailers below.

 

 

 

Former Contra Costa sex crimes prosecutor Michael Gressett filed a sweeping lawsuit in Superior Court in Martinez today alleging that nearly every agency and person involved in his 2008 aborted rape case engaged in defamation and politically motivated malicious prosecution. Read full story here.

The defendant list includes Contra Costa County and its district attorney’s office along with a handful of its current and former deputy district attorneys and investigators. He also named the state and several deputy attorney generals; Martinez and several officers; retired District Attorney Bob Kochly; and unsuccessful 2010 district attorney candidate Dan O’Malley, and O’Malley’s former law partner, Tom McKenna.

Gressett, who learned in February that the state would not refile rape charges after a judge threw the case out on procedural grounds, seeks unspecified awards for lost wages and benefits, emotional distress, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

A contract deputy district attorney accused Gressett of raping her in May 2008 at his Martinez apartment. She said he used ice cubes, an ice pick and a gun.

Gressett said the sex was rough but consensual.

An independent arbitrator later ruled the allegations unsubstantiated and a Superior Court judge threw the case out after state prosecutors failed to disclose a $450,000 settlement to the alleged victim, among other procedural problems.

Read the full complaint here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/121728287/Michael-Gressett-lawsuit

Assembly District 11 Democratic candidate and Oakley Councilman Jim Frazier has outraised and outspent his five opponents by a large margin.

In the latest campaign finance report, Frazier reported contributions of $160,429 since January and expenses of $296,383.

Republican and Suisun City Councilman Mike Hudson is in a distant second. He received $64,177 and spent $62,226.

Arguably, Frazier needed to raise and spend the most money. He is the only Contra Costa candidate running against five Solano County opponents in new district dominated by Solano County. It’s a large field and only the top two finishers will advance to the general election,

The numbers for the other candidates are: Democratic labor negotiator Patricia Hernandez of Rio Vista received $34,894 and spent $64,807; independent and ex-Vacaville councilman Len Augustine received $31,759 and spent $26,473; Democratic retired Benicia fire chief Gene Gantt received $22,364 and spent $49,930.

Democratic programmer and artist Charles Kingeter of Suisun City did not file a report, which presumably means he didn’t raise enough money to trigger the filing requirement.

Assembly District 11 is a newly drawn district that includes Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, Knightsen, Byon, Discovery Bay and Bethel Island plus the bulk of Solano County.

 

The failed Contra Costa clean water fee sank in every city in the county except El Cerrito, according to a vote breakdown.

As you may recall, the county and its 19 cities attempted earlier this year to persuade property owners to pass an annual fee to pay for programs associated with tightening state and federal anti-pollution regulations on stormwater runoff.

The unusual property-owner election coupled with the bad economy and campaign missteps doomed the effort, which went down 59.4 percent to 40.6 percent.

Here are the final numbers ranked by the percentage of support, as provided by the Contra Costa Clean Water Program:

AREA	YES (%)	NO (%)
El Cerrito	54.9	45.1
Walnut Creek	47.3	52.7
Moraga	45.6	54.4
Orinda	45	55
Richmond	43.5	56.5
Hercules	42.8	57.2
San Ramon	42.6	57.4
Lafayette	42.4	57.6
Danville	42.3	57.7
Pleasant Hill	39.5	60.5
Pittsburg	39.1	60.9
Unincorporated	38.6	61.4
San Pablo	38.2	61.8
Martinez	37.9	62.1
Antioch	37.4	62.6
Concord	37	63
Brentwood	35.7	64.3
Clayton	35.7	64.3
Oakley	33.3	66.7
Pinole	33	67
COUNTYWIDE	40.6	59.4