While Bob Wieckowski, Garrett Yee and Bob Livengood square off for the all-important Democratic nomination to replace Assemblyman Alberto Torrico next year, a Republican challenger has emerged.

Adnan Shahab, 31, announced that he’ll run for the seat as a Republican, which he knows means that he has little chance to win.

While there’s a probably a better chance of Fremont getting a Saks Fifth Avenue than there is of it electing a Republican to the State Assembly, Shahab, who ran for City Council in 1998, says he’ll campaign hard and hopefully change some people’s minds about conservatives.

Shahab grew up in the Northgate neighborhood, went to Washington High School and UC Berkeley, has dabbled in radio (he’d make a great conservative talking head) and now works in a San Jose Card Room making sure everything is kosher.

He hates taxes, is pro-choice, adores Alex P. Keaton, supports concealed weapons laws, is anti-gay marriage, but pro-civil union, and anti-illegal immigration.

I tried my best to get him to agree that former NY Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress got a raw deal with that two-year sentence for shooting himself in the leg, but he didn’t take the bait. He said he’s “a law and order guy.” Poor Plax.

He’s not too into the ethnic identity thing, but for what it’s worth, he’s part Pakistani and part Filipino.

Milpitas Mayor Bob Livengood told me yesterday that he will run for Assembly against Bob Wieckowski and Garrett Yee.

Turns out he’s already raised about $60k in cash, which puts him in the same ballpark as his two top competitiors.

Still no word from Washington Hospital Board Member Jacob Eapen on whether he’ll run too. I’m guessing no, but he didn’t return my calls from two months ago or from yesterday, so I can’t say for sure.

Livengood, who has been on the Milpitas City Council since 1975, is running as an outsider independent type, which is usually what people do when they don’t have a lot of key establishment support.

He was quick to contrast himself with Wieckowski’s and Yee’s respective strong ties to Torrico and Yee.

 ”My two opponents are both supported by one faction or another of assemblymen and ex-assemblymen,” he said. “We need someone to go up there who has independence, and my opponents are clearly tied to one camp or another.”

 He also noted that Yee actually raised $85,585 during the first half of this year. Of the $111,585 we reported he raised, $26,000 was a loan.

Garrett emailed me a copy of his list:

http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/PDFGen/pdfgen.prg?filingid=1436456&amendid=0

Here are some selected contributers:

Asian American for Good Government PAC –$3,900
Bernard Stewart — $500 — He’s a Washington Hospital Board Member
Sue Chan — $1,000 — Another $1,000 from her hubby
Steve Cho — $500
Al Huezo — $208  — Newark City Council and former City Manager
JD Global Law Group –$500 — Home and former home to last two Citizens for Better Community leaders
Fazlur Khan — $100 amigo mio
Maria Rogers — $500 Wife of Jack Rogers who is a co-owner of Besaro Mobile Home Park and many other things around town.
James Tong — $500 – developer
Carole Treadway — $100 – wife of the former Ohlone President
Ivy Wu — $1,000 Fremont School Board Member
Carole Yamaguchi — $500 mother of figure skating gold medalist
Adrian Zamora — $100 — world champion foosball player

OK, ready for some Dutras?
Ann Marie Dutra — $650
Bernadine Dutra — $3,900
Diana Dutra — $500
Dianna Dutra — $650
Dominic Dutra $500
John Dutra the younger — $3,250 x2. I don’t know if it’s a typo, but he’s down twice for a total of $6,500. Max contribution is $3,900.
John Dutra the elder — $3,900
Lisa Dutra — $500
Tony Dutra — $650
Dutra Enterprises, Inc. — $3,250
Cynthia Dutra-Brice — $400

Bob Wieckowski dropped by The Argus Friday to give me a copy of his campaign contribution filing. Garrett Yee said his should be online soon at this web site. I don’t think it’s been posted yet.

Wieckowski actually collected just over $60,000 in contributions from January to the end of June: Here are some of the more familiar names to me:

Charlotte Allen – $100 – Opponent of Patterson Ranch member of Fremont Citizens Network
American Animal Hospital –$1,000 – Owned by the Salwans, who also own a lot of real estate, especially in Hayward and gave Wieckowski an additional $500 from their property company.
David Bonaccorsi –  an attorney and Planning Commissioner
Fremont Firefighter Union — $3,900, which is the maximum
Friends of Alberto Torrico — $3,900
Gus Morrison — $100
Pacific General Construction/ Developer Ray Tong — $200
The Saddle Rack — $500
David Sloss — $100 Fremont Symphony
Craig Steckler — $100 Fremont Police Chief
Team Anu Natarajan — $1,250
Committee to re-elect Scott Haggerty — $500
Unitek — $1,000
Bob Wasserman — $500
John Wong of Mission Peak Co. — $500 including his wife
Judith Zlatnik — $250

Wieckowski got about $3k from different LLCs with the address, 43951 Boscell. That is the address of Vantec, a computer accessory company.

Assembly candidate Garrett Yee sent out a press release today announcing that he has raised $111,585 from nearly 200 donors as of today. Tomorrow is the deadline for candidates to file contributions for the past few months.

Yee’s top opponent, Bob Wieckowski, told me he raised about $65,000.

Wieckowski said he was pretty much resigned to having less money on hand than Yee for the upcoming Assembly batte, but hoped the news would spur his supporters to reach deeper into their wallets.

“My base is going to have look at that and say ‘we’re going to help Bobby boy raise some money here,’” he said.

Can Wieckowski beat a candidate who raised nearly twice as much money in the opening months of the campaign? Can Yee beat a man who refers to himself as “Bobby Boy?” We’ll find out in June.

Ohlone College Trustee Garrett Yee sent us a letter to the editor about NUMMI. But we can’t run it in the paper, it appears, because he’s a stated candidate for the Assembly, and we don’t let candidates get to write letters to the editor.

This blog, however, has no such restrictions.

Yee said he has three brothers-in-law working at the plant and that he is surprised that “local officials have somewhat downplayed the impact on Fremont’s local economy.”

“This attempt to downplay the plant’s closure’s impact mischaracterizes NUMMI’s real impact. Regardless of the tax revenue that it provides directly to the city of Fremont, the larger impact is the fact that NUMMI employs approximately 5,000 workers. These 5,000 workers help to keep the local economy going. Each dollar that a NUMMI worker earns turns over in the local economy several times.”

It was a star-studded gathering at the Washington Township Veterans Building Monday. How often do you get the mother of an Olympic gold medal figure skater and a world champion foosball player in the same building? Well it happened. One minute I staring awkwardly at Carole Yamaguchi, the next I was greeted by Adrian Zamora, The Tri-Cities foosball king. Zamora said Yee beat him in Middle School.

The veterans hall was filled for Yee, who will face Fremont City Councilmember Bob Wieckowski in the Democratic Primary for Assembly next year. I won’t estimate how many people were there; the folks working the front table wouldn’t give me a tally of how many had signed in.

Lots of politicos in attendance: John Dutra, Dominic Dutra, Sue Chan, Al Huezo, Steve Cho, Ivy Wu, Lily Mei and Bernie Stewart to name a few.

The only double dipper was Washington Hospital Trustee Pat Danielson. I’m pretty sure I also saw at Wieckowski’s kick-off last month.

The vegetarian pickings were slim. I was stuck with with broccoli and dip, and chips and salsa.

The only developer I recognized, beside the Dutras, was Jim Tong of the failed Double Wood golf course and Centerville projects.

Yee said Dutra had been urging him to run for years. More on this race in 2010.

There were about 100 people at Bob Wieckowski’s campaign kick-off party last night at Olive Hyde.

It was nice.

He introduced me to his dad and one of his sisters, who gave me a much needed bottle of water. I also talked to the caterer, who taught me that you can actually make pretty good hummus without garbanzo beans or tahini.

Lots of political people there: Gus Morrison, Bob Wasserman, Bill Harrison, Anu Natarajan, Judy Zlatnik, Liz Figueroa, Tom Blalock (BART), Pat Danielson (Washington Hospital), Chris Peeples (AC Transit), Jeff Davis (AC Transit), etc.

Not too many easily identifiable developers in the house. Ray Tong, who is Fremont’s best hope for a funky supermarket, was there. He said no Berkeley Bowl in Fremont until the economy turns around.

I missed Bob’s speech, but I heard someone tell him it was inspirational. If it ever makes it to youtube, I’ll post it.