After finishing last in the 2008 City Council race, Fazlur has become active in the Barrack Obama group that tries to spur citizens to rally for the president’s agenda. As part of his work, Khan got to sit in on a conference call with Obama about the health care reform effort.
Next week, I’ll find something else to write about: maybe some migratory bird spotings or a polka Video of the Week segment. But I’m still decompressing the election.
Winners:
The Oakland A’s: Their main man, Bob Wasserman won for mayor; his main woman, Sue Chan, won for City Council, and the A’s didn’t spend a cent to make it happen.
The Mayor: Wasserman avenges his 1996 loss to Gus Morrison, and picks up another ally on the council. He’s not an arm-twister, but he does have two folks who will be inclined to agree with him most of the time. And, come December, he won’t have give any cross looks in Steve Cho’s direction.
The City Manager: Wasserman and Fred Diaz go back to Tracy together, and they often see things the same way. If Morrison Cho had won, Diaz might have been updating his resume.
Bob Wieckowski: He’s the top vote-getter for City Council, and now he’s perfectly positioned to head off to Sacramento in two years to take over for Torrico.
Kristi Yamaguchi: Her gal Sue Chan, won and her parents’ picks for Washington Hospital also won. Wonder if she’d give it all away for a Mitt Romney victory in 2012.
For more winners and losers, click where it says to click
You knew this race was going to be the priciest because it’s big and the council raised the contribution limit to $500.
Still, as of Friday, Mayor Wasserman had raised more than $111,000 and spent $103,565 on his re-election bid. Meanwhile Steve Cho had raised $103,649 and spent $82,946, and Gus Morrison, who loaned his campaign $25,000, had raised $44,110 and spent $62,562.
Among the top council candidates, Sue Chan, as of Friday had spent $94,919 on her campaign, compared to $79,420 for Wieckowski and $51,380 for Tahmasbi.
Kevin Armonio, an 18-year-old who graduated James Logan High in June, has qualified as a write-in candidate for the Union City mayoral race. He is the only person to challenge the current mayor, Mark Green, who is seeking re-election.
Armonio is studying political science at Chabot College. He said he doesn’t expect to win, but he entered the race to gain experience in politics. Ultimately, he wants to become a legislator.
I’ll have a story about Armonio in either tomorrow or Wednesday’s paper. (I’m working on getting a photo of him.)
I suppose this video is appropriate since the Giants are going down in the Dawg Pound tonight. Eli, Eli, Eli.
I don’t mean to give too much attention to Vinnie Bacon, but I’ve always had a thing for talking dogs. I wonder if he/she can also write mean-spirited anonymous blog comments.
Finally got to look at the campaign filings. The best-known contributor in Fremont is Kristi Yamaguchi. The Olympic champ gave $500 to Sue Chan.
Trisha Tahmasbi had to settle for Fabian Nunez’s campaign fund and Bob Wieckowski’s secretary.
Those of you who keep pointing to Chan’s ties to former Assemblyman John Dutra and Tahmasbi’s ties to her boss, current Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, should feel better than I feel with the NY Giants losing to the Browns at halftime.
If your name was Dutra, you were giving to Chan: John, Dominic, Bernadine, Lisa … Shlomo, Moishe — you name it. The Dutras delivered more than $5,000 to Chan.
As for Tahmasbi, she got more than 5k from the political action committees of 11 state legislators. She also got money from Anu Natarajan, Bill Harrison and his wife, and Wiekowski and his girlfriend. Wieckowski’s secretary, Stacey Stevens, gave Tahmasbi $450.
Overall Chan had more contributions and a higher percentage of contributions coming from Fremont residents.
I wrote a story about this for tomorrow’s paper. to read it, click here.
This brings me back to summer. Tahmasbi didn’t call the City Council an embarrassment, as once commenter wrote. She said the level of police staffing in Fremont was an embarrassment.
Also, no one should assume that people who say good things about a candidates are in any way part of that candidates campaign.
The story in today’s Argus marks the ninth and final City Council Candidate profile. A tenth candidate, Hou Leong, never returned my phone calls.
FYI, It’s looking like The Argus editorial board — those same visionaries who advised you last time around to support a utility tax and make Ray Bilodeau a school board member — won’t be making endorsements this year. What will you do without them?
The one and only Fazlur Khan.
