Issue date: November 11, 1998

Election roundup: County voters follow state trends Election roundup: County voters follow state trends (November 11, 1998)

By MARION SOFTKY

While San Mateo County voters mirrored statewide trends in state and national elections, they also made some high-profile local decisions, like refusing to ban gasoline-powered leaf blowers in Menlo Park, and setting the stage for expanding open space on the Coastside.
At the top of the ballot, voters here helped elect Democratic candidates by larger margins than the state at large. They cast 69 percent of their votes for Gray Davis as governor, compared with 58 percent statewide. Likewise, 63 percent voted to return Barbara Boxer to the U.S. Senate, compared with 57 percent throughout California.
The Democratic edge softened slightly in the race for state controller, in which county supervisor Ruben Barrales, a Republican, matched the statewide vote of 33 percent in his uphill match against incumbent Democrat Kathleen Connell.
These results reflect the Democratic majority in San Mateo County, which has 166,899 registered Democrats, compared with 95,333 Republicans. Only four of the 20 cities in the county -- Atherton, Hillsborough, Woodside and Portola Valley -- have a majority of Republican voters.
From supporting Indian gambling and opposing steel-jawed leghold traps, to backing a $9.2 billion school bond issue, county voters closely reflected statewide results on the dozen state ballot measures.
More than 56 percent of registered voters in the county cast a total of 182,926 ballots. Of these, 22 percent, or 40,395, voted absentee. At press time, workers in the county election office were still counting some 10,000 to 20,000 absentee ballots turned in on election day.
Those absentee ballots could shift some results in races where differences in candidates' tallies are close.
One of those races is for Menlo Park City Council. Three candidates -- Toni Stein, Bernie Valencia, and Nicholas Jellins -- were within 38 votes of each other. Any one of them could win when the final results are in.
City councils

If Ms. Stein is elected, the Menlo Park City Council will have 5-0 majority of so-called residentialists. Councilman Steve Schmidt and Planning Commissioner Mary Jo Borak were elected with convincing majorities.

Ironically, Measure E to prohibit gasoline-powered leaf blowers in Menlo Park, which was supported by the three top vote-getters, failed by 55 to 45 percent. The measure was opposed by challengers Valencia and Jellins.

In Atherton, incumbents Dianne "DiDi" Fisher and William Conwell were comfortably re-elected. Attorney Alan Carlson will join them in December.

Schools

The biggest school news locally was the big win of Mary Lee Wachtel, Libby Tyree-Taylor and Timothy Howard in the Las Lomitas School District. Running as a slate, they ousted incumbent David Fichtner, who garnered only 10 percent of the vote.

In the race to represent District 1 on the San Mateo County School Board, incumbent Susan Alvaro of Moss Beach easily defeated retired teacher Robert Bentley of Half Moon Bay, 78,023 to 44,302. The largest district in the county, it runs from Skyline to the Coastside and encompasses the Cabrillo and La Honda-Pescadero Unified School districts.

Eshoo and Lempert

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and state Assemblyman Ted Lempert coasted to easy victories.

Rep. Eshoo, D-Atherton, had 69 percent of the vote in the 14th congressional district. The closest of her three challengers, Republican Chris Haugen, received 29 percent. Rep. Eshoo was first elected to Congres in 1992 and will begin her fourth term in January.

Assemblyman Lempert, D-Palo Alto, won 70 percent of the vote in the 21st Assembly district. The closest of his two challengers, Republican Laverne Atherly, had 27.4 percent of the vote. Mr. Lempert, who served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors after losing his Assembly seat to redistricting in 1992, will begin his second term since he was again elected in 1996.

Special districts

Incumbent Betsy Crowder received a mandate to continue the land preservation policies of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District when she amassed almost twice the votes of both challengers combined.

Mrs. Crowder won 12,959 votes compared with tax advocate Jack Hickey's 4,201, and mountain bicyclist Berry Stevens' 2,442. Mr. Hickey opposed eminent domain and wanted to open district lands to revenue-producing golf courses. Mr. Stevens wanted more access for bicyclists, dog walkers and equestrians.

The election also set the stage for possible annexation of the San Mateo County Coastside to the district, when voters west of Skyline and south of Pacifica approved Measure F, an advisory measure, by 55 to 45 percent.

The Sequoia Health Care District will see an experienced new face when Arthur Faro joins incumbents Francie Bachman and Michael Smith on the district board. Mr. Faro was chief executive officer of the hospital and led the process of selling the financially troubled Sequoia Hospital to Catholic Health Care West.

Ms. Bachman, a nurse, was the top vote-getter with 26,113, followed by Mr. Faro with 21,623, and Mr. Smith, a management consultant, with 17,956.

In the San Mateo County Harbor District, Ken Lundie, a firefighter and representative to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, unseated appointed incumbent Richard Landi with 58,902 votes to 44,187. Incumbent Jim Tucker held the second four-year seat with 57,496 votes in the countywide district, which manages harbors at Pillar Point on the coast and Oyster Point in South San Francisco.

Incumbent Leo Padreddii beat Leni Schultz for the two-year term, 67,207 to 51,527.

Don Kazak of our sister paper, the Palo Alto Weekly, contributed to this report.