Election 2004: Ruskin claims victory in close Assembly race Election 2004: Ruskin claims victory in close Assembly race (March 10, 2004)

** But autumn race with monied Republican could be difficult for Ruskin.

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

With absentee ballots turning his narrow lead into triumph, Redwood City Councilman Ira Ruskin declared victory Friday in the March 2 Democratic primary election for the state Assembly's 21st district seat.

Menlo Park resident John Carcione, president of the West Bay Sanitary District board, had trailed on election day by 342 votes but ultimately conceded on March 5 when the gap widened to 665.

"It looks like it's not in the cards for me to win this race," Mr. Carcione said, adding that he is now endorsing Mr. Ruskin's campaign. "I'll do whatever possible and work with him to make sure that we hold onto this seat for the Democratic party."

As of March 8, combined results from elections officials in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties showed 19,917 votes for Mr. Ruskin and 19,252 for Mr. Carcione. Palo Alto Unified School District board member John Barton had 7,820 votes, and Monte Sereno City Councilwoman Barbara Nesbet had 6,602.

Final totals could take a few more days. San Mateo County officials counted an additional 15,000 ballots between election day and March 5, and have about 1,000 more provisional ballots to go, Elections Manager David Tom said. Santa Clara County officials said they expect to continue their count at least through March 12.

Richard Silver, a former clerk of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors who has managed political campaigns, said he was surprised that Mr. Carcione racked up so many votes.

"Ira has been a council member and involved in politics. Carcione's young and people don't know who he is. I'd like to compliment him on how well he's done," Mr. Silver said. "This is not going to be the end of his career."

And this is not the end of the campaign for Mr. Ruskin, who faces a formidable opponent in the November election: Republican candidate Steve Poizner, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who ran unopposed in the primary and has given his campaign an injection of $500,000 of his own money.

In the months leading up to November, Mr. Ruskin plans to focus on promoting his work on the Redwood City council, to which he was elected in 1995.

"My candidacy will present the strongest record of leadership and accomplishment across the widest number of policy areas of importance to people in the district: education, the environment, fiscal reform, job creation," he said.

Endorsed by the Sierra Club, Mr. Ruskin has worked on several environmental issues, including pushing for state legislation to require an upgrade to the aging Hetch Hetchy water system.

Mr. Ruskin also points to his work on education, saying that as a city official he has worked in partnership with local schools to develop new library media centers and playgrounds.

Redesigning the field

Education is also a buzzword for Mr. Poizner, who in 2002 taught high school for two semesters in east San Jose. Before that, he founded two high-tech companies and served as a White House fellow.

One of Mr. Poizner's hopes is to work to give school districts more local control over their finances, rather than having "Sacramento legislators tell them how to use the money," he said.

Mr. Poizner, who is endorsed by many local business leaders, also hopes to help make the state more hospitable to businesses by reducing the workers' compensation rates that employers must pay.

Another big issue for Mr. Poizner is reforming how legislative districts are designed. With their boundaries chosen by legislators, most districts are "gerrymandered" as predominantly Democratic or Republican, he said. He'd like to see the districting done by impartial retired judges.

Now represented by Democrat Joe Simitian, who is running for the state Senate, the 21st Assembly district has long been seen as a "safe" Democratic seat. During a September 2001 redistricting, the district lost Belmont, Half Moon Bay and part of Foster City, and gained Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and part of San Jose.

The upshot was that the district lost a piece of its Democratic dominance.

According to the California Secretary of State's Web site, the percentage of registered voters in the 21st district in February 2001 was 46.9 percent Democrat and 30.8 percent Republican. In February 2004, the numbers were 44.8 percent Democrat and 31.4 percent Republican.

"I'm having to overcome the fact that my district has been designed to keep me out," said Mr. Poizner. "But they didn't count on me coming along."

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