Senate race: Spending surpasses $2.5 million Senate race: Spending surpasses $2.5 million (March 10, 2004)

Back to work for Joe Simitian

** Assemblyman faces budget challenges following his decisive victory in state Senate Democratic primary.

By Renee Batti
Almanac News Editor

Joe Simitian hasn't had much of a break between two very difficult endeavors.

Last week, his hard-fought Democratic primary campaign against Ted Lempert paid off when he won a spot on the November ballot as the Democratic contender for the state Senate's 11th District seat.

This week, Mr. Simitian, currently the 21st District assemblyman, is back in Sacramento, working with fellow legislators to come up with enough painful spending cuts and compromises to prop up a new budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year.

On March 2, voters chose Assemblyman Simitian by a decisive margin as the person who is almost certain to replace Sen. Byron Sher, D-Palo Alto, who is being term-limited out of office at the end of the year. According to the Secretary of State's Office, Mr. Simitian won 57.3 percent of the vote in a district that spills into portions of three counties: San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. The total number of votes tallied doesn't include absentee ballots dropped off at polling places on election day. Mr. Lempert received 42.7 percent of the vote.

In November, Mr. Simitian will run against Republican Jon Zellhoefer, a Santa Clara County manufacturing engineer and businessman. But in the heavily Democratic district, Mr. Simitian will almost certainly win the seat for a four-year term.

Mr. Simitian received 54,443 votes to 40,578 for Mr. Lempert. Mr. Zellhoefer ran unopposed in the Republican primary and received 35,443 votes. The only Libertarian candidate, Allen Rice, received 913 votes.

Mr. Simitian said he is still tallying the money spent by his campaign, but estimates that the total will come in at around $1.2 million. Former Assemblyman Ted Lempert spent about $637,000 after agreeing to the voluntary limit set by Proposition 34 -- and his campaign focused heavily on the fact that he accepted the limit while his opponent did not.

But when "soft money" spent by political action committees is factored in, total campaign spending for both candidates surpassed $2.5 million.

About $395,000 of soft money was spent by PACs to support Mr. Lempert, while other PACs spent about $313,200 in behalf of Mr. Simitian.

Through a blizzard of advertising and mailers, each candidate tried to overcome the uncommon challenge of distinguishing his political platform and legislative record from that of his opponent's.

Both had served on local school boards, on their local board of supervisors, and as representatives of the 21st Assembly district. Both are hailed as champions of education and the environment -- some environmental groups and educators endorsed both men rather than try to choose a "best" candidate.

Mr. Lempert of San Carlos, who co-founded the education-advocacy nonprofit organization EdVoice, scored a victory among San Mateo County voters. He received 12,292 votes, or 53.7 percent; Mr. Simitian received 10,604, or 46.3 percent.

In Santa Clara County, Mr. Simitian, a resident of Palo Alto, took 61.25 percent of the votes -- 29,226. Mr. Lempert received 38.39 percent, tallying 18,318 votes.

The Santa Cruz County tally was 14,613, or 59.2 percent, for Mr. Simitian; and 9,968, or 40.4 percent, for Mr. Lempert.

The totals do not include absentee ballots dropped off on election day.

What's next

Mr. Lempert said his short-term plans include continuing as senior advisor for EdVoice. But he said he'll be "looking for something else down the road."

He said he was pleased to have done so well in San Mateo County, but said that he knew the race would be "an uphill struggle" overall.

Mr. Lempert served in the Assembly from 1988 to 1992, and again from 1996 to 2000, when he was term-limited out. He expressed his intent to run for the Senate in 2000, but after some wrangling and negotiating, backed down when Sen. Sher announced he would definitely seek another term.

And for Simitian

Although his seat in the Senate is almost assured, Mr. Simitian said last week he's not taking anything for granted. "If things go my way in November," he said, he hopes to continue working on the issues in the Senate that he has focused on in the Assembly: the environment, education, the budget, privacy, "and a whole range of issues that are important to this area."

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