October 13, 2004

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Publication Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Voter Guide 2004: Assembly candidates square off

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

Democratic candidates seeking to represent the 21st Assembly District typically haven't had to worry much about Republicans taking over the Assembly seat. It's been 18 years since a member of the GOP last occupied it.

Things are a bit different this time around, however, with moderate Republican Steve Poizner blitzing the airwaves with television advertising and outspending his Democratic rival -- three-term Redwood City Councilman Ira Ruskin -- by a margin of about 4 to 1 in the months leading up to the November 2 election.

Mr. Ruskin has agreed to voluntary campaign spending limits, unlike Mr. Poizner, a millionaire and former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is self-funding much of his campaign.

So far, Mr. Poizner has spent more than $4 million, compared to about $1 million by Mr. Ruskin, campaign sources said. Mr. Poizer has raised about $5 million, largely his own money, compared to about $1.2 million raised by Ruskin.

The two men are running hard to replace Assemblyman Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, in a district in which registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 45 percent to 30 percent, with 19 percent declining to state an affiliation.

Some prominent local Democrats, particularly in the education field, have joined Mr. Poizner's camp.

In the October 2003 recall election, the district voted against the recall of Gov. Gray Davis, 61 percent to 39 percent, but the two principal Republican candidates -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Senator Tom McClintock -- together gathered more votes (by 16 percentage points) than Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.

The Almanac recently interviewed the two candidates individually to gauge their views on several issues that may come before the Assembly.

The candidates show few differences on the environment and local government control over some property-tax revenues. They also oppose urban gambling casinos, three-strikes-law reform, and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Differences -- and some more similarities -- emerged when the candidates discussed education, the budget, the state's business climate, and their plans should they end up in Sacramento.

Climate for business

In February, Palo Alto-based DataTic Technologies relocated operations to North Dakota to avoid California's high cost of living, said company president Scott Lawley. The 50 to 60 programmers and sales people to be hired will work there. "We were looking for the easiest path for us to jump start our company in the new bubble," he said.

"It will always be more expensive to do business here," said Mr. Poizner. To address the high costs, he said he would allow businesses to buy electricity from sources other than major utilities, relax overtime rules, continue workers' compensation reform beyond legislation the governor has already signed, and repeal mandatory employee health care coverage, relying instead on the state's "Healthy Families" program for working low-income Californians.

"We need to just roll back these unique constraints that make us non-competitive," he said.

Mr. Ruskin said he wants more affordable housing near transit corridors. "All kinds of businesses complain that they can't bring people here" because of an affordable housing shortage, he said. The state should offer financial assistance, he said, and ask localities to designate sites for development.

To move these ideas along, Mr. Ruskin proposes that towns reluctant to build such housing -- required but not currently enforced by state mandates -- be allowed to buy out their obligations by paying to have the housing built elsewhere.

Mr. Ruskin, 61, has had a 20-year career in business communications consulting. Costs for energy and workers' compensation rank high among his business-related concerns, but education ranks higher. "I've never heard a CEO talking about competition when he or she didn't talk about education," he said.

The budget

Mr. Poizner said he would not sign a "no new taxes" pledge, but said that before increasing taxes, he would focus on several other priorities.

He said he would limit state spending to correspond with annual increases in personal income, and would require the Legislature to seek a nonpartisan opinion of the state's revenue estimates for the coming year. Every five years, Mr. Poizner would subject "all state programs, regulations, mandates and budgetary allocations" to reauthorization by the Legislature and governor, he said.

Before Mr. Ruskin would raise income taxes, he said, he would close state tax loopholes for off-shore corporations and yacht purchases and limit a company's ability to label itself a family corporation.

Both men support a balanced budget and the two-thirds legislative majority required to pass a budget. Mr. Ruskin would dock legislators' pay and allowances when the constitutional deadline passes without a budget, he said.

Educators' support

The winner of this race will replace Mr. Simitian, a highly respected advocate for K-12 education issues.

Some prominent local educators -- some of whom are Democrats -- said they support Mr. Poizner, including school board trustees Gordon Lewin of the Sequoia Union High School District, Lori Livingston of the Woodside School District, and Libby Taylor of the Las Lomitas School District. Four of the five trustees of the Menlo Park City School District and three of the five trustees on the Portola Valley district boards support Mr. Poizner.

Recalling Mr. Poizner's recent partnership with Mr. Simitian on a proposal to lower the voter majority needed to pass a parcel tax from a two-thirds to 55 percent, Ms. Livingston called him "a strategic thinker (who) really understands the education issues."

Sequoia trustees Lorraine Rumley, Olivia Martinez and board president Don Gibson endorse Mr. Ruskin, as does Bruce Ives of the Menlo Park district.

Mr. Gibson, a Redwood City resident, said he appreciates Mr. Ruskin's participation on joint projects with the local elementary school district, including rebuilding the media centers at the school libraries, providing multi-use rooms, and upgrading the playing fields.

"It's just having good relationships with other people out there that will allow you to do these things," Mr. Gibson said.

Education issues

Restructuring state education funding is a hot topic. Both candidates support plans to consolidate some 100 mandatory state funding categories into about 10 block grants that ease spending guidelines and give more discretion to schools that show improvement.

Mr. Ruskin opposes the federal No Child Left Behind program, calling it an unfunded mandate that undermines local control.

Mr. Poizner -- who spent two semesters as a volunteer teacher in a San Jose high school -- said he likes the program's philosophy in that it checks the performance of the entire student population, but he dislikes provisions that punish a school if more than 5 percent of its students miss taking the required tests.

One test recently revised and restored to the state curriculum is the high school exit exam, which measures sixth- and seventh-grade math skills and ninth- and 10th-grade English skills.

The one-time revisions -- eliminating some math questions and one essay question -- were supposed to address high failure rates. Last spring, among sophomores whose first language is not English or who receive government-subsidized lunches, fewer than half passed the test.

The revised test "is a good place to start," Mr. Ruskin said. "It takes into account the current reality (of large numbers of students failing the test) and demands improvement."

Mr. Poizner takes a tougher line. "(The state) should have just held firm," he said. "If they can't pass that dang test, they shouldn't graduate."

The 'experience' yardstick

Mr. Poizner, 47, has an engineering degree from the University of Texas and an MBA from Stanford. He is retired after 20 years as a high-technology entrepreneur; in 2000, he sold SnapTrack to Qualcomm Corp. for $1 billion. SnapTrack developed a device that can be added to a cell phone to geographically locate it during a 9-1-1 call.

Though he has not worked in government, Mr. Poizner said he would draw on his analytical skills, his ability to meet a payroll, and his experience building coalitions among tough-minded vendors to install his company's products inside their products.

He said he has also co-founded several education foundations, including EdVoice, the Sacramento-based education lobbying group.

With a "broken" legislative process in Sacramento, Mr. Poizner said he would be a power broker, given his relationships with the governor -- who has endorsed him -- the Republican caucus, and influential Democrats outside the Legislature.

Among the Democrats included in that list were Reed Hastings, former president of the state Board of Education; and former San Jose mayor Tom McEnery, according to a campaign spokeswoman.

Mr. Poizner's agenda includes taking redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and using an impartial process, such as a computer program or an appointed board. He would bring more transparency to campaign donations made by political action committees and parties, a point he has tried to use against Mr. Ruskin, who has financial support from organized labor and the state Democratic party.

Scores of individual contributors gave the maximum of $6,400 to Mr. Poizner's campaign. Acknowledging the "huge advantage" his personal wealth has given him, Mr. Poizner said he was "intrigued by" and "very interested in" publicly funded campaigns.

"Everything I've done in my life has been based on making bold fundamental change" he said. "I am in a position to be a maverick, and when I say maverick, I mean reformer."

On the subject of campaign financing, Mr. Ruskin said his opponent would criticize him regardless of where he got his money. "I get support from the people who teach the schools, the people who protect the streets, the nurses," he said. "I believe I really reflect the values of this district."

Mr. Ruskin has spent nine years on the Redwood City Council. Among his accomplishments, he lists revitalizing Broadway, the town's main street, using $1 million in redevelopment funds.

While a councilman, he helped organize the town, community and businesses to pay to upgrade computer and multimedia centers in local school libraries.

On the environmental front, Mr. Ruskin noted his part in creating a city-state funding partnership to reduce water pollution by evicting squatters and derelict boats from the city's sloughs.

A defender of Redwood City's trees, too many of which he said were being cut down during sidewalk repairs, Mr. Ruskin chaired a task force that persuaded the council to issue a temporary moratorium on sidewalk repairs. The city's new policy gives trees the right-of-way, he said.

Mr. Ruskin sees three essential qualities for a legislator: vision, diplomacy and leadership. "I feel that I have shown those skills over and over and over," he said.

In 2001, Mr. Ruskin said, he led an effort to persuade the Legislature to compel San Francisco to seismically retrofit the aging Hetch Hetchy water system, which serves 1.7 million Bay Area residents. He chaired and helped found a committee of officials from 28 Bay Area cities and water agencies that buy water from San Francisco.

The resulting legislation -- introduced and passed in one session -- required San Francisco to do the retrofit, created a regional financing authority to raise some $2.9 billion, and created an oversight committee, which Mr. Ruskin chairs. He was re-elected chairman in January.

In the Legislature, Mr. Ruskin said he would apply his experience to more difficult tasks. "It will take building bridges and relationships," he said. "You've got to be able to vote differently with someone and still be able to go out for coffee with him."

Campaign donations

State contribution records show donations of more than $4 million made by Mr. Poizner to his own campaign, and several hundreds of thousands of dollars from individuals, including many local residents. Sun Microsystems CEO and Portola Valley resident Scott McNealy gave the maximum of $6,400. John Doerr, a Woodside resident and venture capitalist, gave $3,200. Menlo Park resident and banker Duncan Matteson gave $1,000, as did retired Sunset Magazine publisher Bill Lane.

Mr. Ruskin's campaign has smaller gifts. He gave himself about $95,000, a recent report showed, and most other contributions are from labor unions, political action committees and the state Democratic party. State Controller and Atherton resident Steve Westly gave $1,450. Most of the individual contributions come from Redwood City.

CANDIDATE BIOS

Steve Poizner
Experience: High-technology entrepreneur for 20 years. Spent two semesters as a volunteer teacher in a San Jose school.
Education: Engineering degree, University of Texas; MBA, Stanford.
Age: 47
Political party: Republican

Ira Ruskin
Experience: Three-term Redwood City councilman for nine years. Business communications consultant for 20 years. Led effort to persuade Legislature to compel San Francisco to seismically retrofit Hetch Hetchy water system.
Education: Bachelor's degree in history, UC Berkeley; master's in communications, Stanford.
Age: 61
Political party: Democrat

Ruskin, Poizner face off

State Assembly candidates Ira Ruskin and Steve Poizner will discuss issues and answer questions at a joint meeting of the Menlo Park Rotary and Kiwanis clubs on Wednesday, October 27.

The meeting will convene for lunch at noon in Menlo Park's Recreation Center, and then move to the City Council chambers for the discussion between the candidates.

The public is invited to attend the candidate forum portion of the meeting in the council chambers, set to begin at 1 p.m. There is no charge for admission.

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