Three community activists who had earlier announced they would run for seats on the Menlo Park City Council — including former mayor Steve Schmidt and his wife, Brielle Johnck — have abandoned their plans, citing a mix of disgust and despair associated with behind-the-scenes politics as the reason.
Mr. Schmidt, who in March told the Almanac he planned to run, said he changed his mind because of the political feuding fueled by “slate politics.”
He was referring to an elaborate candidate selection process conducted over the last few weeks by influential figures in the community opposed to the current, three-person council majority — all of whom are up for re-election this November.
Mr. Schmidt said the goal of the process was to create a “residentialist” slate of candidates that will garner more votes than the current majority, but influential members of the community used the process to get their special interests represented among the approved candidates.
Ms. Johnck took out candidate papers last week after Mr. Schmidt decided not to run. She said Monday, however, that she won’t file them, largely because she is also deterred by the behind-the-scenes politics that also prompted Elizabeth Lasensky to change her mind about running.
The deadline for filing papers is Wednesday, August 16, at 5 p.m.
The three would-be candidates are associated with the “residentialists” — effectively a Menlo Park movement whose members generally oppose increased development and traffic.
The group is openly against the current council majority of Nicholas Jellins, Mickie Winkler and Lee Duboc, whose seats are up for re-election this year. Those three members garner more support from business and real estate interests than their council colleagues, Andy Cohen and Kelly Fergusson, who are often supported by the residentialists.
Although only two members of the current majority — council members Winkler and Duboc — are running for re-election, Transportation Commissioner John Boyle, who said he often agrees with the two incumbents, is also running for a council seat.
Their own slate
Although residentialists are united in their opposition to the current council majority, they have disagreed on who, within in their own group, should be on the ballot.Two residentialist groups have formed — a group that includes former Menlo Park mayors and current council members Fergusson and Cohen, and a group of anti-development residents — to whittle down the list of residentialists on the ballot.
The groups forged a compromise to support a slate of just three candidates so votes cast in opposition to the current majority aren’t diluted among four or more candidates, according to Mr. Schmidt.
Parks and recreation commissioners Richard Cline and Heyward Robinson, and Linfield Oaks resident Vincent Bressler, won the groups’ support.
Mr. Schmidt was rejected as a slate candidate largely because he isn’t staunchly opposed to further development in Menlo Park, he said.
“It’s no longer about picking the best candidate,” he said. “It’s evolved into this calculation — a balancing act. That really disappointed me.”
“You just can’t fight the slate politics,” said Ms. Johnck. “Candidates have been chosen and blessed, and that’s that.”
Bayfront Park advocate Ms. Lasensky, who announced in April she intended to run for council, said she failed to garner support from the two groups, which partially led to her decision not to run.
“It was clear that I had very little support from these groups, and if I ran, I was going to be labeled a spoiler,” she said. “This is slate politics — you can’t just run as an individual in this city.”
