Published: Tuesday, October 31, 2000

Three vie for vacated Assembly seat
County supervisor takes on Foster City Council member, Belmont planning commissioner

by Jennifer Kavanaugh

Education choice and standards, transportation and public finances are some of the key issues candidates are debating in the 21st District race for State Assembly.

Joe Simitian Age: 47 Residence: Palo Alto Occupation: Democrat, Santa Clara County supervisor. Background: Mayor of Palo Alto; president of Palo Alto Unified School Board; president, Santa Clara County School Boards' Association; president, League of California Cities, Peninsula Division; elections observer in El Salvador and supervisor in Bosnia; lawyer; city planner and businessman. Comments: If elected, Simitian would focus in part on transportation. "I would like to help the Peninsula be a more effective voice for getting transportation funding at the state level...The Peninsula is too often an afterthought." Deborah Wilder Age: 44 Residence: Foster City Occupation: Republican, two-term mayor of Foster City, business owner. Experience: Foster City Council member; lawyer; businesswoman; vice-chair, Joint Powers Authority Library Board; finance chair, San Mateo County, City and County Associations of Government; San Mateo County Criminal Justice Council; member, Silicon Valley Joint Venture; member, San Mateo County Domestic Violence Council; statehouse and congressional intern. Comments: On education, Wilder emphasizes local decision-making over state standards. "Charter schools only have to follow about 20 percent of the (state) education code. Do we really need the other 80 percent? Gloria Purcell Age: 58 Residence: Belmont Occupation: Green Party, Belmont planning commissioner. Experience: Member of rail-grade-separation, library and downtown Belmont development task forces; chair, citizens' advisory committee, county Transportation Authority; San Mateo County Fish and Wildlife Committee; vice president, San Juan Canyon Preservation Trust; former library technician and school volunteer. Comments: Purcell says her first priority is campaign finance reform. "Without real reform and some changes to our system, there will never be enough money for our needs because too many of our taxpayer dollars will be sucked up by corruption."

Three people are running in the district, which stretches from Foster City to Los Altos and out to the coast. The candidates are Democrat Joe Simitian, a Santa Clara County supervisor; Republican Deborah Wilder, the second-term mayor of Foster City; and Green Party candidate Gloria Purcell, a Belmont planning commissioner.

The candidates are vying for the assembly seat left open by Ted Lempert, D-Palo Alto, who is being forced out by term limits. In the three-way primary race back in March, Simitian won with 55.4 percent of the vote, Wilder got 36.7 percent and Purcell got 7.9 percent.

Simitian, 47, served on the Palo Alto Unified School Board and the City Council before he was elected to the county Board of Supervisors in November 1996. Simitian, a key figure right now in determining Stanford's future land-use policies, said his strength is getting different groups to work together. If elected, he said he wants to get the Bay Area to present a more unified front at the state level to attract more funds for issues such as transportation and housing.

Wilder, 44, is a businesswoman and two-term mayor of Foster City who serves on several countywide boards, including ones involving libraries and criminal justice. As a pro-choice Republican who also opposes school vouchers, Wilder said she is not afraid to vote against traditional party platforms. She cites her appointments to leadership roles in a more heavily Democratic area as evidence of her ability to work across party lines.

Purcell, 58, has experience as a Belmont planning commissioner, library technician and school volunteer. A prominent member of the state Green Party, Purcell said she wants to not only focus on the environment as an important issue, but to take a more "holistic" look and see how the environment interrelates with other important issues that affect the region and state.

All three candidates have taken aim at early 1990s state policies that began diverting property tax money away from local communities and into the state's budget. Each candidate said he or she would push to send money back to communities. Wilder said it would be the first piece of legislation she would introduce.

Purcell said her first order of business would be to tackle campaign finance reform. She said she couldn't envision tackling her priorities of environment, children's issues and transportation without addressing the impact campaign contributions have on the decision-making process.

"You're not even going to get to the environment or social issues as long as taxpayers' money gets siphoned off in perks and subsidies to large corporations and special interests," Purcell said.

Wilder said her main priority would be improving education. As an intern working for at the state capitol in the 1970s, Wilder said, she worked on California's last major educational overhaul and is familiar with the process. She emphasizes more local control and decision-making about educational standards, saying charter schools are successful while having to follow only some state standards. Many of the state standards, she said, date back several decades.

"It's time to take them off the books," Wilder said of outdated school standards. "You can't run a business and not update your business plan."

In terms of education, Simitian said he supports public school choice, opposes school vouchers, and supports the state's setting of educational expectations but not dictating how they should be met. Simitian said he wants to invest in the state's infrastructure--school facilities, highways and mass transit, and parks and open space. If elected, he said, he wants to change state perceptions that the area is too affluent to need funding for housing or transit.

"I would try to convince them that because of the high cost of living (here), we need to be considered somewhat differently," Simitian said.

All three candidates have mentioned transportation and traffic problems as high priorities. Wilder said she supports better funding of mass transit and the building of housing near transportation corridors. Both Purcell and Simitian have made statements that support bringing rail service across the Dumbarton Bridge.