As previously stated in our October 18th issue, the Weekly recommends Palo Alto mayor, former school board member and high tech marketing manager Liz Kniss over Cupertino high school teacher and Foothill-DeAnza college trustee Dolly Sandoval in the race to succeed Joe Simitian on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

Both candidates have similar views and priorities, but Kniss brings far more experience. As an elected local school board member and city council member, and experience as the chair of both bodies, Kniss has had to deal with more complex and politically challenging issues. Her leadership skills have been tested in times of shrinking school enrollments, budget cutbacks and personnel changes.

And in addition to her governmental experience, Kniss has a degree in business administration and health care policy, has worked as a public health nurse earlier in her career and has been active in high tech industry through her position at Sun Microsystems.

Sandoval has waged a hard-fought campaign, but her flurry of mailings late in the campaign have crossed the line of fairness in casting Kniss as a friend of developers due to her successful negotiations with Stanford to relocate housing from the first hole of the golf course.

Both candidates are hard workers, good campaigners and well informed, but Kniss will make the better county supervisor.