Palo Alto City Councilman Marc Berman now has his sights set on Sacramento.
Berman, who was elected to the council in 2012, said Thursday morning that he is preparing to run for the state Assembly seat currently occupied by Rich Gordon. Berman had briefly considered challenging Gordon in 2010, but withdrew from the race and went on to win a council seat.
Berman, who serves as the development director at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, announced that he has raised more than $60,000 over the last two weeks of December as he seeks a seat in the 24th Assembly District. Gordon’s term will expire in 2016.
Among his contributors, Berman said, are John Freidenrich, former board chair for Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, and Palo Alto High School’s entrepreneurial journalism teacher Esther Wojcicki.
“I am humbled by the early outpouring of support for the campaign,” Berman said in a statement. “I am honored by the encouragement I’ve received from so many in the community, and excited to continue the conversation about the future of our state.”
As a councilman, Berman has taken a moderate and decidedly non-ideological approach. He cast a swing vote in the council’s decision to place a measure on the November ballot to reduce the council’s size from nine to seven seats. He had also chaired the council’s Finance Committee and served on its Infrastructure Committee. Before joining the council, Berman had served on a citizen task force that surveyed the city’s infrastructure needs and recommended funding sources for addressing these needs.
This is bad, bad, bad. Why didn’t this guy announce BEFORE the recent Council election. He should not hold this seat going forward, obviously just a stepping stone for him. We need committed leaders of our city, not a politician looking for another office.
I have always appreciated Councilman Berman’s thoughtful and well-researched approach on the council. He votes based on the merits of an issue rather than politics and often brings his colleagues over to his side. He’s also not afraid to stand up to his colleagues on tough issues, like his opposition to the vehicle habitation ban that was later rescinded when a similar ban was struck down in the courts.
I disagree with the above posting. It will help us in the long run if we can develop and send talented, bright people to Sacramento to represent us. Let’s help him get elected.
We were lucky to have Marc, although I wish we could get another term out of him. He is one of the most thoughtful, well-prepared members of council. He has done his homework, and done some of the heavy lifting on financial responsibility, infrastructure improvements and parking supply analysis on behalf of the council.
He has my vote as he moves to the next level. It will be good to have strong representation for our community at the state level (I’m a Rich Gordon fan too… Marc would be a worthy successor).
I’ve had the chance to work with councilman Berman on issues related to the California Avenue Streetscape project and have found him to be a huge advocate for our neighborhood and Palo Alto in general. He listened carefully to our concerns and represented us well in various city council meetings. I think councilman Berman would make a great state assemblyman for our district. Congrats, Marc, on your candidacy and good luck.
Regarding the previous post about Marc’s announcement, I don’t really follow the logic nor do I believe that a councilman becoming and assemblyman is bad. In fact, this is the standard course for political positions. Having a successful representative grow their responsibilities is a good thing.
Better than Menlo Park’s Kirsten Keith, who also appears tone running.
I have rarely heard any intelligent contribution to a council discussion from Marc Berman. His remarks are usually an agreement with someone who spoke earlier, or most often some reference to his self-centered life, his age, his college years, his generation, etc.
His deep connection with the real estate business and real estate law is not a recommendation for public service.
Nancy Shepherd was his co-campaign manager.
I am delighted to hear that Berman is running for Assembly. He has always struck me as bright, ethical, energetic, and committed to doing the best he possibly can for the community. I wish I could say the same for all elected officials — sadly, as we all know, that is all-too-often not the case. I have no doubt that Marc would serve ably in the Assembly and his presence there would benefit everyone in California. Starting in the City Council and then moving up to the state level is a very logical progression.
As for the first post above, the person making the comment probably did not realize that Marc was not a candidate in the recent City Council election. He was elected in 2012 and his term goes through 2016.
Lack of attention to local infrastructure has been a huge problem locally, and I’m grateful for Marc’s leadership in planning for and funding infrastructure improvements. Our streets have long been neglected, and recent investment is much appreciated. I hope he makes infrastructure a priority in Sacramento. I will be supporting him.
I”m afraid I agree with empty suit. One the other hand, in a choice between Gordon and Berman, please tell me where I sign up for Berman’s campaign…
Oops, I didn’t see that Gordon’s term expire’s in 2016. Well Thank Goodness for term limits! Who else is running?
The one good thing Marc Berman did was to vote in favor of placing on the ballot reducing the City Council from 9 to 7 in 2018. I’m all for this because the City Council doesn’t need young politicos who use a Council seat as a jumping off point to Sacramento. I would rather have 7 solid City Council persons who put Palo Alto first. We can do without the two spares.
It will be very interesting to see what plans the three new members of City Council have, will they be using our City Council as a jumping off point to what they perceive as bigger and better things in Sacramento.
I found Marc intelligent, but either out of touch with the majority of Palo Alto residents or perhaps him plotting another run for state assembly shaping his votes to appeal to future potential campaign contributors. His votes have been consistently to grant variances for higher density; although he worked on the infrastructure commission, when he got on elected to the city council he consistently would not fund a replacement for the police building out of the budget, instead voting to fund pet projects for various special interest groups.
Given Marc’s track record, he won’t be of much help on High Speed Rail issues, ABAG issues, etc. I’m hoping for another candidate to emerge who will represent the residents in the state assembly.
I did know he did not run in the current election. Why should Berman hold a council seat when his focus is not on our city?
He should have resigned before the election and allowed his seat to be up for grabs. I know for a fact that he’s known for a long time that his ambition was well beyond our city. I think anyone who talked with him would know this. Best thing about this is that Rich Gordon may be gone. Remember, everyone, he voted for high speed rail!
Berman puts in the work and kisses all of the right rings, but he’s not a natural leader and probably never will be. He’s self centered, petty, and vindictive, as evidenced by his long, meandering speeches with little relevant content, his petty treatment of the Maybell opposition (confronting Tim Gray and Bob Moss after the debate and threatening to sue everybody). I’ll be voting for somebody better qualified.
Here’s wishing Mr. Berman the same success that former Council Members Kishimoto and Barton saw when running for State Office.
I find it difficult to come to any conclusion without knowing who the other candidates are.
I think this is great news. Berman is constantly one of the most informed and better prepared members of the council. Furthermore, he tends not to be as extreme in his views as many of the other politicians in the city. Having someone like that in Sacramento, and who’s also young and energetic, will only benefit Palo Alto.
There are lots more accolades for Berman on this thread than I’ve heard on the streets. Can anybody tell me how he was able to post so many postings here under so many names?
If you go to his website, http://www.voteberman.com/about_marc, he has very few accomplishments listed. He lists the passage of the hotel tax, which he characterizes as the culmination of his five years of hard work. Actually, that measure would have passed whether there was a campaign committee or not. It didn’t need much of a campaign because voters were being asked to tax people from out of town. Then he talks about some sort of budget summary he claims he was instrumental in creating. I’ll bet the city manager and city CFO were stuck with doing that, and all Berman did was to suggest it and get 4 other votes to force them to do it. I don’t see any sizable achievements in his bio. How did he make life better for residents? What did he do to tame traffic? How successful was he in fighting against high-speed rail? (Oh, that’s right, he’s a union guy, so he sat that one out.) I don’t see anything he’s done in two years on council that would recommend him for state office. If I missed an achievement here, please chime up.
I expect that Tom DuBois and Eric Filseth ran for Council to slow the current growth spurt for office space in Palo Alto, among other issues. I see no evidence of higher ambition.
In contrast, I would expect for Cory Wolbach to seek higher office. I assume he will go back (if he hasn’t already) to be staff to State Senator Jerry Hill. I am NOT saying that Cory is disinterested in Palo Alto issues.
I also do think that serving in local government is a good training ground for higher office. Similarly, serving on Palo Alto’s Planning and Transportation Commission has been good training for current Councilmembers Pat Burt and (now Mayor) Karen Holman.
For one to run for state office without serving in local office raises questions about how effective that person would be.
Once these council members start thinking about running for the Legislature, their opinions sure do change. Note the front page of today’s Daily Post and the ridiculous selfie Menlo Park council member Kirsten Keith did with Jerry Brown. Guess she’s switched sides on high-speed rail in the hopes of picking up some campaign money from the unions.
I heard another potential candidate is Margaret Abe Koga, who was just termed out as Mountain View Councilmember and was unsuccessful in her recent run for El Camino Hospital Board.
Liz kniss once had big polices dreams first the council, the the county board of supervisors and then congress. Lucky for us, Anna eshoo has not chosen to move on, so liz could not obviously challenge her for her seat. So she will now end here career on the Palo Alto city council and to add insult to injury she was denied the position of mayor that she so coveted.
Yoriko kishimoto also aspired to higher office, but her shtick did not play well outside of Palo Alto and she was trounced in her bid.
Local politicians do not fare well, since they have the “ Palo Alto centric” mindset that outside voters perceive as arrogance
Burman is a nice nothing. He has had a few years on council and has not found a niche, done much of anything, shown any leadership, expressed any vision or conviction. He was once appointed to an infrastructure committee which he used as some thin experience to jump onto council in a year that anyone could have been elected. He seems bored. The only thing he is into is democratic party politics which seems to be his way to move onto to being a professional politician. Is this the best we can do? While I look forward to more talented people on the council in his place, I hardly think he should serve in Gordon’s seat. This is all about him and nothing about the people he supposedly would serve.
This is hardly a surprise. His ambitions may explain why he tends to comment in the wake of others rather than be the lead speaker on an issue. So that he can be a well known Assembly candidate with clearly stated positions and voters can make an informed decision about what sort of advocate to send to Sacramento I’d like to see him be less political in his positions and instead be a clear advocate for whatever position he is supporting – or speaking against.
Marc Berman has served on City Council for two years. To date, he has not distinguished himself by showing passion for, or making progress on, any particular issues. So far, he has not demonstrated a strong leadership style as a visionary or consensus builder.
Time will tell if he has the right stuff for election to the State Assembly. For the sake of our city, we can hope he will focus the remainder of his term on bolstering his local accomplishments. Undoubtedly, he will spend a lot of time on fundraising and networking with the Democratic Party establishment.
At the end of the day, how he looks as a candidate will largely be influenced by who else is running. Sometimes we vote with enthusiasm and sometimes we vote with distaste.
Marc Berman is an empty suit. It is obvious that he is not prepared when he comes to the weekly city council meetings. He doesn’t do his homework. He fakes it by repeating what other council members have already said.
Like all politicians, or want to be politicians, Marc Berman is more concerned about solving his problems, not problems of Palo Alto residents – his problems being getting elected to state assembly. What that means is needs to get the backing of the Democratic party, and all those special interest groups which drive the Democratic party agenda – unions, developers, etc.
Since Marc has been on the Palo Alto City Council – has traffic gotten better or worse? has our utility bills gone down or up? quality of life better or worse?
Marc voted for Measure D, to zone a property for high density along a safe schools route. Instead of getting the replacement for the police building started in all the years he’s been involved on infrastructure, he’s voted time after time to divert budget money to pet causes which favor special interest groups.
Let’s hope another candidate who will focus more on the residents.
“Since Marc has been on the Palo Alto City Council – has traffic gotten better or worse? has our utility bills gone down or up? quality of life better or worse?”
Why blame him for all the problems you claim exist? He has been on the council for only 2 years. Will you ask the same about pat, Karen, Greg and Greg? They have been on the council longer
“Marc voted for Measure D, to zone a property for high density along a safe schools route.”
All of the council voted for measure D
“Instead of getting the replacement for the police building started in all the years he’s been involved on infrastructure, he’s voted time after time to divert budget money to pet causes which favor special interest groups.”
You mean all the 2 years. What have pat, Karen, Greg and Greg done to get the new police station started? They have been on the council for much longer.
Agenda @ Another Palo Alto Neighborhood,
Here is Marc Berman’s statement on why he ran for city council:
“Growing up in Palo Alto, serving on the Infrastructure Commission, working as an attorney helping businesses grow and succeed and volunteering with many community organizations make me uniquely qualified to: 1) Lead the effort to invest efficiently in Palo Alto’s infrastructure, preserving the unique character of our neighborhoods while preparing Palo Alto for future generations”
As we residents have seen, Marc didn’t do much to get the public safety building started in the last 2 years; of course he has 2 more years to try. He had 2 budget cycles, many millions of dollars of budget surpluses, was head of the Council Finance Committee, yet nothing on the public safety building.
And as we all saw with Measure D, rather than try to preserve the unique character of a neighborhood, he supported zoning for higher density along a safe schools route.
And how does Marc raise $60,000 in 2 weeks? let’s see the list of donors, the amounts, and find out what association the donors have with special interests.
“Common sense” – you seem to forget that a new public safety building is on the list of projects included in Measure B, which Councilman Berman strongly supported and campaigned for, and was the end result of the Infrastructure Blue Ribbon Commission he served on before being elected to the council. I think he has done quite a bit to improve our city’s infrastructure.
South PA @ Greenhouse
There is no specific language in Measure B which has a list of projects that the money will be spent on. The measure B language from the ballot:
“To provide funding that cannot be taken away by the State for general fund infrastructure and City services such as earthquake safe fire stations; pedestrian and bike improvements including safe routes to school, streets, sidewalks, paths, and bridges; and maintaining parks and recreation facilities, shall the City increase the hotel/motel tax by two percent and update language to confirm equal treatment of traditional and online bookings?”
Where does it mention that the money will only be spent on the public safety building?
The ballot measure says that the money will be spent of General Fund infrastructure & City Services.
City Services include the PR person that City Manager Keene hired, the Sustainability Czar hired, etc, etc, etc.
I might run.
I would spend $100.000 of my own money on this, and like my three Palo Alto races ( or strolls) would not accept your money or that of special interests,
I could probably garner 500 endorsements, mostly average 650 folks, I listed 30 or so in 2014,
I’d write another 200 articles on policy, published mainly in my own blog (I wrote 144 between declaring and polls),
My campaign would be based on Ralph Nader and George pack
Kerr.
I also wrote that John Paye should run,
Wow, I’m amazed 44 minutes later and Bill Johnson has not deleted this!
I’ll tell you what, what it comes to Marc Berman and Bill Johnson, he was doing a lot more than kissing rings!
It’s a mixed blessing that, beyond John Paye (a former Stanford athletic star, a business owner a coach and a heck of a nice guy), I probably know personally 50 people who would be better than me for City Council or Assembly, that’s true. I hardly get a word in edgewise at my Friday breakfast klatch. I’m only #2 in my own domesticity!
But if I can get, say, 100,000 new readers to the authors I mention above — people who are way better than me at articulating what a mess we’re in, how far Democracy has run down — that would be worth the investment of my money and my time, for the sake of the community and country.
My friend Andres Fajardo — a Harvard-trained inner city MBA and clergy, in the 215, although we were both once both ASB President at Terman then editor in chief at Gunn — asked me recently, while visiting his mom, how many doorbells I had run in the recent campaign: I said “about 100″. He said “Ring 5,000.”
So if I run my $100,000 will be spent on a thousand pairs of walking shoes!
Actually, Matt Gonzalez, another political maverick, cautioned me about going negative, but really, in the case of people like Marc Berman and their success in our little fish bowl, and as you see above, two-thirds of us think we can do better, or someone can do better. BETTER THAN BERMAN. (and a picture of a mirror, a blank space, reflective)
I will feel that much more inspired, actually, if Bill Johnson deletes this. He doesn’t believe in Sullivan v. The New York Times. He says its his duty to protect lousy leadership from fair criticism. (Of Marc, of Pat Burt, and more…)
I reference George Packer “The Unwinding” (another Gunn journalist, just incidentally! I also read Jim Newton, from Paly).
And further:
I actually, despite the tone of this, would prefer over Berman his fellow Viking alumnus Kyu Young Kim (who I compared to the pre-pubescent rock band The Stinky Puffs):
https://markweiss86.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/iz-kyu-young-2-young-2-arb/
Berman’s $60,000 was actually the result of dunning slow-pay people from his Bar Mitzvah, friends of his parents.
LOL
Mark Weiss, you take the cake, win the lottery, mess with us as nobody else can. Thanks.
Ah well, I’m glad I got to laugh before the censorship team chose not to.
The race is early. Kasperzak is running as is Keith, Abe-Koga, Josh Becker [who if you remember almost beat Gordan if spoiler Kishimoto (spoiled) was not there]. Maybe Mark fellow pro-growther Kniss will run.
This video clip pretty much sums up Berman: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gwjvznt50i3pz6n/berman-2013-12-02.avi?dl=0
Never mind that he was fourth of four candidates elected out of a field of six running during a presidential election year. Maybell was the only item on the ballot in 2013, so how do they even compare? Gotta love the snide comment about Joe Hirsch, a leader against Measure D.
@ Bill
that is a great video clip. It makes me respect Mark even more. He stands by the strengths of his convictions. He believes in building housing for seniors. Maybell was approved by the whole Council, and while he recognizes significant opposition to the idea, he recognizes that he was also elected having made his position as an advocate of lower cost senior housing clear.
There are plenty of people on this thread claiming that Mark does not stand for anything. Watch the video that Bill has just posted. Agree or disagree, it is impossible to claim that Mark does not say exactly what he stands for.
Great little clip from the Council meeting!
The ego is paramount, challenged only by the illogic.
He compares two non-comparable votes. It’s all about Me, Me, Me.
No one ever said he was not in favor of development. He votes for development all the time, takes his cue from Larry Klein.
@courage,
Let’s not dredge up Maybell again. Unless you want to besmirch Berman’s campaign.
There were other things going on and if it had really been about housing seniors, the City would have put up the money like was done at 801 Alma, PAHC wouldn’t have ended up in the position of having to defend a project that was so in violation of zoning and the majority for the sake of a for-profit developer, and the neighborhood would have a nice, compatible development for seniors right now, or – if Council had listened to the neighbors like Joe Hirsch who wanted a working group (like the one that he was involved in 20 years earlier that saved the Terman school site from development and resulted in the larger affordable housing project nearby, Terman Apts), they might have worked with the neighbors to save the last orchard in Palo Alto and gotten a lot of capable neighbors working with them to create an even better affordable housing project. Neighbors did organize to meet with every Councilmember long before the vote to try to ask for that.
No, I don’t think the “courage of convictions” flies, and I think if Berman has an even moderately aggressive opponent willing to dredge up the documents from that mess — where the City employees improperly stated on state documents that Palo Alto was verifying and reverifying that the rezoning had taken place (when it hadn’t) and other misrepresentations, so that Palo Alto got millions in grants that would have gone to other projects in less-wealthy communities that would be housing a lot more low-income people now if Palo Alto hadn’t, um, misrepresented the truth in that business — it will not go well for Berman.
Remember, at the state level, there will be people who actually care that he was all for bulldozing the 100 established trees, using affordable housing as cover for a mostly for-profit zone-busting development, forcing neighbors with a proven record of working out compromises that brought affordable housing to the neighborhood to just oppose rather than work with the City. There will be people who care that he thought it was okay to verify wrong information to the state in order to get millions grant money that would have gone to another deserving project somewhere probably less wealthy than here, and that probably didn’t get built (ever) because of it. (The state committee that allocates the money did NOT redo the grants that roundd.)
WOW – I just looked at the video. That is a deal breaker. I have watched the PACC meetings on Monday night via TV and have not seen anything that that demonstrated initiative and leadership. He may be a “nice” person but there is more to the job than being a nice person.
I know prior mayors of Mountain View and Los Altos Hills – I worked with them on major programs in which they were program managers. There are people who are involved in city politics which have the total package for understanding finance, budgeting, managing technical results within schedule, and working within the government funding process with high ranking government customers.
That is what we need to be looking for to represent us – a proven track record in the person’s career objectives.
Berman knows he will never be reelected in Palo Alto, so he has decided to jump ship, and make a swim for the nearest thing that will support his political ambitions.
According to the Mercury News, Mr. Berman’s goal was always higher office. In 2009, he formed an exploratory committee to run for the State Assembly. Things didn’t pan out and he dropped out before the primary. Later on, in 2011, he decided to run for Palo Alto City Council.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_27288250/palo-alto-councilman-eyes-run-state-office
Marc is not ready yet.
Not sure why folks here wouldn’t want someone to aspire to rise to a higher office. Palo Alto would be much better served having a local serving in Sacramento. Berman seems like a smart, well prepared guy that cares about the issues and shows some real potential.
We all agree that we want someone representing us in Sacramento. We would like someone who has already demonstrated the leadership requirements that are needed in Sacramento. The video demonstrates where his leadership ability is lacking, as well as his lack of ability to navigate thorny issue with some skill.
Bill,
Thanks for that great little video clip.
I don’t fault Marc for standing by his position, but …
I was at the Maybell/Measure D debate. While the “Against D” folks (Tim Gray and Bob Moss) were talking, the guy behind me kept making snide remarks to the people next to him and behind him, loudly mocking Gray and Moss.
I turned around a couple of times to shush him, but he kept on.
It was only after the debate that I discovered the guy was Mark Berman! Totally unprofessional behavior for a council member.
PMP @ Palo Alto Hills,
When Marc Berman ran for city council in 2012, he stated he was for “preserving local neighborhoods”, yet time and again he has voted for changing zoning to higher density. Marc Berman’s support of Measure D, which would have rezoned properties for higher density along a safe schools route shows he lacks conviction in what he says when he is campaigning for votes.
And since Marc is already running 2 years before the election, means that he will use his position on the City Council to support special interest groups over the residents in order to raise campaign contributions.
The article states he raised $60,000 in 2 weeks – before any public announcement – a detailed look at the donors would be very revealing.
@PMP,
It would be nice to have someone in Sacramento representing Palo Altans, but the problem is, Berman doesn’t even represent Palo Altans in his role on the City council.
I don’t think Marc is remotely qualified. Hopefully he will drop out early again.
Liz Kniss seems to agree – in an article back in December about Berman running, she suggested that Margaret Abe Koga would be a good candidate. Pretty interesting comment from one of his colleagues.
Free-for-all for Assembly (http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SFDB&p_theme=sfdb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=%22Free-for-all%20for%20Assembly%22%20AND%20date(12/8/2014%20to%2012/8/2014)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=12/8/2014%20to%2012/8/2014)&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(%22Free-for-all%20for%20Assembly%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no)
Two Democrats are already in the running for the Assembly seat Rich Gordon, D-Menlo Park, will vacate in 2016 in what is expected to be a crowded field without a powerful incumbent. Mountain View Councilman Mike Kasperzak has his eye on the seat and so does Palo Alto Councilman Marc Berman, who recently filed a form with the state that allows him to start collecting money for his campaign.
That Daily Post states that only Kasperzak and Berman are running. In the same article, Sally Lieber makes a statement about people tossing around the names of Kirsten Keith and Lisa Gauthier, but that is simply gossip. The Daily Post published a correction today regarding their error with the high-speed rail story.
I hope the other people who have been mentioned sign-up to run. We need to know what these people do relative to their careers – who they work for, what is their track record within their career companies.
People who sign up talking about their work in the school system show some level of involvement – but the school system is a union intensive effort with a different set of skill sets then running a business which involves HR issues, budgeting issues, product development issues, and customer compliance issues to produce some product in a timely manner. Running a city and state requires good business skills.
We are not going to let someone buy this election. And if a bunch of “names” allow themselves to be listed as supporters then we will know who is selling and who is buying.
Being a Democrat theses days is no guarantee of anything anymore – the person needs to be a good leader.
History shows that trying to buy this assembly seat is a bad investment. Republican Steve Poizner tried to buy this assembly seat in in 2004, spending $6.6 million, but was beat by Ira Ruskin who raised $2 million. Ruskin then Raised $595,804 in 2006 and beat Virginia Chang Kiraly by more than 2-to-1 to win re-election. In 2008, Ruskin brought in $489,918 to overwhelmingly defeat Republican Ann Marie Temple.
As unqualified and unpopular as he is, The Weekly will push him — why?
And yes, they censor about a third of my postings.
I am probably the only person who posts by name and gets censored.
They call me “Agitator” but in truth I am closer to “Agape” which means Christian mercy. I support the poor, the under-represented; they slant the news to help the powerful, the merciless and the One Percent.
Marc Berman is basically a water boy for the actual players.
I guess another question is: why do I keep trying to speak out?
Well, it is pretty ironic that a “newspaper” has decided to take on the role of censor.
Mark,
I don’t always agree with what you say, in fact most of the time I don’t even understand it, but I think your heart is in the right place, and as a registered user, posting under your own name, you should not be censored.
cc: PAW
I do really hate being such a negative voice so often, gosh I wish I could
get enthusiastic and happy about what is going on in my City … but my
feeling is that anyone who has participated in Palo Alto politics really has
nothing to offer the state and should butt the hell out of politics.
The only reason anyone from Palo Alto would be going to Sacramento
is that they impressed some people or corporations and can get the money
to go fill the vacuum that normal real public servant wannabes just cannot
afford or get money for.
Boooo, on this undemocratic patronage system.