Posted by Say-No-To-Joe!, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:20 am

Joe Simitian is on the Senate's Finance Committee .. and this is what we end up with--

John Chiang says California's cash will dry up if officials don't act

Web Link

California has not fared well with Simitian in Sacramento. Palo Alto's finance problems can be traced to the years when Simitian was on the Council.

Simitian shows not fiscal common sense. He seems to have been "purchased" by special interests, and serves his master faithfully.

Posted by common sense, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:36 am

Joe Simitian has spent 12 years representing us in Sacramento, and has done NOTHING to help us with High Speed Rail, nor the onerous ABAG housing allocations that would like to turn much of Palo Alto into High Density Housing.

12 years, and the state budget has deficits.

Prior to that Joe promised and spent Palo Alto's budget to where Palo Alto has to cut services - look at the ballooning liability for the generous Medical Benefits for retired city employees.

And looks who's donating to his campaign - developers (who like the profits from high density housing), unions (who benefit from all those benefits). Applied Materials government affairs guy is Gary Fazzino, so Gary is using Applied Material's money and his own to donate to Joe Simitian's campaign.

We don't need a recycled politician from Sacramento who won't represent our district, and who will spend us into bigger deficits.

Posted by Henry, a resident of another community, on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:41 am

Simitian has been in Sacramento a long time, is adequately bright, and is a member of the majority party, so has been well positioned to give us legislation dealing with the hard stuff, like the state's financial pickle. But no. Instead, we got nanny bills and a train to nowhere, and the tough stuff was left undone. Too bad for us, and too bad for Santa Clara county if this career politician gets elected as supervisor.

Posted by Arch Conservative, a resident of Menlo Park, on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:46 am

Why doesn't he get a real job and stop feeding from the public trough?

Remember him saying once that he didn't know what he would do if he were not reelected. Let's let him find out.

Posted by Marrol, a resident of the Embarcadero Oaks/Leland neighborhood, on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:57 am

Of course he leads in fund raising. Just another career politician being fed by his cronies, backroom deals, and special interests. Business as usual will always result in business as usual. Just another uninspiring retread.

Posted by Senor blogger, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Feb 1, 2012 at 11:44 am

SO----

Simitian returns to Santa clara , Kniss returns to Palo Alto

Same ol, Same ol, Same ol

Can't we get somebody new??

We're going backwards in time.

SB

Posted by member, a resident of another community, on Feb 1, 2012 at 12:54 pm

Time for change, Simitian has served long enough. Let's give someone young a chance to serve. Simitian is a life long politician moving from seat to seat and done little for the community.

Posted by Senior Citizen, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Feb 1, 2012 at 7:04 pm

Please look at the positive things Joe Simitian did while in the Senate. I am sure he has learned a lot about how to get bills through the State Legislature. He was very successful. He has always been available to our community and held town hall meetings to keep all of us informed. You are going to need his expertise in the coming years. I supported Joe for the Assembly and the Senate because he worked on issues that effected everyone in California.

Posted by Liam, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Feb 4, 2012 at 10:24 pm

It's time for Joe to go. Throwing the future education of generations of California youth so we can have an obscenely expensive train few will ride, and everyone will pay for for decades to come, is just plain stupid. Joe clearly loves his union campaign donations much much more than doing anything useful in Sacramento.

Joe, Jerry Moonbeam, Rich Gordon, and the lot that still think that HSR is the best thing since the wheel have to go. Vote the lot out.