On the Campaign Trail On the Campaign Trail (September 24, 2003)

LYTLE AIMS FOR YOUTH VOTE ... Councilwoman Nancy Lytle's youth campaign coordinator has sent a letter to Paly and Gunn graduates asking them to register to vote on the absentee ballot, and of course vote for Lytle. In addition to noting that Lytle ensures "responsible city spending," maintains "resident-friendly neighborhoods," and preserves "community libraries, school lands and parks," the letter reminds the students about the incident earlier this year when the council was mocked for trying to ban any negative facial expressions of its members. ".. let me tell you that Nancy was one of the few who had the wits to dissent," wrote Paly Junior Allison Ferraiolo. Included with the letter is a Lytle brochure. "There's a reason why we sent this letter to you: your vote counts ."

APARTMENT ASSOCIATION ENDORSEMENTS... The Tri-County Apartment Association has announced their endorsements for City Council candidates Bern Beecham, Skip Justman, Judy Kleinberg, and Dena Mossar. The TCAA provides rental housing information for Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz counties. As for these local candidates, "number one, we thought they would be consensus builders, and that is an important thing for all city councils," said Jeffrey Dennison, government relations manager for the TCAA. "And two, we thought they would be open and friendly to our issues... The third point is that they would be open to working with the business community."

SMALL SPLASH... With front lawn placards for and against the 800 High St. project -- aka Measure C - cropping up all over town it is easy to forget that another hot issue will be put to the voters on Nov. 4: Measure B or fluoride-free drinking water. The pro-B or pro-fluoride free water, threw their campaign kick-off party on Tuesday night, but judging from their small, unobtrusive fliers, it is unclear whether they will raise hell or high water.

VAGUE ENDORSEMENTS... City Council member and Council candidate Nancy Lytle listed a few of her key endorsements as "Palo Alto Firefighters, Organizations and Community of Palo Alto," on the League of Women Voters of California's Smart Voter Web site. The Firefighter's union has said they are endorsing Lytle. Tony Spitaleri, longtime president of the Firefighters Union praised Lytle for not being "part of the rubber-stamp crowd." As for her other endorsers, it is difficult to gauge the support of "organizations" and the "community", but apparently Lytle felt comfortable to list them just the same.