Four's a crowd in Assembly race Four's a crowd in Assembly race (February 25, 2004)

Number of Democrats vie for Simitian's seat

by Rebecca Wallace

The Democratic primary in the state Assembly's 21st District has gotten mighty crowded, two city council members, one school board member and one sanitary district board member battling it out.

But the March contest for the two-year Assembly term is by no means the end of the campaign trail.

In the past, Democratic candidates in this district often defeated their Republican opponents in the November general election by large margins. This time, the Republican candidate, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Poizner, is looming as a monied threat in November. He's already given himself two loans of $500,000 each and is racking up donations from business people in the area, according to the state Secretary of State's office.

The 21st district, which includes parts of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, has been represented for the last two terms by Assemblyman Joe Simitian. With Simitian vying for the state Senate, such local Democrats as Palo Alto Unified School District board member John Barton, West Bay Sanitary District board president John Carcione, Monte Serena City Councilwoman Barbara Nesbet and Redwood City Councilman Ira Ruskin have thrown their hats in the ring.

Aside from Poizner's candidacy, the only thing hanging over the Democrats' heads is the state budget.

Ideas for repairing the ailing budget differ. All four Democrats support restoring the annual license fee for vehicle owners to its 1998 level, which is about three times higher than it is now.

All four also support state Proposition 56 on the March ballot, which would allow the Legislature to pass the budget and related tax bills with a 55 percent vote instead of a two-thirds vote.

They split, however, on Proposition 57, which allows the state to borrow $15 billion through the sale of bonds to help cover California's deficit. Barton and Carcione oppose the bond measure, while Nesbet and Ruskin support it.
John Barton

In his seventh year as a school board member, Barton said he's worked to keep his district financially sound by pushing for healthy budget reserves and a multi-year budgeting process.

To ensure the state's fiscal health, Barton supports raising income taxes on California's wealthiest residents. He would also like to see a higher sales tax as an interim measure, and an effort to reduce loopholes that allow California businesses to move to offshore locations.

In addition, he supports spending cuts, including slowing the rate of prison construction and reducing the amount of mandatory testing in schools.

Barton is in favor of easing the term limits that only allow legislators to serve eight years in the state Senate and six in the Assembly, saying legislators need more time to garner experience. He'd like to see limits of 12 years for each branch of the Legislature.

Another issue he's interested in is construction defect litigation, which he said is so rampant that it discourages developers from building badly needed housing.

"The system makes it far too easy to sue," said Barton, who is an architect. "Obviously people who do shoddy construction should pay, but teachers should be able to stay in the county."

Some of Barton's major endorsers are the California Teachers Association, the Democratic Forum of the Silicon Valley, and Delaine Eastin, former state superintendent of public instruction.
John Carcione

A red apple adorns Carcione's campaign lawn signs, in reference to his late grandfather Joe Carcione, who appeared on television as the "Green Grocer."

The younger Carcione said his grandfather advocated for consumer rights and he has continued that tradition by working with the West Bay Sanitary District, helping in reform efforts after the district's manager was sentenced on embezzlement charges.

Along with restoring the higher vehicle license fee and raising taxes on the wealthy, Carcione said he'd work to ease the budget crunch by instituting a fee for corporations that extract oil from the state. He also said he'd favor a "modest" property tax increase on commercial property owners.

The $15 billion state bond measure, he said, would be more harmful than helpful. "The state's low (bond) rating makes California pay more in the long run," he said.

If he's elected, Carcione said he'd like to expand the Healthy Families program, which provides low-cost health insurance for children without coverage. He said he'd also like to see more class-size reductions in schools.

An attorney, Carcione serves as a court-appointed child advocate to help foster kids through the system.

Some of his major endorsers are the California League of Conservation Voters, San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon, and former U.S. Congressman Pete McCloskey.
Barbara Nesbet

As an attorney, Nesbet has experience both as a high-tech lawyer in Silicon Valley and as deputy city attorney for Santa Cruz and Capitola. Now she's on the council in the small Santa Clara County city of Monte Sereno.

"I've dealt with small-city issues, battling bigger cities," she said. So naturally one of her priorities is to keep the state from taking funding away from local governments. For example, she'd like to make libraries exempt from property tax take-aways by the state.

When it comes to healing the state's budget woes, Nesbet would like to look into raising the cigarette tax, along with having higher taxes on the wealthy and restoring the higher vehicle license fee.

Like Barton, Nesbet thinks the current term limits for state legislators are too rigid and should be expanded to allow 12 years in both the state Senate and Assembly.

"Sher was termed out and he could have served more. He's done so well," she said, referring to state Sen. Byron Sher, D-Palo Alto, who is termed out of the 11th district this year. "There are complicated issues that need experience."

Some of Nesbet's major endorsers are the California Democratic Legislative Women's Caucus, the Santa Clara County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, and state Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont.
Ira Ruskin

Since his election to the Redwood City Council in 1995, Ruskin has made water one of his key issues.

Concerned that a major earthquake could severely damage the aging Hetch Hetchy water system, Ruskin said he helped in the successful push for state legislation mandating the state to make upgrades. He now serves as chair of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, which represents the cities and water districts that buy water from the San Francisco water system.

If elected, he said he'd like to see more state legislation to protect streams and rivers, "to make timber companies more accountable for the damage they do."

Ruskin is also interested in streamlining bureaucratic procedures such as those governing the state's Medi-Cal system. Along with closing corporate tax loopholes, that would do a great deal in easing the state's budget problems, he said.

For now, though, he said he has no choice but to support the $15 billion bond measure.

"Without it, fire stations, libraries and parks will close," he said, "but I want to make sure that if we pass this bond that this never happens again."

Some of Ruskin's major endorsers are the Sierra Club, the state AFL-CIO, and San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley.

Rebecca Wallace writes for the Almanac, the Weekly's sister paper in Menlo Park.

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