By Clarence Cromwell
Voters around Santa Clara County are going to the polls Feb. 4 to elect a county supervisor to the District 1 seat. Unless they don't.
The ballot asks voters to choose among seven: General Electric Marketing Manager John Redding; County Planner Tom Kruse; Santa Clara Valley Water District Director Rosemary Kamai; Keith Honda, chief of staff for the former District One supervisor; Gilroy Mayor Don Gage; political newcomer Linh Dao; and Los Gatos Town Council member Steve Blanton.
Candidates have been hard pressed to grab voters' attention in a race that kicked off during the holiday season, features more candidates than most people are likely to remember and, in all likelihood, will end in a runoff, unless one of the seven candidates captures a majority of votes.
Low turnout is virtually guaranteed, because the contest will be decided in a stand-alone special election: The Registrar of Voters' office expects between 20 and 25 percent of the district's 174,249 registered voters to cast a ballot, said media coordinator Elma Martinez. That would be standard, she said, for a one-item special election. The November presidential contest, on the other hand, drew 59 percent of registered voters countywide.
The awkward timing of the race results from the fact that former District 1 Supervisor Mike Honda--candidate Keith Honda's cousin and former boss--won a seat in the 23rd Assembly District last November. Voters gave consent on the same ballot for the county to replace Honda by election.
To make matters worse, the candidates agree on just about everything except who should get the job. At an Almaden Valley community forum Jan. 23, they stressed fiscal responsibility, transportation improvements and careful planning decisions with plenty of input from the public.
But there are some differences.
The domestic partners registry injected a little controversy into the election. Candidates Gage and Blanton oppose it outright--Blanton's statement says he'll "build stronger families"--and Redding, although hesitant, has said he'd prefer to repeal the domestic partners ordinance.
All four other candidates said they approve of the registry.
"I don't think the Board of Supervisors should have taken it upon themselves to make that decision," Redding said.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 5, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.