The filing period for the March 1996 primary election, which includes races for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, the state Assembly and Senate, and the U.S. Congress, ended Dec. 29, and we now know who will be on the Saratoga ballot.
Three candidates will vie for the District 5 seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, now held by Dianne McKenna. Voters will have a choice between Sunnyvale Planning Commissioner Mark O'Connor, former Cupertino City Council member Barbara Koppel and Palo Alto Mayor Joe Simitian. McKenna is stepping down due to term limits.
Four state Legislature seats are up for grabs in 1996--two in the Assembly and two in the Senate.
The District 22 seat now held by John Vasconcellos, who plans to run for state Senate, has a half-dozen contestants. In the Democratic camp, San Jose Vice Mayor Trixie Johnson, San Jose resident Marvin Olson and Elaine White Alquist, wife of state Sen. Al Alquist and a former Cupertino Union School District Board member, plan to run. The Republicans are Roylene Pocius of Sunnyvale, Andrew Diaz of Santa Clara and Karin Dowdy of Saratoga, a member of the West Valley/Mission College Board of Trustees. Frank Strutner is the candidate for the Natural Law Party.
In state Assembly District 24, incumbent Jim Cunneen will face Democrat Ed Foglia of San Jose, who lost his bid against Cunneen in 1994, and Libertarian Jon Earl Petersen of San Jose.
In addition to Vasconcellos, several candidates will bid for the state Senate seat in District 13, currently held by retiring Sen. Al Alquist. They include Democrat Thomas Hayes of San Jose, Libertarian John Webster, and Republicans Ray Morton and John Haggerty. Dominic Cortese, currently state Assemblyman in District 23, will run on the Reform Party ticket, and Rick Dunstan is the candidate for the Natural Law Party.
In the 11th District race for the state Senate seat Tom Campbell vacated to take Norm Mineta's seat in the U.S. Congress, Democrat Byron Sher will compete with Republican Patrick Shannon and Libertarian John Matonis.
Nationally, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo will face several challengers in District 14. Republicans Trafton Miller of Sunnyvale and Benjamin Brink of Palo Alto, the party's 1994 nominee, plan to run. Robert Wells of the Natural Law Party and Timothy Thompson of the Peace and Freedom Party also will be on the ballot.
In the 15th Congressional District, Republican Tom Campbell will defend his new seat against Democrats Richard Lane and Norman Kline, Reform candidate Valli Sharpe-Geisler, Natural Law candidate Bruce Currivan, and Libertarian Ed Wimmers.
The Saratoga ballot also will include the Neighborhood Preservation Initiative, sponsored by the Save Our Neighborhoods Initiative Committee. If passed, the measure would require development proposals that would increase density or put park land to residential or commercial use to be approved by the voters at a citywide election.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 10, 1996.
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