Residents looking for Cohn opponenet, irked by stance on West Valley issue

Assemblywoman hasn't acted as expected

Streit says he won't run

By Oakley Brooks

Local residents are apparently looking for an opponent for state Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, D-Saratoga, for next fall's election, citing differences with Cohn on an athletic venue at West Valley College.

Some Saratogans expressed the belief that Cohn might be vulnerable after shelving legislation this spring that would have enforced West Valley's decades-old agreement with the city of Saratoga not to build "an outdoor sports stadium" on the college's campus.

The issue has driven a wedge between the college and city officials and West Valley neighbors since the college's inception in 1964.

Those seeking to prevent improvements to the football and track venue thought Cohn might work in their favor by proposing a new law soon after she took office in January that would have prevented community colleges from using their autonomy under state law to exempt themselves from agreements with cities. She put the bill on hold in June.

"Rebecca Cohn has been pretty awful on this issue," said West Valley College Board Member Jeff Schwartz.

Saratogan Don Whetstone and several other residents (not including Schwartz) recently asked Vice Mayor Nick Streit if he'd be willing to run against Cohn on the Republican ticket next fall. Whetstone, who helped campaign for several members of the current Saratoga City Council, also said he was "appalled" at Cohn's handling of the West Valley issue.

Streit said unequivocally that he was not interested in running for state office, citing family concerns.

But political analysts said recently that even if Saratogans found a willing candidate to run as a Republican to capitalize on anti-West Valley sentiment and oppose Cohn, that bid would have a difficult time succeeding in the newly drawn 24th State Assembly District.

The redistricting compensates for population growth identified by the 2000 U.S. census.

As part of a deal struck between Assembly Democrats and Republicans to preserve the house's 50-30 split, respectively, under new boundaries, Republicans allowed the expansion of Cohn's district into heavily Democratic portions of San Jose.

The new district, which awaits Gov. Gray Davis' approval, would excise Los Gatos and Monte Sereno and add portions of southern and eastern San Jose to the area, which includes Campbell and Saratoga.

Democrats would compose 46 percent of the district's 224,063 registered voters, compared to 32 percent Republican.

"[Unseating Democrats] is tough to do," said Terry Christensen, a political science professor at San Jose State University. "You've really got to move a lot of people who don't care about that [West Valley] issue and generally aren't interested in the assembly elections as a whole."

Neither Cohn nor her staff was available to comment last week on what her chances would be in an election that featured the contentious West Valley issue.

Don Whetstone lamented Streit's decision not to make an assembly run, saying Streit would make a strong candidate for state office regardless of what issues he ran his campaign on.

"He's a risk-taker; a lot of these people are so cautious about looking bad," Whetstone said. "They test the wind for so long before coming down on an issue."

Whetstone cited Streit's unconventional suggestion last year to turn part of the Heritage Orchard into a recreation facility--an idea that Whetstone opposed--as a good example of Streit's approach.

But Streit said he is unwilling to give up his partnership in the San Jose accounting firm Delucchi, Hawn & Co. to join the state legislature in Sacramento. More importantly, he said, he didn't want to spend time away from his two small children, ages 5 and 8.

"They got tired of seeing me on TV after about the first week on city council," Streit said of his bi-weekly appearance at council meetings.

Streit did say he's considering running for another four-year term on the Saratoga City Council. His term concludes at the end of 2002.

"I like doing the city council," he said. "Either I run for city council or I retire from political life."

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Metro staff writer Jeff Kearns contributed to this report.

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