On late Monday, Davis Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk announced today that he has received the endorsement of Davis City Councilmember Lucas Frerichs in his campaign to represent the 4th District in the California State Assembly.
Councilmember Frerichs joins his city council colleague Brett Lee, who announced his support of Wolk in December, and nearly 100 other statewide, community, education, public safety and other leaders from all over the district supporting Dan Wolk for Assembly.
“I have worked closely with Dan Wolk on the Davis City Council and am confident that he’s the right candidate to represent us in the State Assembly,” Councilmember Frerichs said, “I appreciate his ability to listen to others, understand differing viewpoints and synthesize them into decisions that work.”
“I support Dan because he possesses the right qualities and temperament that make for an effective state legislator and he will represent our community and region well in Sacramento,” Mr. Frerichs continued.
Lucas Frerichs was first elected to the Davis City Council in 2012, after running a campaign focused on economic development, environmental sustainability and strengthening the city’s relationship with UC Davis. He served as Chair of the City of Davis Planning Commission prior to his election to City Council.
Dan Wolk is engaged in a four-person race for the State Assembly Seat held by Davis resident Mariko Yamada, who is termed out after three terms. He is opposed by Davis Mayor Joe Krovoza, Napa Supervisor Bill Dodd, and Napa resident Matt Pope, who is backed by Assemblymember Yamada as well as Senator Noreen Evans.
Financials are coming out later this month where Mayor Krovoza has shown surprising strength, but Mayor Pro Tem Wolk has dominated on endorsements, earning key city of Davis and Yolo County Endorsements.
In early December, council colleague Brett Lee became the first Davis City Council member to choose between two colleagues.
As Councilmember Lee noted in his statement, this was as much of a personal decision as it was a policy decision.
“I had an opportunity to get to know and become friends with Dan Wolk when I was running for Davis City Council,” Councilmember Lee said. “I believe Dan will represent Davis and our region well in the State Assembly.”
Dan Wolk has served on the Davis City Council since 2011 and is currently Mayor Pro Tem. He is Deputy County Counsel for Solano County, handling public finance, public contracting and water issues. He is also the founder of the Legal Clinic of Yolo County, a legal services provider for low-income families.
Dan Wolk grew up in Davis and attended Davis public schools, before attending Stanford University and receiving his law degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall. He lives in Davis with his wife, Jamima, a former professional triathlete and small business owner, and their two young daughters, Avery and Layla.
The Fourth Assembly District consists of Napa and Lake Counties, most of Yolo County, as well as portions of Sonoma, Solano and Colusa Counties.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Either no one likes Joe on his Council or everyone wants him on the Council and Dan gone.
There is nobody on the Davis City Council with better political instincts than Lucas. This is great news for Dan.
Go Dan and take Frerichs with you.
Krovoza has used his time on the Council to prove and improve his value as a topnotch leader for our community.
Wolk has used his limited time on the Council to expose his ambition and to avoid difficult decisions.
Frerichs has used his time on the Council to hone his political instincts and calculating abilities.
Too bad that the one who has the most to offer Davis will be leaving the Council regardless of how the election results play out.
I will be sad to see Krovoza go.
iPG, do you really see life that simply? For the most part I agree with you that Joe has been a good mayor and has grown during his time on the Council. But like all people he isn’t without his flaws. He becomes quite tone deaf at times. He walked all over the lady in Public Comment in December when her relating of the events that surrounded the handgun suicide at Eleanor Roosevelt Circle reached 3 minutes and she wasn’t done. Fortunately Brett Lee recognized the situation for what it was and interceded in order to let the lady finish her compelling story.
Swinging the pendulum back the other way, his State of the City address to the Chamber today was very, very well done. Joe at his best. The only minor flaw was that he used the outdated Budget slide with a $15.07 million Genral Fund Balance deficit rather than the current Budget slide with the $28.43 million Genral Fund Balance deficit. The point Joe made was the same regardless of slide accuracy, specifically that the City’s Budget is in a world of hurt.
Where you and I differ is in your assessment of Dan. Dan doesn’t display the abundance of testosterone that Joe does, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t also both proved and improved his value as a leader for our community.
I think they are far and away the best two candidates in this Assembly Primary race, and as a result you see my name on the list of endorsements for both of them.
“He walked all over the lady in Public Comment in December when her relating of the events that surrounded the handgun suicide at Eleanor Roosevelt Circle reached 3 minutes and she wasn’t done. Fortunately Brett Lee recognized the situation for what it was and interceded in order to let the lady finish her compelling story.”
I felt for him in that situation. I think people should try and be respectful of the 3 minute rule, that women seemed to think that the rule should not have applied to her. Brett jumping in allowed Joe to save face (he could blame Brett if someone called him on letting someone go long). I think they both handled it as well as could be expected.
I empathized with him as well B. Nice, but as an observer in the room (I think both you and I were there) it was pretty clear at a point somewhere between a minute and two minutes into her comment, that this was a very noteworthy and unusual situation. It is not often that we hear about a half dozen Davis police drawing their weapons on civilian witnesses to a suicide.
One of Shakespeare’s famous lines is “Often times excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.” The best course of action as the clock ticked toward three minutes would have been (in my personal opinion) to quietly let her finish. She was approaching the end, and it is more than likely that no one would have even noticed the timing issue, because the content of what she was saying was so riveting. I think by interrupting her, Joe created a trajectory that used significantly more of the Council’s time and at the same time sent a message that what she was saying wasn’t either meaningful or important. I know that Joe didn’t mean to send either of those messages, but whether he meant to or not, he did.
I honestly feel that the lady had no idea that there was a time limit.
Take all of the above with a grain of salt. It is only one man’s opinion.
I watched it from home. You are right this was an unusual situation, so much so I wondered at one point if she was making it up.
Joe seems to enforce the 3 minute rule, a job I do not envy, pretty consistently. To be honest there have been times I’ve cringed watching him do it. But letting people go over is a slippery slope. Maybe there should be some auditory cue when time is up.