While the Davis political world waits on the final decision for Councilmember Lamar Heystek as to whether he will change his mind and run for re-election, a new intrigue has potentially emerged in the Supervisor’s race.
Up until now, Davis Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor was running unopposed for the seat that Helen Thomson is leaving in her decision to retire from public office and therefore not seek reelection. However, now a potential opponent has emerge, or shall we say re-emerged.
In one of the least kept secrets locally, soon-to-be Mayor Don Saylor has announced his candidacy for Yolo County Supervisor last night at Central Park. He will be running in District 2, where current Supervisor Helen Thomson will be stepping down after two terms following her exit from Sacramento as a three-term Assemblymember.
Mr. Saylor who will become Mayor in June would make things interesting if he wins the seat. The election for Supervisor is in June of 2010. Should he gain 50 percent of the vote at that time, he would be declared the winner without the race having to go to a run off in November. However, like Supervisor Jim Provenza, he would not actually become Supervisor until January 2011. So for six months he would be the Mayor of Davis while he is Supervisor-in-waiting.
It was a decision that was not automatic for First Term County Supervisor Matt Rexroad. In fact, there was a point where it seemed a good possibility that he would not run for re-election. He had told me that he could always run for Supervisor but his kids wouldn’t always be young. As he wrote in his blog on Saturday:
“I had pretty much decided that I was not going to run for re-election to the Board of Supervisors. My family and business commitments were calling.”
On Friday, it was announced that Jim Provenza had won the 4th Supervisorial district race outright garnering 54 votes over the needed 50 percent in order to avoid a November runoff election. Mr. Provenza received 4,065 votes or 50.7 percent, easily outdistancing John Ferrera’s 2,739. Cathy Kennedy finished third with 15.2% or 1,217 votes. He will replace the likely Assemblywoman from this district, Mariko Yamada who won the Democratic Nomination on Tuesday in a district that is heavily Democratic.
The first time I really got to know Jim Provenza was in January of 2007. I met with him in his office in Sacramento to convey to him my concerns about the District’s handling of the harassment of a junior high school student due to the fact that the student had two male parents.
Just a few days before the June 3, 2008 election and for the first time, the three county supervisor candidates met for a candidates forum moderated by Jean Canary of the Davis League of Women Voters. This is the only chance fourth district residents would get a chance to see the candidates square off. There was a decent crowd of mostly the usual suspects in attendance, but the event was televised on Cable Channel 15 throughout the community, a telecast that should be replayed a few times for those who missed it.
Each candidate got four minutes to make an opening statement and answer the three prepared questions.