It’s not just the Political Climate, it’s the season:
LABORING ON: The San Mateo County Central Labor Council is out with its first list of endorsements. A handful of other races will be decided after Labor Day.
There are some surprises, most notably that long-time labor ally Diana Reddy did not win an outright endorsement in the hot race for Redwood City Council.
By her own description, and that of many others, Reddy has walked, stood and picketed shoulder-to-shoulder with labor on a long list of social justice issues.
Instead, the labor council endorsed incumbent Vice Mayor Diane Howard and challengers Giselle Hale and Jason Galisatus in the three-seat race.
Reddy received what is known as an “open” endorsement – local unions, such as SEIU, which dominates union representation in Redwood City, can endorse her, but she will not have the benefit of the county labor council’s support.
That means Howard, Hale and Galisatus will appear on the slate mailing that will go to union households in Redwood City. It also can mean direct contact of union members by the labor council and it can provide some fundraising opportunities.
The “open” endorsement means Reddy fell short of the two-thirds needed among the delegates who attend the labor council’s endorsement sessions – roughly 50 or so.
The Building Trades Council unions are the most active in the process and it can be surmised that while Reddy is the most aggressive advocate in the race for low-income housing, the other three candidates probably have a broader agenda of support for development.
The labor council endorsed Measure W, the countywide half-cent sales tax for transportation projects and programs, which means their support will be featured on the countywide slate mail piece sent to all union households in San Mateo County. That’s 40,000 households and 74,000 union members. … In most races, the labor council endorsed incumbents, including Pamela Digiovanni in Daly City and Mark Nagales in South San Francisco. …. In the race for the San Mateo County Community College District Area 4 seat pitting fellow trustees Richard Holober and Tom Mohr, the labor council endorsed Holober. Technically, Mohr is the incumbent – he has lived in Area 4 for a while and Holober moved there to challenge Mohr, who received an “open” endorsement. … On September 10, the labor council will announce its endorsements in Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Jefferson Elementary School District in Daly City.
OUT-FOXED: A complaint has been filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Redwood City Council candidate Ernie Schmidt over a campaign expense he failed to report in his race for the council in 2013.
Schmidt, vice president at the Fox Theater in downtown, kicked off his 2013 campaign at the Fox and never reported the use of the facility as campaign expense.
He paid for the use of the venue, $700, but never reported on his campaign finance disclosure statement, Schmidt said.
“It was just an oversight from the accountant at that time,” Schmidt said. As soon as he was notified of the complaint by the FPPC, “I corrected it immediately – literally that same week,” and filed a new report on the expense item, Schmidt said.
The complaint was filed anonymously, of course, and the complainant, ever-helpful, wrote to the FPPC: “This candidate is in the midst of a campaign for the same office for election in November 2018 and so this needs to be handled quickly.”
Contact Mark Simon at mark.simon24@yahoo.com.
Editor’s Note — this column was updated in order to correct details on the nature of Schmidt’s FPPC violation. While the initial report stated the violation was a failure to report a contribution, the violation was in fact about not reporting the expense.
*The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Climate Online.
