At the end of the first week in which candidates for local office can begin paperwork for a campaign, the vacant District 2 seat on the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors is the hot ticket.
Prospective candidates began to pick up required paperwork for a run Tuesday at the county clerk-recorder’s office and three District 2 residents showed early interest in succeeding Steve Wilensky, of Glencoe, who announced last summer he will not seek a third consecutive term.
Michael Dell’Orto, a former county supervisor from Mokelumne Hill and president of Mokelumne Water and Mining Co.; Anita Paque, a Mountain Ranch attorney and chairwoman of the Calaveras Local Agency Formation Commission; and Chris Wright, executive director of the Foothill Conservancy environmental group and a resident of Rail Road Flat, each picked up nomination papers by the close of office hours on Thursday.
Dell’Orto is no stranger to local politics. He served on the county Board of Supervisors from 1989 to 1997 representing District 1, which included Mokelumne Hill at the time. He ran unsuccessfully for the District 2 seat in 2004 and as the Libertarian Party standard-bearer for state Assembly in 2006.
He believes his experience will be an asset as the county as it concludes work on the General Plan document that guides land use planning.
“I know all the wonderful things and all the bad things (about being a supervisor),” Dell’Orto said. “I think I can help figure out how to keep the county going with the economy and the reduced support from the state and federal government.”
Dell’Orto is also a member of the executive committee of the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce and has spent 48 years as a volunteer with the Mokelumne Hill Fire Protection District.
Paque, 54, has practiced law for 29 years and graduated from University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. In addition to her role on LAFCO, she has also served as a member of the county’s Assessment Appeals Board. She ran for the office of clerk-recorder in 2010 but lost the election bid.
Paque said the General Plan must be completed as soon as possible.
“It’s something that’s been hanging around for a while,” she said.
Paque is supportive of a renewed county government focus on customer service, the quality of recent hires in the planning and building departments and economic development.
“People need jobs,” she said. “What we really need is the government to foster an environment where people can create jobs.”
Wright is making his first run for elected office. He led the Conservancy as it battled the proposed heightening of Pardee Dam and expansion of Pardee Reservoir, filing suit and gaining a favorable decision from Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley.
The judge ruled in April 2011 that the East Bay Municipal Utility District water supply plan needed to further study alternatives to the controversial project.
“My neighbors know how to work hard to get things done,” Wright said in a news release Thursday. “Over the past few years we have accomplished many things, but we still have our work cut out for us.”
Wright said he is a fourth-generation Calaveras resident who grew up in Mokelumne Hill and Glencoe. He is also focused on the general plan update and said he will seek expanded Neighborhood Watch programs through the Sheriff’s Department, a crackdown on methamphetamine and clearing and restoration of the district’s extensive forests.
In other races, former Supervisor Russ Thomas picked up papers to seek the revised District 4 seat. District 4 incumbent Tom Tryon said he will announce whether or not he intends to seek re-election at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Elections Coordinator Becky Andahl said no one had yet pulled papers in District 1. Supervisor Gary Tofanelli announced in November that he will pursue a second term.
Both candidates who announced plans to vie for the office of district attorney, criminal defense attorney David Singer and appointed incumbent Barbara Yook, picked up paperwork this week as well.
Official declarations of candidacy can be filed with the county elections office beginning Feb. 13. The deadline to submit voter signatures in lieu of a filing fee is Feb. 23. Candidates must collect 10 percent of registered voters’ signatures in their district for supervisorial races or the county as a whole for countywide office such as the district attorney to avoid a filing fee. Otherwise, the filing fee for the district attorney’s race is $1,375.92 and $502.74 for the supervisors’ campaigns, Andahl said.
Filings will continue through March 9 or, if an incumbent does not file by that date, filings for that seat will be extended until March 14. Write-in candidates may file April 9 through May 22.
Vote-by-mail will begin on May 7 and voters can register for the June 5 primary up until May 21. Mailed registrations will be accepted with a May 21 postmark.
Written by Sean Janssen, The Union Democrat January 06, 2012 01:23 pm
