Holober grew up in Queens, N.Y., the son of first generation immigrants. His dad was a civil engineer; his mom a comptometer operator for the New York subway system. His family’s heroes were Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Richard attended the University of Rochester; in 1974 he attended Cornell University’s graduate school of industrial and labor relations. He did not complete his degree because he was hired as an organizer for a small professional employees union.

In graduate school, he interned for the National Labor Relations Board in San Francisco. He fell in love with the West Coast. When offered a job with the Professional Employees Union in San Francisco, he happily accepted. In 1981, Holober was hired to lead the San Mateo Labor Council, then in its infancy. The political scene in the county was very different from what it is today. Democrats predominated north San Mateo County but, it was primarily moderate Republicans in the south. Holober recalls the satisfaction that came when Tom Bradley won in San Mateo County even though he lost the race for California governor to George Deukmejian.

“I think we made the difference,” he said.

He worked for the labor council for three and a half years and then moved to southern California to work for Senator Alan Cranston.

When Holober moved back to the Bay Area, he worked for the California Labor Federation. He met his wife, Nadia, in 1982 when both were working on the Jack Smith for Assembly campaign (Smith lost to Republican candidate Bob Naylor). The Holobers married three years later and, when Nadia decided to attend law school, Richard supported her. Nadia is a member of the Millbrae City Council. It was rumored that both Holobers were considering a race for supervisor. I asked Richard about this. He replied that he encouraged Nadia to take a look and would have deferred to her, but she decided not to run. But it’s awkward, he admitted, since both Nadia and Gina Papan, another supervisor candidate, are both on the council. Gina has the support of Millbrae Councilman Dan Quigg and Richard has his wife’s endorsement, but the other members have so far not endorsed.

The Holobers have two sons. The oldest, recently graduated from the University of Washington but, without a job, is helping his dad on the campaign. The younger son is attending University of California at Santa Barbara.

During the past 10 years, Holober has run the Consumer Federation of California. The nonprofit protects consumer interests before the Public Utilities Commission and was very involved in state legislation to protect financial privacy. The fight with banking interests was one that involved then state senator Jackie Speier on one side, and the late assemblyman Lou Papan on the other. Eventually a compromise was reached and a bill passed. More recently, Holober’s group has been working to remove a dangerous chemical from upholstery products and to allow cash out of credit cards.

Holober has been on the San Mateo County Community College District Board of Trustees for 13 years. He reminded me that he is the only one of the candidates who has been elected to countywide office. Whether that will help with name identification in the spring race remains to be seen. He also ran unsuccessfully for the state Assembly against Jerry Hill in 2008. Gina Papan was also an unsuccessful candidate in that race.

Holober, as expected, has much labor support and endorsements from his colleagues on the community college board. He also has the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, former supervisors Mike Nevin and Mary Griffin, and a long list of current and past school board and councilmembers. Meanwhile, Papan has the support of the Plumbers and Steamfitters. The San Mateo Labor Council may sit this one out. I asked Holober how can he win this race without the support of the San Mateo County political establishment. He replied that this race was an exception and was wide open.

(Conversations with the other major candidates Dave Pine and Terry Nagel will appear in future columns. A column on Gina Papan appeared in the Jan. 3 edition of the Daily Journal).

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs in the Monday edition. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.