Newcomer seeks San Mateo County Supervisor seat

Born in Daly City during the late ’60s, Booker was raised to be civic-minded by his father, a Muni bus and light rail operator, and his mother who worked for the University of California, San Francisco and the California Employment Development Department.

Election nights were like family reunions, Booker said. While his parents volunteered and mingled with the adults inside, he remembers running around with other neighborhood kids outside.

“They instilled in me to exercise my right to vote because [Black people weren’t] always able to vote and women too. People died for that right. They lost family members for people to have their right to vote,” said Booker, who is Black.

Beyond those early lessons, Booker points to a series of life experiences that have prepared him to serve as District 3’s representative, including a stint in the military, a working-class career as an electrician and a number of seats on various oversight boards.

Also vying to represent District 3, which largely includes the coastside and wooded rural county land are Virginia Chang Kiraly, San Mateo County Harbor District Board commissioner and Menlo Park Fire Protection District board member; Ray Mueller, Menlo Park councilmember; and Laura Parmer-Lohan, San Carlos councilmember. Each will also appear in a profile of their own and in issue-specific stories still to come.

Path to the race

From the outside, Booker looks like a political outsider, having never held an elected seat on any governing body in the county unlike his opponents, but that hasn’t hampered his campaign, he said. In addition to serving on the boards for the Police Activities League, Sheriff’s Activities League and the Clean Energy Citizens Advisory Committee, Booker said he’s regularly received phone calls from electeds seeking advice and has built up his own name recognition through having a strong presence in the community.

“I’ve been working in the political arena for the last eight years,” Booker said. “I want to do more and once there was an open seat I had to put my name in the ring for it. I have nothing to gain and nothing to lose.”

Much of Booker’s passion to serve was manifested during his search for a career, starting with the U.S. Air Force, a path he decided to take straight out of high school, he said. After serving during the Gulf War, Booker returned to the Bay Area and ultimately decided he was uninterested in making a career out of the Air Force.

He began attending classes at College of San Mateo with the aim to become a police officer but his career trajectory was changed when a friend convinced him to look into taking the electrician test in 1998.

Despite feeling intimidated by the demands of the field, Booker ended up working 16 years as an electrician. At the same time, he was becoming more and more invested in his community, attending city council meetings in which he would advocate for local crews to be hired on to projects.

That independent advocacy led him to take on a role as the political director and community affairs liaison for the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union in 2014.

“In doing so, I realized the need for more representation for people of color and labor,” Booker said. “It came from a need to see the people [be heard] that had a need and didn’t have a voice. That’s why I joined the military and I want this county to work for everybody. … I will always be a voice for the voiceless.”

Priorities, endorsements

Among his key priorities is fighting for greater affordable housing, especially for veterans, farmworkers and other low-income earners. San Mateo County once was a place where a couple could settle and start a family with one partner staying home while the other went to work but that’s no longer a reality, Booker said, noting people are often forced to pay 50% or more of their monthly wages toward rent alone.

The pandemic has also exposed how dire the need for housing is for both security and as a health issue, he said, pointing to the fact that many communities that were hit hardest by the pandemic were places where crowded living situations were more common.

The fight for fair housing is also personal for Booker who often thinks about the future of his 26-year-old daughter. Having watched friends leave the Bay Area, Booker said he feels disheartened by the rising cost of living that’s been met with slowly increasing wages still too low to keep many in their hometowns.

“The thing that’s been really hard for me to accept is the amount of individuals that have grown up here and are having to migrate because of the lack of good jobs and decent wages,” Booker said.

Many in the county are encouraged by Booker’s campaign platform, which also includes building a strong relationship between law enforcement and the public and advancing digital connectivity in one of the world’s leading regions for technology. In total, Booker has also raised nearly $110,000 for his campaign, according to documents filed with the Election’s Office in late January.

Among his long lists of endorsements are notable county figures like Supervisor David Canepa, County Superintendent Nancy Magee, San Mateo Mayor Rick Bonilla and community college board President Richard Holober. In their endorsements, Canepa and Bonilla both touted Booker’s advocacy for families, veterans and essential workers as key reasons to support him.

In sum, Booker argues he’s the best candidate for District 3 because he’s homegrown, deeply in tune with the needs of the underserved living in the county and is ready to take action on the ideas he thinks will best reflect the voices of all residents.

“I have my ear to the streets of this county and I’m better fit to serve,” Booker said. “I’m a war vet and been in life-threatening situations to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves and now I’m taking things to the next level to be a representative for my community.”

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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