Campaign kickoff for Charles Stone

Two public officials who usually don’t attend these events were there: A very happy Assemblymember Kevin Mullin who is on track to be our next congressman in Jackie Speier’s district, and Supervisor Dave Pine. It was expected that Pine would run for Mullin’s Assembly seat but he decided to fill out his supervisor term. He is out in 2024. Then, he says, he might do something other than politics.

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There were so many elected officials and labor leaders past, present and future, I won’t be able to name them all.

Labor: Bill Nack, former head of the Building Trades and his wife; Richard Hedges, who could join the City Council as early as next year, San Mateo Councilmember Joe Goethals; former San Mateo Mayor Jack Matthews and his wife Patricia; former state Sen. Jerry Hill; Sarah Fields, Parks and Recreation commissioner and current council candidate; San Carlos Councilmember Adam Rak; and colleagues of Stone on the Belmont council. And of course the hostess, Diane Papan.

Not present was sister Gina who plans to run for District 1 supervisor in 2024. She is a beneficiary of the event. Stone’s support or neutrality in that race is important when Papan is expected to face a close friend of Stone’s: Burlingame Councilmember Emily Beach.

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Robert Newsom, candidate for San Mateo City Council, is a member of the Personnel Board and of his Sunnybrae Homeowners Association. He will face Fields and newcomer Sergio Zygmunt in District 3.

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Newsom, and yes the governor is his second cousin, was born in San Francisco but his parents moved to San Mateo when he was in second grade. He attended St. Matthew’s, then Borel Middle School in San Mateo but went to St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco and then Cal Poly. He was editor of the Borel newspaper and won a press award from the then-San Mateo Times.

He’s from an old San Francisco family who came to the city in the 1850s. His grandfather was the only Irishman on the all Italian Bank of America board. His dad was a printer and his mother a school teacher (at one time she worked for the San Mateo County of Education in their human resources department). He and his wife have two children who attend local public schools.

Newsom is 46 and works for Corefact marketing — a national real estate marketing firm which provides on line open houses and printed materials. He is for more affordable housing along the transportation corridor and for high risers there but not in single-family neighborhoods. He is supported by Jerry Hill. The current state Sen. Josh Becker is supporting Fields.

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The race for the District 5 seat on the San Mateo City Council between Rod Linhares and Adam Loraine is getting nasty thanks to their supporters. These are two nice guys. Let them speak for themselves.

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This current heat wave, so unusual for San Mateo and cities to the north feels like the end of the earth. And while you are suffering indoors, think of those firefighters on the front line. You can do your part by getting rid of dry overgrowth next to your house. And run appliances after 9 p.m. or early in the morning to avoid loss of power. This is just our first bitter taste of climate change. There’s more to come and it won’t be fun.

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When I heard the news I thought of that phrase Say It Ain’t So Joe. Bad news for local college football fans. UCLA and USC have pulled out of the PAC-12. I can’t think of anything nice to say about USC football — their team was often too good for mine and their band’s repetitious bleating of the USC fight song was unbearable. But UCLA always put up a good fight and the teams were about even. One year when Bob Mathias was on the Stanford football team ( he later became an Olympic star), I saw him sprint the entire field for a touchdown against UCLA. Fans on both sides of the stadium gave him a standing ovation.

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