Heavy election on the horizon

The state propositions are varied — from the gas tax repeal to overturning a rent control law and, my favorite, allowing the Legislature to allow us to stick with daylight saving time all year if the federal government allows it. And before you know it, you will be tired of all the campaign ads. Since we just had a primary election, some of the elections for November are known. Most of results are pretty known.

While Republican John Cox will try to give Democrat Gavin Newsom a run for his money, the lieutenant governor is going to win. And nearly all the state offices will go to a Democrat. The only one that might not is insurance commissioner, with former Republican Steve Poizner, running without a party preference, on the ballot for that race against Democrat Ricardo Lara.

Locally, the legislative races will also all go to Democrats with U.S. representatives Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo likely cruising to re-election despite being challenged by Cristina Osmeña and Christine Russell, respectively. Same with Democrat assemblymen Kevin Mullin and Marc Berman, challenged by Republicans Christina Laskowsi and Alex Glew, respectively. This is a Democratic majority county in a Democratic majority state so Republicans have a high hill to climb regardless of who is in the Oval Office.

But the real contests will be at the council and school board level with a number of ballot measures as well.

In the Daily Journal coverage area, my napkin math shows more than 30 races and measures to be decided. So far it looks like there will be measures on marijuana in a variety of forms in Half Moon Bay, Redwood City, South San Francisco and San Carlos; along with increases in either hotel or sales taxes in Redwood City, San Carlos, Belmont and South San Francisco. Voters in Belmont will also decide if their city clerk and treasurer should be appointed or elected. The San Bruno Park Elementary School District will be looking for a bond measure for facilities and the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District will be looking for a parcel tax. Voters will also decide on a half-cent sales tax increase for transportation improvements through SamTrans. Lots of tax asks on the horizon.

Amidst it all are school board races in San Bruno, Hillsborough, Millbrae, Belmont-Redwood Shores, Redwood City elementary school districts and in the South San Francisco Unified, Sequoia Union and San Mateo Union high school districts. The county Board of Education has three seats open but so far just incumbents running. We will have to wait a bit to see which ones will be contested. The San Mateo County Community College District will have two seats open and, in an interesting twist because of the move to district elections, two incumbents Tom Mohr and Richard Holober, will be running against each other since they live in the same district.

The cities of Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Millbrae, San Carlos, South San Francisco, Redwood City, Belmont and the town of Hillsborough will also see active council races though how active depends on who decides to file by Aug. 10, or Aug. 15 if an incumbent decides not to run by the first filing deadline. South San Francisco voters will also decide on a city clerk and treasurer.

And there are also a few special districts to take into account. The Harbor District, the Mid-Peninsula Water District, the Peninsula Health Care District and the Sequoia Healthcare District will have elections, the latter of which is moving to district elections.

For the average person, the number of elections on which to vote will not be this massive because lots will depend on where you live. But for those watching the races, there will be plenty to occupy your time. And that’s not even at the state or federal level. While most eyes will be on what party has control of Congress, there will be plenty of action of fairly significant importance down here on the local level.

While the filing deadline is the official beginning of campaign season, it typically doesn’t begin in earnest until after Labor Day. We will be rolling out our election coverage soon after so keep an eye out for it.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.