How my light is spent

Meanwhile, politics never rests, much like rust never sleeps, and, undoubtedly you are dozing off while I cast about for a smooth and erudite transition I can’t quite muster, leading to this:

It certainly looks as though Democrat Josh Becker has locked down the top spot in the 13th Senate District primary race and that he will be running against Republican Alex Glew in the Nov. 3 general election, which pretty much means Becker is your next state senator.

But, as Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” the current view of Democrat Sally Lieber, who, as of Tuesday, was a scant 618 votes behind Glew, or a measly 0.2%.

San Mateo County elections officials have certified the election, which means there are no more ballots to be counted in that part of the district. Santa Clara County has yet to certify and it looks like elections officials there will make full use of the extension to April 24 issued by the governor. As of April 2, the California Secretary of State’s website reported that Santa Clara County still has 1,000 uncounted ballots, but that’s the number they’ve been posting for weeks, suggesting it’s little more than a placeholder, or the official equivalent of a shrug and a puzzled look.

It is the remotest of possibilities that all 1,000 of the votes are in the 13th, which covers only the northern third of the county. It is equally remotely possible Lieber will get 850 of the remaining votes, while Glew will get only 150. Certainly, Lieber has been doing well among the late-counted ballots, but not that well. If that happens, I’ll eat this column, or I’ll accept nominees for someone to eat their hat.

Still, there’s only one person who can concede the election, and Lieber, in a phone interview this week, said: “I think we can be patient and wait for the certified results.”

OFF AND NOT RUNNING: There is no doubt, however, that Becker will be in the November election, although he also said “it’s still not officially over.” The difference for Becker between a Reep opponent and a Dem opponent is the difference between a walk on the beach (which we’re not supposed to do) and scaling El Capitan (which I don’t want to do). Consider: Five Democrats received more than 80% of the votes cast in the March primary, while Glew drew slightly over 17%, or about 2 percentage points ahead of GOP registration. I suppose Glew could do a little better in November, but this a bluer-than-blue district. Lieber would be troublesome for Becker.

Becker’s post-primary plan, as he put it, was to “hit the ground running.” Now, not so much. Becker said he’s using his individual and corporate contacts, which are considerable, according to his campaign spending reports, to raise funds that will go to local restaurants where meals are being prepared for contactless delivery to frontline workers in the health crisis. The effort is called Frontline Foods, and Becker said he has been named the San Mateo County coordinator.

He is asked about his campaign, but “it is on hold,” meaning no substantial fundraising and no campaign outreach to voters. His plan was to use his campaign field operation to begin direct contact and to hold some campaign events. “I also think it’s not the time,” Becker said. “I’m not sure people would be receptive and it’s not what I want to be spending my time on.”

Fortunately, the primary was in March, rather than June, which means the general election campaign still is a distant matter.

Lieber is spending her days on “calling women who live alone, and the number one word that comes up is terrified.” Lieber said she’s providing information, helping folks who feel overwhelmed by the waves of information flowing out. “I’m spending the majority of my time in research mode or just providing support to people over the phone,” she said.

That’s when she’s not contemplating full disclosure requirements for the special interests that rolled out an unprecedented array of hit pieces that dropped late in the campaign — an effort by health care providers and corporate backers to the tune of $500,000 or so. Lieber said it did create a late backlash that probably brought her votes, “But it sure didn’t help.” 

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.