The endorsements of the Democratic Party

In fairness, every candidate endorsed by the party is a Democrat. It’s just that a couple — Virginia Chang Kiraly and John Pimentel — are recent converts.

Chang Kiraly, running for re-election to the San Mateo County Harbor Commission, was a registered Republican until a year ago, when she switched to Democrat. Her involvement in local politics has been high profile and, one might say, multi-faceted — she also is seeking re-election to the Menlo Fire Protection District Board of Directors. But she was not particularly partisan as a Republican, the GOP being in such a moribund state that activism there is of limited scope.

Pimentel, running for the San Mateo County Community College District Board of Trustees against Lisa Hicks-Dumanske, has a much more fascinating history. By his own account, he voted Democratic in the last three presidential races and the last three California gubernatorial races. During those elections, he said he was registered No Party Preference. Thousands of California NPPs typically vote Democratic. 

The extra spin on the ball for Pimentel is what he was doing a year ago. He says he registered as a Democrat in 2018. But in 2019, he was turning up in news reports as founder of the would-be Common Sense Party, which now is being spearheaded by former Peninsula congressman Tom Campbell and former Bay Area state senator Quentin Kopp.

All this was well known to the Democratic Central Committee members when they voted on their endorsements at an online meeting last week. Pimentel got well over the required 60% threshold. Oddly, between a handful of no votes and abstentions, more people didn’t vote for him than did.

Perhaps the prevailing sentiment was best expressed by Vice Chair Cliff Robbins: “I welcome any former Republican into the (Democratic) fold.”

PROMISES, PROMISES: Races for the community college and the harbor districts historically have not attracted much attention. Not this year and not last week at the endorsement meeting. 

In the community college district race between Eugene Whitlock and Lisa Petrides, there was evident uneasiness at the central committee about Whitlock, a former vice chancellor of the district. The same week as the endorsement vote, news broke of his nearly $2.3 million settlement with the district. Union representatives were particularly harsh in their criticism of Whitlock, who was said to have been “openly hostile” to union members at the college district. Whitlock backers asked for a vote of no-endorsement. That failed with a 43% yes vote. Then, a motion to endorse Petrides was passed with 86%.

While we’re on the subject, Whitlock offers a lawyerly argument for why he can run for the college district board, despite signing a settlement in which he agreed “to have no further contact of any kind, whether direct or indirect, with (San Mateo County Community College District), including taking any measures that would create any type of relationship with SMCCCD.” The settlement also bars him from accessing SMCCCD property and use of district facilities.

He can make all the arguments he wants, of course. But the bottom line is this: He signed the agreement. He gave his word. Now, it appears, he doesn’t think that constitutes a promise he ought to keep.

Meanwhile, the district withheld half of his settlement pending Whitlock’s adherence to the terms of the agreement. Whitlock might have a chance to make his lawyerly arguments in court.

ONE PARTICULAR HARBOR: Chang Kiraly is being challenged for re-election to the Harbor District Commission by Kirsten Keith, a former Menlo Park councilwoman and mayor. At the endorsement meeting, Keith’s husband, John Woodell, a central committee member, nominated his wife for the endorsement. The motion got a 52% vote, shy of the needed 60%. Chang Kiraly then was endorsed with 63% of the vote. 

Woodell made a point of raising the correction I ran recently about Keith, so let me get back to the basic point I was trying to make and that got lost in all the hoo-ha. Keith’s use of her ballot designation as a conservation agency director strikes me as misleading. 

While further researching this issue, I noticed that her bio on the Bay Area Water Service and Conservation Agency website said she had “retired” from the Menlo Park council in 2018. Well, no. She lost a re-election bid. Keith has corrected the bio, deleting the reference. That’s nice.

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.