Kasperzak skips run for Assembly Kasperzak skips run for Assembly (September 09, 2005)

Council member, termed out next year, says Republicans stand no chance

By Jon Wiener

Mike Kasperzak was despondent on Election Night last November, and he wasn't even running.

The veteran city council member was supposed to have joined other Republican luminaries from the Peninsula who were gathering that evening at what was originally intended to be a victory party for multimillionaire Steve Poizner. Poizner, a political newcomer, had spent a fortune in a campaign bid for the state Assembly against Ira Ruskin, a city council member from Redwood City and, more importantly, a Democrat. But despite his fortune, and despite lots of support from then-popular Gov. Arnold Swarzenegger, Poizner failed.

Instead of attending the party, Kasperzak was at the Tied House, watching the returns roll in and glumly predicting the end of his nascent political career. Like Poizner, Kasperzak is a registered Republican in a heavily Democratic district. But unlike Poizner, Kasperzak doesn't have half a million dollars to spend on a campaign for the Assembly.

More than anything else, it was the combination of those two facts that spurred Kasperzak to tell the Voice last Friday that he no longer intended to run for the Assembly when term limits force him off the council next year.

"The big scoop is I'm not running for the 22nd [District]," said Kasperzak over a bowl of oatmeal at Hobee's in Mountain View. "A Republican just can't win."

Kasperzak's decision effectively cancels a showdown with Sally Lieber, his former colleague on the city council who is now Assistant Speaker pro Tem in the State Assembly. Since winning the Democratic primary in 2002, Lieber has ascended quickly within the ranks of the Democratic leadership and faced little opposition at home. A relative unknown before the 2002 primary, she captured nearly 60 percent of the vote. In 2002 she ran against a 20-year-old Santa Clara University student who raised only $600 and sent her volunteers to help with Poizner's campaign.

Affable and socially liberal, Kasperzak would have given the party a serious candidate on the ballot.

"Mike's a high-quality guy," said Keen Butcher, president of the Republican Party of Santa Clara County. "He would be good for almost any office he chose to run for."

Both Kasperzak and Butcher cited his decision not to run as an example of the need to redraw state political boundaries to create competition for as many seats as possible.

Lieber did not respond to requests for comment.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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