Editorial Editorial (November 12, 2004)

Incumbents prevail in election

It paid to have experience if you were a candidate for Mountain View elective office last week, as voters returned every incumbent running -- Matt Pear and Nick Galiotto to council and Gloria Higgins to school board.

But that didn't mean there wasn't room for challengers to step forward, as there were two seats open to newcomers in each election. Laura Macias and Tom Means, both longtime members of city commissions, took the second two seats, if the continuing ballot count by the county registrar does not change dramatically.

Macias placed third by a comfortable margin, but Means is a mere 148 voters in front of Margaret Abe-Koga, a Human Relations commissioner and Stephanie Schaaf, who has voluntarily attended council meetings for the last two years and taken part in other city projects.

Macias and Means will replace Rosemary Stasek and Mary Lou Zoglin, who had each served two-term limit.

On the Mountain View-Whisman school board, incumbent Higgins, along with Fiona Walter and RoseMary Sias Roquero, finished far in front of Michael Kelly and Juan Aranda.

All candidates ran relatively clean races, which were free from last-minute smears, although two independent mailers, one endorsing Macias, Abe-Koga and Galiotto and the other Abe-Koga and Schaaf, were criticized by Council member and Schaaf supporter Greg Perry.

Further examination showed that no candidate had known about the mailer, which came from the County Democratic Committee and South Bay Labor Council, and Perry dropped the matter.

Perhaps the most dramatic change in this election compared to prior years was the decision by most special interest groups to bow out. As reported in last week's Voice, the local firefighters political action committee, which spent $15,000 on mailers and lawn signs in 2002, only spent $2,500 this year. And only Macias accepted a $500 donation from the group, although it offered to help its other endorsees. Instead, the committee walked precincts for incumbents Matt Pear and Nick Galiotto, Macias and Schaaf.

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