City agreed on Pear, Democrats City agreed on Pear, Democrats (December 17, 2004)

Mayfield issue not decisive in city council race

By Jon Wiener

Mountain View Mayor Matt Pear was the leading vote-getter in all 44 precincts in the city in November's election, according to results released last month by the Registrar of Voters.

Pear earned the support of more than 54 percent of Mountain View voters, the only candidate to get a majority.

"I just tried to do what I was supposed to do," said Pear. He said that voters in each neighborhood have different goals and different items that they care about, adding that his victory "just means there's more work ahead to try to get all the items accomplished with the least amount of money."

Nick Galiotto, who finished a strong second behind Pear, also was the runner-up in a majority of precincts. Laura Macias and Tom Means emerged from among four challengers to win a close race for the final two slots. Margaret Abe-Koga and Stephanie Schaaf finished 105 and 204 votes, respectively, behind Means.

Citywide turnout was 69.7 percent of registered voters, the lowest participation rate among North County cities. The rate was 72 percent in the 2000 presidential election just 48.2 percent in the last city council election in 2002. Countywide turnout was 70.5 percent.
Mayfield not the difference-maker

The precinct-by-precinct results also indicated that the proposed housing development for the Mayfield site may not have been the decisive election issue that many Monta Loma residents expected it to be.

Schaaf, who has been singled out for criticism by some of those residents and was thought by some to have lost the election because of her support of high-density housing on the site, finished poorly among Monta Loma voters. The difference of 160 votes between Schaaf and Means appeared to contribute to her defeat but was slightly less than the overall margin between them.

Abe-Koga, who won more Monta Loma votes than Means did, had joined him in calling for lower housing densities during the campaign.

Means' margin of victory was more traceable to the ballots from his own neighborhood in south Mountain View where he finished third behind Pear and Galiotto.

Macias, who finished third overall, found her strongest base of support among the precincts carried by Greg Perry in 2002, including the Del Medio, Rengstorff and Latham neighborhoods.
Locals stay left on state and national issues

Mountain View voters once again voted Democratic in high rates. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry won 73 percent of the Mountain View vote. President George W. Bush earned only 25. Throughout the rest of Santa Clara County, Kerry tallied 64 percent to Bush's 35.

Mountain View voters also strongly favored state Assembly member Sally Lieber, state Senator Elaine Alquist and Rep. Anna Eshoo, who are all Democrats.

But they differed from the state on two key ballot measures.

Local voters favored State Proposition 66 by a margin 57 to 43 percent. The measure, which failed statewide by more than five points, would have softened the Three Strikes crime law.

Local residents also voted against Proposition 64, a business-backed law that restricts who can hold corporations accountable for violating state laws. Mountain View voters opposed the measure, with only 46 percent voting in favor, but California voters passed it with 59 percent of "yes" votes.

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

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