Horsley gears up for home stretch

Oct 15, 03:03 PM
By NICHOLAS VON WETTBERG

REDWOOD CITY (Calif.) — With just over two weeks remaining until the Nov. 2 mid-term elections, one political race that is garnering a lot of local attention is for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors’ District 3 seat.

Two candidates with differing backgrounds of political involvement — former County Sheriff Don Horsley and coastside businesswoman April Vargas — are bidding to succeed termed-out supervisor Richard Gordon, in a race that will be determined through a run-off election and fill the vacant seat on the five-member Board of Supervisors.

While the upcoming election does hold weight because of the influence the Board of Supervisors wields in San Mateo County — as policy makers, they represent a population with over 710,000 constituents and are responsible for overseeing a budget close to $400 million — the race between the two Democrats is centrally localized and bears no connection to a rogue political party as Vargas claimed earlier this week.

Vargas went on record this past Sunday questioning Horsley’s commitment to the Democratic Party, with claims that the GOP-offshoot, the Tea Party, had endorsed her opponent for supervisor, when in actuality their recommendation was to “vote against Vargas.”

Vargas failed to recognize that being endorsed and actually accepting the endorsement are not one and the same, especially since the Horsley campaign immediately called the party’s headquarters on Sept. 30 and “rejected the unsolicited and unwarranted endorsement” from the “My Liberty” group through a mass endorsement on the Tea Party website.

Four days later, on Oct. 4, the Horsley campaign wrote a letter to the party once again rejecting its endorsement, and requested that his name be removed from their website, which was done within 48 hours.

On Oct. 10, Vargas attempted to back up her claims to discredit Horsley by posting a “cached” version of the Tea Party website that was from Oct. 2, instead of using the most current and updated form.

Vargas tried to turn the tables and link Horsley to a new-wave political party that enjoys very little support in a county where the registered voting base is over 50 percent Democratic, yet in the process of her misrepresentation ended up damaging her own credibility.

San Mateo Daily Journal editor in chief Jon Mays said in an Oct. 13 article, titled, ‘Local races get negative, weird,’ that he was “confused” why Vargas went the route of calling out Horsley for an affiliation to a party he chooses not to be associated with, especially since her campaign platform bears more of a resemblance to that of the limited government, low-tax Tea Party movement.

Mays wrote: “After coming in second to Horsley in June and forcing the runoff, Vargas dropped her message of green jobs, concern over sea level rise and finding a way to give loans to residents who can afford installing energy-efficient solar panels and modified her message to one focused on fiscal responsibility — exactly what the Tea Party calls for. And yet she calls the group’s presence a “cause for concern.”’

Horsley on the other hand is committed to many of the issues Vargas feels are now insignificant. He believes the High Speed Rail (HSR) project, which Vargas refused to give an opinion on, could create a number of green jobs, is pro-sea wall in Pacifica and would like to “offer homeowners low-interest or zero loans for solar panels or other energy-saving home
improvements.”

Understandably, there has been no official statement issued by Horsley in reaction to Vargas’ deceptive claims of his association to the Tea Party movement.

Horsley, the County Sheriff from 1993 to 2007 and outgoing president of the Sequoia Health Care District board, is running on a campaign platform that includes innovative leadership, experience working with county officials and within the community, focusing on public safety and health care, as well as finding new ways to shrink the gap in the county budget deficit.

It has been well known for some time now that Horsley, a resident of Emerald City, has been planning to throw his hat into the political ring specifically for the job of supervisor, and has stated on more than one occasion that if elected he has no intention of using the seat as a springboard to advance his political career.

Horsley, whose campaign has been officially endorsed by many elected officials on a local and state level, possesses the type of leadership skills — integrity, passion, intelligence, and imagination — that will be necessary to guide the county’s third district into the next decade.

An area covering 345 square miles — that stretches from Pacifica down much of the coast side to Half Moon Bay and east to San Carlos through Atherton and Woodside ending near Portola Valley — District 3, with its 20 incorporated and 17 unincorporated cities, is a virtual cross-section of every race, ethnicity, and socio-economic class.

Posted by Steve Sinai