Saturday, June 2, 2012

San Mateo County election 6/5/12 - Supervisor candidate fudged his impressive higher education background


Technically did County Supervisor candidate Carlos Romero say he completed degrees?   He implied he did. Wonder what Romero stated on his resume to the EPA when he was hired there? 

[photo]
Nice smile!
Palo Alto Daily News/Bonnie Eslinger, 6/1/12. "San Mateo County supervisor candidate Romero says he didn't intend to mislead anyone by falsely claiming degrees from Stanford, Harvard."

"San Mateo County supervisor candidate Carlos Romero said Thursday he had "no intent to mislead" anyone in 2008 when he claimed to hold degrees from Stanford and Harvard universities during a candidate forum in the East Palo Alto City Council race. Romero, who won a seat on the council in that race, attended both universities but did not receive degrees from either.

.... And in biographical information submitted to the online site SmartVoter.org, Romero says he "finished" his undergraduate studies at Stanford in 1982.

.... "My undergraduate experience studying development economics, finance, and international politics gave significance to my work in EPA," Romero wrote. "By the time I finished Stanford in 1982, it was apparent that EPA would become home, having moved there my final year at Stanford."  Read Article.  

Reference - Smart Voter.org,  Supervisor Carlos Romero.


  • Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design
  • Fannie Mae Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
  • Stanford University, Undergraduate studies in Economics and Int'l Relations
  • Another look at all Supervisor candidates.

    Related  Article -Redwood City Patch, "County office candidate admits he has no degree." 

    Posted by Kathy Meeh

    17 comments:

    Kathy Meeh said...

    Carlos Romero seemed very organized, smart and personable in the candidate forum I saw. Too bad he felt the need to fake his education background.

    Anonymous said...

    This is fairly standard procedure for those who didn't finish a degree program. As long as you don't say you have a degree or that you graduated, you're not lying. He said he "finished his studies." What did he actually say in the candidate forum in the East Palo Alto City Council race? Did he claim he held degrees from Stanford and Harvard universities? Or did he only say something about his studies at these universities?

    Anonymous said...

    Yup, pretty common way to list your education on a resume when you lack a degree. I read it to be no degree and unless he actually said somewhere that he had a degree when he doesn't, he hasn't lied. It just looks more like he handed his opponents a free shot and they're taking it.

    Anonymous said...

    Maybe didn't lie on the resume but there's a 4 year old video of him saying he graduated although the words degree or BA never come out of his mouth.
    Not good.

    Anonymous said...

    "Too bad he felt the need to fake his education background." Did he fake it? I haven't seen anything yet that says he did. Is there a quote published anywhere?

    Kathy Meeh said...

    As long as you don't say you have a degree or that you graduated, you're not lying. He said he "finished his studies." Anonymous 2:04 pm

    From the article "Romero, who won a seat on the council in that race, attended both universities but did not receive degrees from either." .... "At an Oct. 16, 2008, forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of South San Mateo County, Romero asserted in his opening statement that he has "a degree in economics from Stanford in urban planning and an advanced environmental design degree from Harvard," according to video footage of the event." What I recall from the April, 2012 forum video is the same as the Oct. 16, 2008 account. The League of Women Voters since removed the April, 2012 video Forum content, (previously I planned to post the 1 1/2 hour segments here).

    Anonymous said...

    Found this quote in the linked article:

    At an Oct. 16, 2008, forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of South San Mateo County, Romero asserted in his opening statement that he has "a degree in economics from Stanford in urban planning and an advanced environmental design degree from Harvard," according to video footage of the event.

    That's a no-no. FAIL.

    Anonymous said...

    Well ok then, if he claimed a degree in some other speech or other document, then he certainly lied.

    Anonymous said...

    Yeah, I think the video shows he lied, but saying he finished his studies is not the lie. He was finished, just short of the degree!

    Steve Sinai said...

    If he wasn't lying, he was consciously being deceptive.

    I remember being impressed by the guy when I was doing voter research, but I'm glad I didn't vote for him.

    Anonymous said...

    I thought he was sharp, too. Just another example that intelligence and integrity don't always go together. Too bad and it's a long rode back from that kind of judgement error.

    Steve Sinai said...

    He can run Yahoo.

    Anonymous said...

    What does "rugged" mean?

    Kathy Meeh said...

    What does "rugged" mean? Anon 6:50 pm

    "F" rather than "R", "fugged". Where I come from "fugged" is slang for faked, implies cheating. Since the word confused you, and there appears to be a variety of negative definitions, others may also be confused. So I'm changing the article headline word to faked. "Faked" will work in this context as well.

    Anonymous said...

    Did you mean "fudged"?

    Anonymous said...

    fudged, not fugged.

    Kathy Meeh said...

    Fudged. Yes, that's the word I intended. Thanks for the spelling improvement. "Fudged" goes back on the article headline.

    Any comment about the ethics of the article? If not thanks for "spell check".