Is Sharon Wright in trouble in her race against Shirlee Zane for the 3rd Supervisorial District?An informal poll of select PD letter writers that we conducted late last week suggests that Zane could be heading for a victory.
Although history has shown these surveys to be fairly accurate, they are not at all scientific. (For one reason, they're biased toward people who read newspapers and write letters, which is not a representation of the general voting public.)
The sampling of voters from the 3rd District (102 voters) was not huge either. Nonetheless, the poll shows Zane leading 50 percent to Wright's 31 percent, with 21 percent undecided.
The 5th District race is much closer with 45 percent of voters saying they support Efren Carrillo with 42 percent supporting Rue Furch. Twelve percent are undecided. (These results are slightly different from what we reported today because an additional 25 filled out the survey after deadline Friday.)
The results of the 1st District race between incumbent Valerie Brown and Will Pier had to be tossed out because of a mistake in how the survey was set up. But the results still sugget that this race could be close.
Another indication is the "attack" mailer that went out this week against Pier for, among other things, his position that the county should try to take back control of Community Hospital. Why would Brown and her supporters spend the money on something like that unless they were concerned that this race might be tight?
Is change in the air?
A number of Sonoma Valley residents are not happy with her vote on the Graywood Ranch proposal.
In the Santa Rosa City Council race, it appears to be a tight race between incumbents Lee Pierce and John Sawyer as well as Gary Wysocky, Marsha Vas Dupre and Michael Allen for the four open seats. All had support ranging from 41 percent to 50 percent of those surveyed. Ernest Oliveras trailed this group with 38 percent followed by incumbent Carol Dean and Don Taylor with 23 percent. Nine percent of voters said they were still undecided.
According to our poll, the race for the two-year seat had Judy Kennedy ahead with 32 percent followed by incumbent Councilwoman Jane Bender at 29 percent. David Rosas followed with 20 percent support of the 118 surveyed. But 24 percent of those surveyed said they were undecided on this race.
- Paul Gullixson
Thanks for taking the poll. Whatever happens on Tuesday,it seems clear a significant sector of the electorate wants a new non-team to take the field. And it's not because the economy tanked.
I can understand the PD's endorsement of Brown and Carrillo. But some of you may be uncomfortable with your endorsement of Sharon Wright for Third District Supervisor.
Her "It's time to set the record straight" mailer has given you an opportunity to genuinely set the record straight. Her desperate, last-minute appeal to the voters claims that an FPPC investigation in the late '90s "cleared" her, of "highly technical" allegations of conflict of interest, as an SR Councilwoman, in connection with her employment by the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.
The truth is that Wright didn't tell the public that she worked for the Chamber; and she unlawfully participated in Council actions that provided more than $700,000 to her private employer. She stipulated to ten counts of disclosure and conflict of interest violations, and paid a $14,500 fine.
Anyone with access to a computer can easily determine that Wright's claims are brazen lies: http://www.fppc.ca.gov/Tech/Bulletins/1February.PDF
So her letter gives the PD publisher and editors one last chance to change your minds. All you need do is publish a last-minute editorial--tomorrow, or election day--saying that Wright's desperate plea to the voters demonstrates a fatal lack of integrity and good judgment; and that you regretfully withdraw your endorsement.