Southcoast resident Oscar Braun is running for Jackie Speier’s California State Senate seat in District 8. Braun is the only Republican to announce his candidacy in the heavily Democratic district.  Three Democrats, Mike Nevin, Lou Papan, and Leland Yee are running in the June primary. The Daily News [no news online] reports that Braun says he was asked to run by the chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party.

Braun has been heavily involved in Coastside politics, particulary the campaign to prevent expansion of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District to the Coastside and the failed effort to incorporate the rural Coastside as the town of Los Pueblecitos. He operates numerous websites and organizations, including Oscar Knows, and California Watershed Posse (a.k.a. Save Our Bay and Half Moon Bay Coastside Foundation). 

Braun, who described himself to the Mercury News as "very litigious", has been warring with the government of the County for years, since they got into a dispute over building permits. In November, San Mateo County and Oscar Braun settled two civil rights lawsuits that Braun brought against the county.  The county agreed to process permits for a cell phone tower, horse stable and water system on his ranch, and to study a new local government for the Southcoast. Braun also attempted to use the courts to halt construction of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel.

Braun lost the domains pescaderopebble.net, pescaderopebble.org and pescaderopebble.info to the Half Moon Bay Review’s owners in binding arbitration before the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2002.  The Pescadero Pebble has been part of the Review’s full name since 1937. Braun still operates a website called "The Pebble.info", whose URL (confusingly) is thepebble.net.

CORRECTION:  An earlier version of the story said the Review sued Braun. We should have said "The Review’s owners filed a complaint before the World Intellectual Property Organization." Coastsider regrets the error.

Burlingame City Council member Rosalie O’Mahony was voted on to board of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority on Friday, reports the County Times.

O’Mahony replaced former Burlingame Mayor Joe Galligan. Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Naomi Patridge and Foster City Mayor Linda Koelling also ran for the Central County seat. The Transportation Authority oversees the proceeds of Measure A, a 20-year, countywide, half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements.

Patridge had served on the board in the past. O’Mahony’s priorities include the Broadway interchange in Burlingame, the Broadway train station, and a grade separation in Burlingame.

I confess that before I started Coastsider, I had no idea who my state senator was and had no interest. Sometimes it’s difficult to get perspective.  The Daily Journal has a good analysis today of the race for June’s Democratic primary for the seat representing San Francisco and the peninsula, the winner of which is likely to have a lock on the seat.

Three political heavyweights — Lou Papan, Mike Nevin and Leland Yee — are vying for the empty Senate District 8 seat. The seat is currently occupied by state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who is making a bid for lieutenant governor, and was previously held by Quentin Kopp.

The district consists of 45% San Francisco and 55% San Mateo County residents, placing San Franciscan Yee at a disadvantage to former county supervisor Nevin. Yee has been increasing his visibility on the Coastside recently and speaking at the Coastside Democrats on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Nevin’s campaign says that Papan is running a spoiler campaign against Nevin because Nevin backed Gene Mullin against Papan’s daughter in 2002.  There are some tasty nasty comments between the two in the Daily Journal article.

Coastsider will be putting together a questionnaire for the candidates, focusing on local issues.

Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee will speak at the next meeting of the Coastside Democrats, Thursday, Feb 2. Yee is one of three candidates for the State Senate seat, District 8, now held by Jackie Speier. Yee will speak on the upcoming race and on his legislative agenda for this year in the Assembly.

The other candidates for Speier’s seat are ex-Supervisor Mike Nevin [campaign site] and ex-Assemblyman Lou Papan [no site]. Speier is termed out of the State Senate at the end of this year and will be running for Lieutenant Governor in 2008. Yee represents the 12th Assembly District immediately north of our 19th AD. The 8th Senate District has roughly the same boundaries as the combination of the 12th and 19th ADs.

This free meeting is open to the public so bring a friend or neighbor. There will be ample time to ask questions. The meeting will start at 7:30 pm at the Lesley Gardens Community Room, 701 Arnold near Main St. Please park in the east parking lot.

The regularly-schedule Midcoast Community Council meeting for Wednesday, Jan 11, has been cancelled.

The election is over.  The election was not a direct choice between Bonnie and I.  Rather,  Bonnie was the third highest vote-getter in a field of six contesting for three seats, and I was the fourth.  The margin between third and fourth place ended up being excruciatingly small but the recount has confirmed that the reduced margin (unofficially, eight votes) is nonetheless a margin in her favor. There’s no rule that modifies the result because of the closeness of the result.  She’s our Councilmember for the next four years.

Let’s think back to the campaign.  Bonnie did not engage in the divisive rhetoric that various spearchuckers and promoters revelled in.  She kept her message positive.  That wasn’t easy for her given all of the factions that were looking for punch/counterpunch.  Her restraint should be recognized for the strength that it took to maintain it.

There is also political merit in her restraint in that it means she hasn’t publicly committed herself to any radical changes.  Which means she has the flexibility to assess issues on an "as new" basis. Sure, she has a point of view that will affect those assessments. But she also has had a career in government and administration which gives her an inclination toward consensus, not confrontation.  That governmental experience could also be a benefit to the Council’s interaction with City staff.

So, let’s give Bonnie a chance by observing her interaction on the Council on a variety of issues.  By letting her make a number of decisions before we draw any conclusions - we’ll be drawing more accurate conclusions.

Mike Ferreira
Half Moon Bay

CORRECTION:  The original version of this article said the deadline for both seats was Friday.

Only three days remain to apply for the an open seat representing central and southern San Mateo County on the SamTrans board. The deadline for the seat representing the Coastside is January 20. These seats are vitally important for an area that is poorly-served by the county transit system. The first deadline for applications is Friday at 5pm.

The Daily Journal and the County Times each have stories on the Mike Ferreira’s decision not to take the recount to the next stage. The Daily Journal had a good quote from Bonnie:

“We had a really, really straightforward conversation. We connected and I thought he was most gracious,” McClung said. “There’s a great feeling of relief and a little bit of awe that this has really happened and I feel really honored.”

The Daily Journal story also ends on a nice note:

Ferreira hasn’t ruled out another run for council in the future. For now, however, he plans to relax and enjoy the holiday.

As a friend and supporter of Bonnie’s, I don’t hesitate to support the proposition that Mike should have his recount payments to the County refunded.
It turns out that the certified count was not nearly as accurate as the County believed it to be.  The tally of the of votes cast in person was spot on.  The tally of absentee votes was not.
Were it not for Mike’s recount, the County would not have learned that accurately counting absentee voting is considerably more difficult than counting votes cast in person.
When absentee voting accounts for ten percent of the total vote, it is unlikely that a to be a problem.
However, with absentee voting accounting for nearly half the votes this election and trending upwards, we owe a debt of gratitude to Bonnie and Mike for maintaining a great deal of civility towards each other during the process thereby keeping the spot light on the accuracy of the vote tally.
Thanks to the recount, the County now knows something that only experience can teach, namely that the trend towards absentee voting has created an unprecedented challenge to those who tally the votes.
George Cresson
Burlingame, CA

Mike Ferreira has ended his recount of the ballots in the Half Moon Bay City Council election. "It was a very close election," he said, but "Bonnie and I agreed that the stress and turmoil of carrying the process into the next steps would not do the community any good." Today’s announcement was something of an anticlimax after McClung’s come-from-behind victory and the early results in the recount.

After recounting all the ballots resulted in a seven-vote gain for Ferreira, there was an uncertified eight-vote gap and contested ballots with another eight votes at stake. Ferreira’s decision precludes any official assessment of the challenged ballots and means that Ferreira will not be moving to the next step of the process which would follow a recount—an election contest in the courts involving other issues.

Ferreira expressed admiration for the way county elections officer Warren Slocum and his staff conducted themselves during the recount and said that Bonnie McClung had set a good example for everyone by her civility during a very stressful recount process.