Bennett: Let the politicking begin

As summer winds down in any even numbered year, it means one thing for sure – election time approaches, and residents can prepare for a blizzard of mailers, ads, signs, and all the other paraphernalia that exemplifies the democratic process.

This fall, most of the excitement in Petaluma whirls around local races, since most of the contests for local state and federal legislative offices were effectively resolved last June. In Petaluma, we now gear down to elect a mayor, three city council members and vote on some tax proposals, including the city’s 1-cent sales tax.

At this column’s deadline time, which was in advance of the deadline for filing for local office on Aug. 13 at 5 p.m., our local races shaped up like this: the mayor’s race is pitting incumbent David Glass against long-time Councilmember Mike Harris. In the council race, incumbents Teresa Barrett and Chris Albertson are joined by challengers David King and Ken Quinto to compete for the three seats.

Janice Cader-Thompson, a former council member who was defeated in a reelection bid several elections ago, took out papers to run in the past week, but had not filed yet when this was written.

If Cader-Thompson is indeed running, it presents the interesting scenario of two “progressive” colleagues, both of whom signed ballot arguments opposing the construction of the Rainier cross-town connector a decade ago, now running in the same election.

Cader-Thompson, who lives in the Rainier neighborhood, is Petaluma’s most outspoken opponent of that freeway crossing, while her former colleague Glass has recently been proclaiming his commitment to building that crossing. Even if she decided not to run, Cader-Thompson personifies a fundamental difficulty Glass is facing, which is, how do you hold the vote of an essential bloc of supporters after you switch positions on what is for those supporters a bedrock, litmus test issue?

Glass is obviously aware that despite his outspoken opposition to Rainier a decade ago, the city voters, in an advisory vote, weighed in with 72 percent in favor of the crossing. That vote, plus Cader-Thompson’s defeat as an incumbent, demonstrates pretty clearly that fighting Rainier is not a sure path to electoral triumph.

That being the case, candidates look to other issues, which seems to be the case in the mayor’s race. Glass, sitting on the short end of a contentious 5-2 split, with the five moderates generally aligned against him, apparently indulged in a round of political gamesmanship this week when he forced his colleagues to vote on reconsidering a vote they made in a previous meeting, approving Basin Street Properties’ Riverfront project. The issue was that Basin Street plans to build a grass playing field for the residents of the homes they will build, and Glass wants that field to be artificial turf.

Now you would expect that Glass would know that he had virtually no chance of getting that vote reconsidered, and being a man of considerable intelligence, he almost certainly did know that. But, this was also the chance for a little political theater and he made the most of his opportunity. Monday night, after a lengthy time spent on debate, the council voted 5-2 not to reconsider the issue.

One final thought on another issue. Former Mayor Pamela Torliatt announced her candicacy for city council two years ago, started raising money months after the 2012 elections, and amassed a fund of about $6,000. Then a few weeks ago she withdrew from the race. The question then is, what happens to that money? I understand that legally she can’t keep it for personal use. She can give some of in to other candidates, but only $200 each. I don’t know if there are some wiggly ways that could be routed to a political action committee.

A good thought is this: Former Mayor Clark Thompson, I believe, had some excess funds that he donated to local nonprofits. A comparable move by the former mayor, who has announced that she plans to be back in politics in the future, might be a good strategic move, and we all know how bad our nonprofits are hurting these days.

(Don Bennett, business writer and consultant, has been involved with city planning issues since the 1970s. His email address is dcbenn@aol.com.)