Thanks to the support of more than 2500 voters like you (2,578 to be exact), on election day (November 4) I earned 24% of the vote in a three way race.

Complete Monterey County election results are available here.  Percentages may still change a bit as the election results are not yet certified.

Congratulations are now due to both Steve, the long serving incumbent, and Ian,  a neophyte with promise.  Both seem to have listened closely to a number of issues I brought up during the campaign.  Let’s hope they rise above soundbyte politics of “accountability,” “transparency” and “continued improvement” and that they adopt most or at least some of the solutions proposed on these pages.

Thank you to my fabulous team!  Without your help this campaign to improve Seaside government would not have been possible.  The team is fairly pleased with the number of votes I earned, especially considering I entered the race only two months before the election.  Also to be considered: I ran against a polite, well liked (and 40+ year local resident) incumbent and a “machine”-backed candidate who had been campaigning for over a year.  My dead last position on the actual ballot probably didn’t help much either.

Personally, I am particularly proud of having inspired some debate.  At the very least, the other candidates were forced to consider issues they are about to face in the upcoming council term.  Without my involvement in this race, unopposed candidates might have blithely assumed all is well with the City.

The City of Seaside would also presumably have received absolutely no press coverage during the election cycle as all positions would have automatically gone to uncontested candidates.  Even so, only a handful of articles were written and there was absolutely no television news coverage of our City.

It is likely there will be many more articles written about the City in the near future.  Unfortunately, those articles will probably showcase a number of negative trends.

For example, the City seems on track to fall short more than $3 million of expected revenues by August of 2009.  A number of projected developments have also completely stalled.

Indeed, the Monterey Herald in a November 7 editorial mused about the City: “Unless it grows some financial savvy, the stumbling may not be over” and indicated my election would likely have helped avoid such problems.

Let us hope our new City Council have the wisdom to make the right, proactive choices and the guts to make unpopular but necessary ones.

 

Thank you for investigating my commitment to improve Seaside’s government and our wonderful community.  Please come back again.  This web site is being continually developed and will shortly become a “watchdog” blog chronicling the council’s actions.  I expect the blog to go live right around January 12, 2009

Please tell all your friends!