So, like bees amid summer flowers, four-term Contra Costa Supervisor Gayle Uilkema’s surprise retirement announcement this week is generating a buzz over who will succeed the veteran Lafayette lawmaker.
The possible candidates reach from one side of the political spectrum to the other, including liberal Democrat and former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, of Orinda, to conservative Danville Town Councilwoman Karen Stepper.
District Attorney mark Peterson and the Deputy Sheriffs Association both indicated within hours of Uilkema’s statement that they will take a big interest in this race.
The law enforcement community is supremely unhappy with budget cuts the supervisors have imposed on their agencies, and they want an aggressive, pro-public safety voice on the board.
“I’m going to be looking for a candidate out there who will be solid on public safety,” Peterson said. “This county is not adequately funding our police, probation and prosecution departments, and we need someone willing to make the hard choices.”
Peterson’s won’t be the only voice.
Other public employee unions are equally dissatisfied with their pay and benefit cuts, and traditional power players, including taxpayer activists, political parties and the business community are talking about this seat, too.
All this attention is both good and bad news for the only declared District 2 candidate, Contra Costa Community College trustee Tomi Van de Brooke, of Orinda.
On the one hand, Van de Brooke no longer faces the well-financed Uilkema, who has nearly $200,000 in three campaign accounts.
On the other hand, Van de Brooke may find herself in a far bigger field where her opponents are less defined and the outcome more unpredictable.
“It will be interesting,” Van de Brooke said. “But I am ahead of the game. I already have the endorsements of the Contra Costa legislative delegation, the county superintendent of schools and the firefighters. if others enter, they will have some catching up to do.”
Who might run?
Candidates emerge from all walks of life, but the most likely names are those already elected to boards in the communities in the newly drawn District 2, which includes Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, San Ramon and parts of Walnut Creek.
All five sitting supervisors came from local or regional government boards, where they established a voter base, learned how to raise money and organize campaigns.
it’s the TIMING: It is time, 73-year-old Uilkema says of her decision to retire at the end of her term in December 2012.
One of those things is maintaining constant vigilance over her fight against ovarian cancer.
“On the cancer, I am doing very well,” said Uilkema, who exhibits few visible post-treatment symptoms aside from the extra-warm clothes and boots her body now demands. “One of my daughters is a doctor, and she says things are moving the best possible way.”
As for that cash in her campaign fund, she hasn’t made any decisions. Legally, she can donate it to charities or contribute to other candidates’ campaigns.
Whether or not she will back a preferred successor is an open question.
“I like to keep my options open,” she said.
Get YOUR NUMBER: want to run for supervisor? The filing period opens Feb. 13 in districts 2, 3 and 5. to learn the district in which you reside, visit ccmap.us/supedist.aspx and enter your address.
MUSICAL OFFICES: Uilkema’s retirement news put a new twist in a burgeoning county office space tempest.
But Uilkema is refusing to move out of her first floor office in the county’s downtown Martinez office tower even though it is no longer in her district.
Uilkema says she will use the Danville site as a satellite and keep her small Lafayette desk, but she’s staying in Martinez.
Her resistance means the new Martinez supervisor, Federal Glover, of Pittsburg, cannot move into Uilkema’s digs.
So, Glover will take up a corner of the fourth floor in the same building, where it will cost the county in excess of $25,000 to retrofit the space. (It’s a stripped-down plan — Glover was looking at occupying the entire fourth floor until the price tag came in at $230,000.)
Glover’s Leland Road office in Pittsburg will also remain open until at least February 2013 when the lease expires. He also has a satellite office in Hercules.
Oh, and Uilkema and Glover are both asking for more staff to cover their new geographic spread.
Seriously? you can’t make this stuff up.
Contact Lisa Vorderbrueggen at 925-945-4773, lvorderbrueggen@bayareanewsgroup.com, ibabuzz.com/politics or at Twitter.com/lvorderbrueggen.