5 Candidates, 1 Campaign

It's rare to see political candidates walking side-by-side and smiling, particularly when they're competing for voters.

But there they are -- Santa Rosa Mayor John Sawyer, council members Jane Bender and Carol Dean, police Lt. Ernesto Olivares and accountant Bobbi Hoff -- featured striding next to one another almost hand-in-hand on a 30-second TV commercial that has aired continuously on local cable channels since Oct. 6.

Even more surprising to local political observers, all five are identified as "The Team" in what is believed to be the the first time in Santa Rosa's City Council history that a group of candidates has coalesced under one banner asking for voters to cast a vote for one and all.

In past elections, ideological camps of more loosely affiliated candidates vociferously rejected the idea they were running as a slate while often spouting like-minded philosophies, attracting campaign contributions from many of the same donors and receiving endorsements from some of the same groups.

"Voters, in many ways, resent the idea that they are being told if you vote for one, vote for all," said political consultant Terry Price, who is managing the campaigns of former labor leader Michael Allen and Burbank Gardens neighborhood activist Judy Kennedy, two of The Team's five primary rivals.

How effective the new approach is will be decided Nov. 4 when Sawyer, Bender, Dean, Olivares and Hoff, five of the 15 candidates running, seek all five seats up for election.

Santa Rosa political consultant Herb Williams, who is coordinating the campaign of all five, said the decision to formalize the process under "The Team" moniker is the result of two simple realities -- all his candidates are up for election and the lack of money to mount effective individual campaigns.

Councilwoman Susan Gorin, who is aligned with the union, labor and neighborhood camps, sees The Team "as an act of desperation that could backfire."

With such a crowded field of candidates, "It may make it easier for voters to select candidates with the same philosophy and donor base, but it also makes it very easy to identify who represents a certain political constituency," she said.

For most of Santa Rosa's recent political history, council races have been dominated by two ideological factions, often defined by those who receive the bulk of their campaign contributions from business and development-related interests and those who draw their support from labor unions, environmental organizations and neighborhood groups.

For two decades, it's been the more business-oriented candidates who've occupied the majority of council seats.

But that control could end this November, a factor Williams said late Mayor Bob Blanchard realized two years ago following his re-election, and the election of Gorin and Veronica Jacobi, who align themselves with more environmentally and labor-friendly viewpoints.

The four council members originally up for election this November were Bender, Sawyer, Mike Martini and Lee Pierce, all of whom won in 2004 and all of whom used Wil-

liams as their political consultant.

But Bender didn't plan to run again, Martini resigned in mid-term and was replaced by Dean, and Pierce has shifted allegiances.

"He (Blanchard) knew all the votes on his side of the equation would be up for election this time," Williams said.

Blanchard, who had been quietly recruiting like-minded candidates to keep a majority intact, died in June following a three-year battle with cancer, putting his seat in play this November as well.

Williams said it was Blanchard who sought out Hoff and Olivares, asked Bender to run for his seat and convinced Dean to abandon the pledge she made that she she would not run for office when she was appointed by the council to Martini's vacancy.

Their main rivals in the election, those supported to varying degrees by different labor, neighborhood and environmental groups are Allen, Kennedy, Pierce, former council member Marsha Vas Dupre and Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood leader Gary Wysocky.

Independent expenditure committees, which are barred by law from coordinating their efforts with individual campaigns, are free to recommend their own slate of candidates in mailers sent to voters.

The Coalition for a Better Sonoma County, which represents labor, environmental and neighborhood groups, has sent out its own mailer displaying the faces of Vas Dupre, Allen, Wysocky and Pierce and recommending their election.

Williams said the faltering economy has drastically reduced the $40,000 to $50,000 and more in campaign contributions his candidates usually could count on to run an effective, all-out campaign.

The joint strategy was formalized in June when campaign finance reports indicated Vas Dupre, Allen and Wysocky had raised between $30,000 to $42,000 each.

The total $110,000 they raised far exceeded the less than $10,000 Team members combined had received and raised the specter Team members could not afford to finance winning campaigns.

Through Oct. 18, Vas Dupre, Allen and Wysocky, joined by Pierce and Kennedy, had raised a combined $222,000 and spent almost $197,000.

That's more than twice the $105,000 raised and $102,000 spent by the five Team members.

"It was done because of the finances," Bender said, noting that all five help pay for the joint advertising -- TV commercials, newspaper ads, signs and a single mailer -- to stretch the money each has to spend.

"It's economy of scale," she said.

Candidate Allen, however, has a different viewpoint.

"I think voters will pick and choose who they elect rather than decide it's cheaper by the dozen. I don't think people go for the idea of going with a team. They like independent thinkers," he said.

Bender disputes those who contend the "Team" translates into a slate. "A slate is more about those in lock step with each other, like Republicans and Democrats, on votes. Within our group we don't have any particular agenda we agree on," she said, citing differences over the reunification of Old Courthouse Square.

The group of five has, however, coalesced around the city's budget crisis. It was Sawyer, Bender and Dean who in August blocked a pay raise for the city's dispatchers that was supported by Pierce, Gorin and Jacobi.

"When it ended on a 3-3 vote, it was the first time we realized we had a major problem," Sawyer said of the potential for tie votes on key issues.

"We realized if we did not elect four like-minded people we did not feel we would have the ability to help the city get through this financial disaster faster," Sawyer said.

"We'll find out in this election of people are OK with the concept of a team. I'm not suggesting in the future that this will be recommended, but it made sense this time," he said.

Despite their political expertise, neither Price nor Williams has an idea how it will turn out.

"This will be a test. Will they (voters) go in lock-step mode, supporting a monopoly on the council?" Price said.

"I don't know what the results will be, but it certainly is a polarizing, divisive strategy," he said.

Williams said the results of The Team concept may help define his own political future.

"Will I do this again? I don't know what 2010 holds," he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.