Hitting streets for support

Local candidates took to the streets Sunday, hoping to secure last-minute support by knocking on doors across Sonoma County.

Rue Furch, battling for the 5th District supervisor seat, spent the weekend walking the streets of western Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. Her opponent, Efren Carrillo, did the same.

"I've shaken thousands of hands," Carrillo said. "We're out reminding people to vote on Tuesday."

Both candidates got drenched during Saturday's heavy rains, so they reveled in Sunday's clear skies, although they were still slogging across muddy lawns.

More than a third of Sonoma County's voters already have cast their ballots for Tuesday's election. At the end of last week, more than 92,000 people had voted absentee, and a record number -- 252,372 -- are registered to vote.

"At this point, many people have already made up their minds," Furch said Sunday.

Some people she talked to over the weekend wished her luck and said they had voted for her. Others thanked her for stopping by, but remained silent on which candidate they support.

Carrillo knocked on the door of a Santa Rosa man who as of Sunday hadn't made up his mind. "I still haven't researched it," said Sean Couwenberghe, 30.

Carrillo delivered his pitch, and listened to Couwenberghe's concerns about the economy. Carrillo handed him his cell phone number, and promised he was a politician who would listen.

Furch and Carrillo are vying for one of the three available seats on the Board of Supervisors. Candidates Sharon Wright and Shirlee Zane are competing for the 3rd District seat covering central Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park. And in Sonoma Valley's 1st District, Will Pier is challenging incumbent Valerie Brown.

The races between Furch and Carrillo and Wright and Zane have attracted the most attention -- and generated the most negative campaigning -- because both are open seats with longtime incumbents not seeking re-election.

Other local contests include:

MEASURE Q

Voters in Sonoma and Marin counties will vote on Measure Q, a quarter-cent sales tax that would help pay for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit project. If passed, the measure would generate an estimated $890 million over 20 years for a 70-mile commuter rail line from Cloverdale to Larkspur.

Proponents say a SMART train would reduce Highway 101 traffic and commute times, but opponents say the project is too costly given the number of people who would ride it.

The measure needs two-thirds approval, which it narrowly missed in 2006. That year, 70 percent of Sonoma voters said "yes" to the train tax, but a 57.5 percent assent in Marin pulled the two-county total down to about 65 percent, just 1.4 percent short of the overall approval needed.

SANTA ROSA

Santa Rosa's City Council election will be one for the history book.

It features the largest field of candidates and the most seats up for election in the city's 140-year history. And it will actually be two elections, not just one.

The second election became necessary when former Mayor Bob Blanchard died in June following a three-year battle with cancer, leaving the remaining two years of his term vacant.

Eleven of the 15 candidates are seeking the four-year seats now held by Mayor John Sawyer, Lee Pierce, Carol Dean and Jane Bender.

Sawyer, Pierce and Dean are all running for re-election.

Their challengers are former Councilwoman Marsha Vas Dupre; certified public accountant Gary Wysocky; police Lt. Ernesto Olivares; state Sen. Pat Wiggins' district director, Michael Allen; restaurant owner Don Taylor; certified public accountant Bobbi Hoff; winery bottle supplier Hans Dippel; and Roseland business owner Eddie Alvarez.

Bender, who chose not to run for her four-year seat, is among four candidates vying to fill Blanchard's remaining term.

The other three candidates are medical transcriptionist Judy Kennedy; Roseland School District trustee David Rosas; and certified public accountant Lawrence Wiesner.

Unlike past elections, only one issue dominated this year's campaign -- the city's growing budget deficit.

Within weeks after filing their candidacy papers in August, a time when the city's financial experts projected next year's budget would face an $8 million deficit, the worsening local, state and national economy raised that estimate to $10.5 million.

Over the next few months, the council is expected to lay-off as many as 60 workers, close fire stations on a rotating basis, seek $1.6 million in pay and benefit concessions from city workers, shut down all adult and youth sports programs, eliminate street-sweeping services and even abandon picking up small animals killed on city streets.

And there is serious talk that the council might ask voters, perhaps as early as next year, to pass some form of tax measure to help deal with the city's budget crisis.

PETALUMA

Measure K seeks to roll back water and sewer rates to 2006 levels.

Proponents of the measure say rate hikes unfairly make residents pay for a $110 million wastewater treatment plant. Opponents say that if the measure passes, the state revolving loan for building the treatment plant would have to be repaid from the city's general fund, causing cuts to services.

Six candidates including two incumbents are vying for three spots on the City Council. Incumbents Samantha Freitas and Karen Nau are seeking a return to office. The challengers include former Mayor David Glass, former Councilman Mike Healy, retired postal worker Spence Burton and Web designer Tiffany Renee.

ROHNERT PARK

Measure L, a citizens' initiative, asks voters to roll back sewer rates to January 2006 levels, where they were before three increases took effect.

It was put on the ballot by residents who contend the current rates are more than sufficient to finance sewer operations and that the rates subsidize sewer improvements to the benefit of new development.

Opponents and city officials say the rates are needed to pay operation costs and bonds that replaced a decaying infrastructure. Developers are paying for any expansion, they said, and a rollback would lead to budget deficits and cuts in other city services.

In the race for three City Council seats, Mayor Jake Mackenzie and incumbent council members Tim Smith and Vicki Vidak-Martinez face four challengers. They are former Councilwoman Dawna Gallagher; businesswoman Gina Belforte; attorney John Borba; and construction company owner Joe Callinan, the son of former City Manager Peter Callinan.

WINDSOR

Incumbent and environmental consultant Debora Fudge, running for her fourth term, has thrown her support behind Cheryl Scholar, a longtime school board member making her first run for a Town Council seat.

Julie Adamson, a real estate agent and member of the town's original council after Windsor incorporated in 1992, is trying for a political comeback. She argues that the town has spent extravagantly, while Fudge says no staff members have been laid off and Windsor is one of the most solvent cities in the county.

Rounding out the field is Lee Dysart, a real estate agent and past president of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce.

HEALDSBURG

Two incumbents, TV-50 marketing and creative director Mike McGuire, and retired police officer Gary Plass, are seeking re-election. A third incumbent, Lisa Schaffner, the longest serving member of the council, decided not to run.

Joining the race are Tom Chambers, a chief executive for Codding Steel Frame Solutions and a one-term Healdsburg councilman in the early 1990s, and Tony Pastene, former owner of a Healdsburg bike shop.

The race is low-key with candidates agreeing on the need to keep city finances healthy. None is suggesting layoffs or raising taxes.

SONOMA

The Sonoma Valley Hospital District is asking voters to approve a $35 million bond sale for improvements to the hospital, the district's third attempt at getting a measure passed.

The proposal, Measure P, is smaller than previous bonds and doesn't include money for land for a new hospital, which stirred controversy in previous attempts.

CLOVERDALE

Economic development remains a top concern for most candidates in Sonoma County's northernmost city.

Councilwoman Jessalee Raymond, a law office administrative assistant, is assured re-election, since she is the only one running to fill the remaining two years on the unexpired term of Councilman Bob Jehn, who retired last summer.

Vying for the two, four-year seats are incumbent Gus Wolter, a banking executive and bed-and-breakfast owner; former Councilwoman Mary Ann Brigham, a print shop and brew pub owner, and Luciano "Lou" Toninato, retired winery executive and former board chairman of the Chamber of Commerce.

SEBASTOPOL

Newly appointed incumbent Jen Thille is seeking her first full term on the council. Mayor Craig Litwin chose not to seek re-election.

The race for the two seats includes candidates Colleen Fernald, an artist and sustainability consultant; Kathleen Shaffer, a Palm Drive Health Care Foundation board member; and Guy Wilson, an attorney and Sebastopol school board member.

COTATI

Six candidates including one incumbent are competing for three seats on the City Council.

Councilwoman Janet Orchard is seeking a third term. Her rivals are Robert Coleman, an English professor at Sonoma State University; Eric Kirchmann, an English teacher at Analy High in Sebastopol; Michael Kurvers, a former Cotati police officer; George Barich, an electrical contractor and longtime council watcher; and Susan Harvey, a former information technology manager at Fireman's Fund in Novato.