Two political veterans considering run for Efren Carrillo's Sonoma County Board of Supervisors seat

Two seasoned veterans in Sonoma County politics are emerging as contenders in a crowded field of potential candidates for the 5th District supervisor seat held by Efren Carrillo.

Noreen Evans, an attorney and former Santa Rosa councilwoman who retired from the state Senate last year after a decade in the Legislature, is positioning herself for a possible bid for the seat, as is Occidental attorney Eric Koenigshofer, who represented the same district on the Board of Supervisors 35 years ago and is one of Carrillo’s closest advisers.

Carrillo’s second term representing the west county expires at the end of next year. He has not said whether he plans to run for re-election.

Evans, 60, said she is seriously considering a run for supervisor, saying her year away from political office has given her fresh perspective and a renewed interest in local politics.

“Over the 10 years I spent in the state Legislature, I began to realize that real change happens locally, and I can see that there’s a lot of work that needs to get done here on issues I care about - climate change, for example, coastal protection, housing,” Evans said.

To run, she would have to move into the 5th District and out of the Rincon Valley home she purchased earlier this year. Evans said she is searching for housing in the west county district but wasn’t ready to announce a bid until she had lined up the political support necessary to run a strong campaign.

“I’m talking to potential supporters - financial and political - and finding out what people think,” Evans said. “I’m not worried about fundraising. My question is: Do people want me to run?”

Koenigshofer, 65, who represents the Ratto Group, the county’s dominant garbage hauler, said Thursday that he is planning to run if Carrillo does not. He represented the west county for a single term on the Board of Supervisors in the late 1970s and said his interest in the seat has been fueled by his continued roles in the public arena, including posts on county advisory panels weighing winery development and civilian oversight of law enforcement.

“Even when I stepped down from the board, I never left local government,” Koenigshofer said. “I have deep roots in this district and this county.”

The jockeying by Evans and Koenigshofer, along with a handful of other potential candidates who are less experienced with political office, reflects the uncertainty over Carrillo’s plans and the lingering fallout from his 2013 predawn arrest, when he was found in his underwear and socks outside his female neighbor’s apartment.

A jury last year found him not guilty of attempting to peek into the woman’s home, but the court case, in which he blamed his behavior on a toxic mix of alcohol and arrogance, cast a cloud over his political career and raised doubts about his ability to hold on to the west county seat. Carrillo’s former neighbor sued him for $2.5 million over the incident. That case has yet to be resolved.

Carrillo, 34, did not return numerous calls last week requesting an interview about his intentions.

“Everyone is waiting to see what Efren is going to do,” said John Azevedo, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, which has twice endorsed Carrillo. “Here we have an incumbent who we supported last time, but we don’t know what we’re going to do because he hasn’t said anything. I don’t understand what he’s waiting for.”

The filing deadline for candidates is not until March, but speculation is mounting about who could seek the 5th District seat. Also considering a run are Tawny Tesconi, a native of west Santa Rosa who was the county fair director for seven years and now leads the county’s General Services Department; Dennis Rosatti, executive director of Sonoma County Conservation Action, the area’s largest environmental organization; Rue Furch, a former county planning commissioner who lost to Carrillo in 2008; and Herman G. Hernandez, a first-term Sonoma County Office of Education board member.

Tesconi, 53, said she has consulted with political strategist Rob Muelrath, who ran Carrillo’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012, and made formal inquiries at the county about her ability to run for the office while serving in her current role as a department head answering to the Board of Supervisors.

“It’s my understanding that legally, I’m allowed to run,” Tesconi said. “But I’m still considering it. I’m wrestling because I love my job with the county, but I also think I could be a great leader.”

Rosatti, Furch and Hernandez also have yet to declare whether they will run, awaiting either Carrillo’s decision or for other names to shake out in the field.

Should Carrillo not run, Evans and Koenigshofer would be the heavyweights among the current potential contenders, leaving little room for the other candidates, with donors and interest groups likely to rush in to pick sides in a contest that could determine who holds the majority on the Board of Supervisors, said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist.

“What is really at stake is the direction of the Board of Supervisors on how it handles major issues like water, wine, land use and housing, and quality-of-life issues,” McCuan said. “Eric Koenigshofer and Noreen Evans are both seasoned politicians who have long histories of fighting for issues in the 5th District and across Sonoma County, so if it’s between them, it’s going to be an expensive, high-stakes smackdown.”

A win by Evans could shift the board to the left, he noted, while a win by Koenigshofer could maintain the current centrist majority, formed by Carrillo, David Rabbitt and James Gore.

Shirlee Zane and Susan Gorin, who constitute the liberal bloc of the current board, both are running for re-election next year.

A race between Evans and Koenigshofer also could shape up as a referendum on Carrillo’s tenure in elected office.

Evans, whose political allies included some of Carrillo’s sharpest critics after his arrest, indicated she would challenge Carrillo’s record of leadership in the district, one that she contends has been undermined by his legal troubles. Carrillo also was arrested in 2012 after an alcohol-fueled street fight outside a downtown San Diego nightclub on Labor Day. City prosecutors dropped the case, citing insufficient evidence and conflicting accounts of the incident, in which an Arizona man was knocked unconscious.

“The 5th District, in particular, needs strong leadership right now,” Evans said. “I thought (Carrillo) held a great deal of promise, but what happened has weakened his ability to lead.”

Koenigshofer, in contrast, remains a staunch defender of Carrillo’s work at the county and said he remains a trusted friend and political ally.

“He has done a good job as supervisor, and he’s my friend,” Koenigshofer said. “You don’t abandon friends for political motives.”

Evans served eight years on the Santa Rosa City Council before she was elected in 2004 to the state Assembly. She was elected to the state Senate in 2010 and served one term.

In 2000, while on the City Council, she lost a bid to unseat Supervisor Tim Smith, who represented the county’s central district, including most of Santa Rosa.

Evans’ consideration of the west county seat has already opened her to attacks of shopping for political office. Koenigshofer dropped that accusation indirectly in an interview last week.

“She may be shopping for a seat, and that’s her prerogative, but I don’t think the 100,000 people who live in the 5th District need to import their next supervisor,” he said.

Evans dismissed characterizations of her as a political opportunist, saying she doesn’t take such criticism seriously.

“I’ve represented the whole county, so I’d be continuing the work that I started many years ago,” Evans said.

Koenigshofer said he wants back in elected office to help shape policy around what he sees as critical issues facing the county.

“I’m devoted to this place,” he said. “We have to continue our work on preservation of open space and agricultural land, and we also need to be mindful of the small hamlets and villages in west county, to make sure the people there also have a voice. It’s what makes the 5th District unique.”

Koenigshofer was 26 and the ?youngest candidate in county history when he was elected in 1976 to the Board of Supervisors, where he formed a progressive voting bloc along with Helen Rudee and Brian Kahn - a majority that grew out of the county’s budding environmental movement. He served one term and went on to work for the governor’s ?Office of Planning and Research during Jerry Brown’s first gubernatorial tenure. Then he earned a master’s degree in public administration and a law degree. He has worked for the Ratto Group for 29 years.

Koenigshofer also represented Preservation Ranch, the controversial proposal to clear and convert nearly 1,800 acres of forestland for vineyards on a 20,000-acre property in far northwestern Sonoma County.

Koenigshofer defended the plan as a way to maintain up to 15,000 acres of working forest, restore and protect wildlife habitat and erase development rights for all but 60 rural estates. But the project was dropped when CalPERS, the state pension giant, sold the property to a coalition of conservation interests in 2013.

Due in large part to his association with the project - one of the defining land-use battles in the county over the past decade - many local environmentalists regard Koenigshofer warily. He continues to defend the project, but said he backed the sale that spelled its end.

“If that property was going to be in private ownership, the question was how to minimize development and maximize preservation,” he said. “I fully supported acquisition of the property that ended the possibility of vineyard development.”

The buzz around Evans and Koenigshofer has attracted the attention of the county’s dueling political camps, including some organized labor and environmental groups on one side and business and agriculture groups on the other.

Jack Buckhorn, president of the North Bay Labor Council, which backed Carrillo in 2012 but called on him to resign after his arrest, said he’s excited about the prospect of Evans entering the race.

“We talked to her. She wanted to know whether we’d commit to supporting her,” Buckhorn said. “We said absolutely. She has experience, name recognition, and she has a strong track record on labor issues, so it’s a pretty easy decision.”

John Bly, executive vice president of the Northern California Engineering Contractors Association, said Koenigshofer would be a formidable candidate.

“He grew up here, he has a lot of experience historically working with business and agriculture, and he also has been a big proponent for the environment,” Bly said, “so I think he would bring a lot to the table.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @ahartreports.