Noreen Evans stakes out return to Sonoma County politics with second bid for Board of Supervisors

The walls of the Roseland union hall that Noreen Evans chose as a headquarters for her bid to vault back into elected office in Sonoma County are adorned with signs that reflect her deep political roots and the seeds of her liberal ideology.

They speak of her voting record over two decades in local and state office - of fighting for laborers, including farmworkers, and of protecting the environment.

Evans, 61, an attorney who served two terms as a Santa Rosa councilwoman and 10 years in the Legislature, says the same purpose that inspired her to run for office two decades ago is fueling her campaign against Lynda Hopkins for the 5th District supervisor seat held by Efren Carrillo.

“The reason I went into politics is very similar to the reason I went into law - I wanted to advocate for people who couldn't buy a seat at the table of power,” said Evans. She recalled a moment in the 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in which Atticus Finch defends a black man accused of rape in the segregated South.

“I saw this movie when I was 5 or 6 and I said ‘That's what I want to do with my life,'” Evans said. “I've always wanted to shake up things that protect the status quo, because they need to be shaken up.”

Rebel from GOP family

The rebel of a family of staunch Republicans from the East Bay, Evans said her father was a Marine Corps drill instructor who helped shape her view of public service and motivated her to first seek public office. She was a 41-year-old mother of three children looking to jump from an appointed seat on the Santa Rosa Planning Commission to an elected one on the City Council.

“My initial response was ‘I can't do this, I have kids at home,'” said Evans, who continued in private law practice while on the council. “I remember sitting around the dinner table with my kids and my then-husband, and they said ‘Why not?'?”

On the campaign trail this time around, she often faces a similarly pointed question from others about her run for county office: Why now?

Evans had been through several tumultuous years at the Capitol when she announced on Facebook in 2013 that she would not seek re-election to the state Senate seat representing Sonoma County and the North Coast.

“Sacramento is not my home and politics is not how I planned to spend my life,” she wrote at the time.

She returned in 2014 to Santa Rosa, where she resumed her private law practice, all the while brushing off rumors that she was interested in running for county office.

In December, however, she moved to Sebastopol - into the 5th District - and declared her bid for Carrillo's seat in mid-January, two weeks before Carrillo announced he would not run for re-election.

Evans had been among Carrillo's sharpest critics in the wake of his high-profile 2013 arrest on suspicion of prowling and subsequent acquittal on a charge that he had attempted to peek into a female neighbor's home.

Evans said she changed her mind about seeking county office after being approached at the start of the year by several well-known Sonoma County politicos, including Ernie Carpenter, who previously represented west county on the board.

“I'm really alarmed by the economic forces I see driving our future, and I feel I have a responsibility to do something about it,” Evans said. “I have the experience and the skills to stand up for people in west county, to fight for working families, and to protect the Russian River and the coast.”

With name recognition, ample fundraising experience and a solid political bloc made up of organized labor interests and environmental groups, Evans was a clear frontrunner in the primary field and advanced from the June election behind Hopkins, an organic farmer from Forestville making her first bid for elected office.

Their runoff is a high-stakes contest between two Democrats - Evans the political veteran, with a long voting record who has clashed with farming and business interests at times, and Hopkins the novice, who has sought to stake out broad appeal among those groups while defending her own environmental credentials.

“We could see the board turn directions,” said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist. “It comes down to one candidate who is untested and a bit Pollyannaish in terms of what she can expect when she gets into office, and another who can seem divisive and combative because of her experience and her stance on controversial issues.”

Those who know Evans and support her candidacy see strength in her reputation as a liberal firebrand unafraid to pick a fight. On the Santa Rosa City Council, where she was first elected in 1996, she established a political identity as a champion for union rights, strong environmental protections and a robust social safety net.

Supports progressive causes

In her subsequent 10 years in the state Legislature - six years in the Assembly before she was termed out and four in the Senate - she burnished her reputation as a supporter of progressive causes, including gay and women's rights. She advocated for park funding and coastal protection, as well as laws to combat climate change, strengthen consumer financial protections and assist homeowners facing foreclosure.

“She was one of the strong women who provided leadership - her brand of politics was how to get things done, especially around issues of social justice and the environment,” said Tom Ammiano, a longtime activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights whose six years in the Assembly overlapped with Evans' tenure in both houses.

Her years in Sacramento were marked as well by high-profile political defeats, including a failed proposal to fund higher education by taxing crude oil extraction in California, and legislation that would have required labeling on food that contains genetically modified organisms. She also unsuccessfully sought new taxes on sugary beverages and tobacco in an attempt to shore up revenue and stave off budget cuts during the height of the recession.

Evans was stripped of her post as chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2014, and some of her former colleagues in the Legislature said she fell short in leadership in her role as chairwoman of a budget committee, a position she held from 2008 to 2010.

One fellow Democratic legislator at the time called Evans a crusader for preserving the social safety net but faulted her for not doing more to prevent the tough budget cuts.

“Noreen presided over some of the worst budget times this state has ever seen, and it was balanced almost entirely on cuts, gimmicks and borrowing,” said the legislator, who spoke on condition of anonymity to more candidly discuss the political environment inside the Capitol at the time. Evans was “jaded and lazy in her job and she deferred almost entirely to staff,” the legislator said.

“She alienated a lot of her colleagues during her time, and frankly it seemed like she just chose not to do the work,” the legislator said.

Evans countered that her work chairing the budget committee was her “biggest achievement.”

“At the time, we needed a two-thirds vote to pass a budget, so every year our Republican friends would present us a list of demands,” Evans said. “They wanted to close state parks, slash funding for schools and reduce funding for social services like rural health care and food stamps. I called it hostage taking - it was my job to say ‘no.'?”

“There was a lot of chaos in the Capitol during those years,” Evans said. “I left because 10 years was enough. Remember that I served most of my time under Governor (Arnold) Schwarzenegger, who did his best to punish the Legislature.”

Ran unsuccessfully in 2000

While on the City Council, Evans ran unsuccessfully in 2000 to unseat then-Supervisor Tim Smith. The job of county supervisor is seen as one of the best in California politics. Supervisors have the ability to affect policy more directly than legislators. In Sonoma County, their base pay - $142,000 - puts them among the top 10 highest paid across counties in the state. They also receive pension and health care benefits. By comparison, members of the Legislature earn roughly $100,000 per year and do not receive state-sponsored pension plans.

Evans was outspoken about the compensation package for legislators while in Sacramento. In 2011, one year into her Senate term, she posted on Twitter suggesting that she would have to resort to hot-air balloons, llamas and other unconventional modes of travel to visit residents of her sprawling North Coast district following a state commission's decision to take away her taxpayer-funded car.

But she scoffed when asked if she re-entered the political ring seeking a steady paycheck or retirement income.

“That's silly,” Evans said. “I'm a well-trained and experienced environmental lawyer and I can find another way to make a living that's much easier and less intrusive in my private life.”

County pension benefits vest after five years of service. Should Evans serve two terms and retire, she would qualify for a maximum pension of less than $40,000 per year.

Supports rent control

On the campaign trail, she has sought to bolster her base by outlining policies to help low- and middle-income residents, such as rent control and other tenant protections; strengthening union rules on large county construction projects and developing a ban on new big-box retailers in Roseland to help preserve local businesses. Key endorsements include the county's Democratic Party, the North Bay Labor Council and the Sierra Club.

A campaign fundraiser in Bodega Bay last month featured Charles Lester, the fired executive director of the California Coastal Commission, who has been outspoken about threats posed by coastal development.

Lester said Evans has demonstrated her willingness to take positions that are sometimes unpopular. That could include future land-use decisions in Sonoma County, he said.

“I know Noreen would be a supporter and advocate for strong policies protecting coastal resources in Sonoma County,” Lester said. “She is very familiar with the controlling laws in the coastal zone and she understands the important role a county supervisor plays.”

Evans has touted her support for rent control, tighter limits on expansion of the county's wine industry and strong environmental safeguards as evidence of the hard stances she is willing to take.

“Really, it's the board majority that's at stake here, and whether it's going to be a progressive board or a middle-of-the-road board,” said Bleys Rose, chairman of the county's Democratic Party.

Supervisors Shirlee Zane and Susan Gorin make up the more liberal voting bloc and have backed Evans. Supervisors Carrillo, David Rabbitt and James Gore are considered more moderate. Carrillo and Gore have endorsed Hopkins. Rabbitt has not endorsed in the race.

Backed by unions

While Evans has sought to tie Hopkins to some of the business, development and real estate interests funding her campaign, Hopkins and her allies have noted that a big share of Evans' financial support comes from unions that represent county employees with a stake in the board's decisions on pay and pension spending.

“It's interesting that someone is attacking me for my campaign contributors and not holding themselves to the same high standards,” Hopkins said.

“I have found consistently in this race that my opponent holds me to a higher standard than she holds herself.”

Evans countered, saying the difference is that she has repeatedly taken positions that diverge with the desires of special interests that have contributed to her campaigns.

As an example, she cited her support for a 2012 bill that would have mandated overtime pay for farmworkers, which failed that year but passed this year and was recently signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. In the campaign that preceded her vote, Evans received money from the wine industry, which opposed the legislation.

“Yes I've taken money from some of those groups like the wine industry, but the difference is I have a record of standing up to those same interests,” Evans said. “Voters can see I've championed any number of policies that have supported low-income and middle-class folks. Unlike my opponent, they don't have to ask where my values lie - they can see it.”

Hopkins supporters say that record shows someone rigid in her ways. Hopkins' appeal is that she is more open minded, they say.

“It's a breath of fresh air bringing in someone who isn't a career politician,” said John Azevedo, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, which has endorsed Hopkins. “She's totally blunt, and I see that as a strength. I think she'll come in and listen to everybody and try and build consensus.”

But Evans said she is proud of her career in public office and will continue to run on the strength of her experience.

“I have a history of representing Sonoma County and the North Coast,” Evans said. “Something has to drive a person in their 60s to put on a silly shirt and tennis shoes and go knock on the doors of strangers and ask for votes. I don't do it for any reason other than that I love this county.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 707-526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports