Sonoma County supervisor candidates to meet at Santa Rosa forum

Candidates running for Sonoma County supervisor will take their first round of questions Wednesday as the race heats up for the June primary, just three months away.

Nine candidates in the 1st, 3rd and 5th district supervisor races are expected to weigh in on how to address the county’s housing crisis and crumbling roads during a forum hosted by the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, said Nate Friar, events manager for the chamber.

The event, from 7 to 9 a.m. at the Santa Rosa Golf & Country Club, is a fundraiser for the chamber political action committee. Tickets to attend are $20 per person.

Two sitting supervisors are up for re-election. In central Sonoma County’s 3rd District, Supervisor Shirlee Zane so far faces no official challengers.

Two challengers are running against Supervisor Susan Gorin in the 1st District, which includes the Sonoma Valley and Oakmont. They include Gina Cuclis, who ran unsuccessfully for the same seat in 2012, and Keith Rhinehart, who ran unsuccessfully in 2014 for 4th District supervisor.

Rhinehart, making his third run for county supervisor, said he can’t attend the event Wednesday because he is on vacation in Florida.

The five candidates running for Supervisor Efren Carrillo’s 5th District seat are expected to draw the most attention. They include former state Sen. Noreen Evans, who moved to Sebastopol from Santa Rosa in December; Lynda Hopkins, a Healdsburg farmer who purchased a home in Forestville last year; Timothy Sergent, a Forestville resident and special-education teacher at Maria Carrillo High School; Lew Brown, a longtime Guerneville resident and Rio Nido attorney; and Marion Chase, a county eligibility worker who lives in west county.

Carrillo announced in late January that he would not run for re-election.

Frank Dice, a bartender at Graton’s Underwood Bar & Bistro, did not return calls for comment on whether he is still considering a 5th District run. He was not on the list of candidates for the Chamber of Commerce event.

The forum will help the organization decide which candidates to endorse, said Jonathan Coe, chamber president.

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