Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane concedes as Chris Coursey celebrates historic win

Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane and former Santa Rosa mayor Chris Coursey confronted separate, bracing realities Wednesday in the aftermath of a long election night that signaled the end of Zane's three-term tenure on the Board of Supervisors and the start of Coursey's transition to succeed her.

The results at daybreak were little different than just after midnight. Coursey maintained a 54% to 46% lead, with about 15,000 votes counted. Estimates showed at least an equal number of 3rd District mail and provisional ballots remained uncounted, however, and for hours Wednesday that reckoning and its implications for the hotly contested race left the outcome in some limbo.

Zane and Coursey - former political allies who dated years ago and who for nearly a year have jousted on the campaign trail - appeared content with the slow pace of the day.

Coursey, 65, lounged in a T-shirt, socks and sandals at his North Street apartment, overcome with a cold while fielding calls from supporters more confident than he in an impending victory.

Zane, 60, drove to a friend's property amid dairy pastures northwest of Petaluma, to visit Lucy, her therapy horse and companion amid heartache she has faced in office during the past six years.

Early in the day, she acknowledged the long odds of a comeback even with the outstanding ballots and said she was mulling a concession. Hours later, shortly before 7 p.m., she picked up the phone and called Coursey to congratulate him on his win.

“It was a great effort,” Zane said in an interview Wednesday morning. “I'm ready to concede and move on.”

Coursey, who said he was surrounded by Kleenex, nursing the cold, digested his win in a kind of self-imposed quarantine.

“I'm not feeling great, physically,” he said. “I am feeling great about this campaign, about this victory, and I've had just a real, nonstop outpouring of support and congratulations.”

His win marks the first time a challenger has ousted an incumbent Sonoma County supervisor since Janet Nicholas unseated Bob Adams in 1984.

Zane's term extends through the end of the year, and Coursey is set to join the board at a time when its members are facing myriad crises, from a chronic housing shortage and intractable homelessness to climate change and natural disasters.

“There's no shortage of challenges for local government,” Coursey said. “I wouldn't have gotten into this if I wasn't ready and anxious to help meet those challenges. I'm gonna spend the next 10 months doing everything that I need to do to be ready to go to work on Day 1.”

Zane said she would work with Coursey to get him up to speed and he thanked her “for her gracious offer.”

The election outcome was exceptional on several fronts. Since he announced his bid for office last April, Coursey was outraised and outspent on the campaign trail. He relied on volunteers to spread the word door-to-door while Zane's allies bankrolled a $140,000 neighborhood canvassing operation.

Zane landed endorsements from more local, state and federal politicians, and relied on maximum donations from wine, business and development interests to raise $240,000, outpacing Coursey by $40,000.

But Coursey, a well-known, one-term city councilman, former SMART spokesman and retired Press Democrat columnist, used his name recognition and his record of leadership during and after the 2017 fires to propel his insurgent campaign.

He billed himself as a collaborator, and pecked at Zane's reputation for quarreling with staff and record of criticizing neighbors of the Chanate Road property in northeastern Santa Rosa, where Zane once championed a now-scuttled deal to build more than 800 apartments.

She acknowledged the quagmire over that county effort to build affordable housing had hurt her election prospects. In her campaign, she touted her record on health and human services, including efforts to house homeless veterans, expand access to mental health services and open more public lands for park users.

“I'm feeling like we did a great campaign,” Zane said. “But there were certain forces I couldn't control, like Chanate neighbors and Chevron, for example. And I couldn't campaign 24/7. I have a job.”

Her comments exposed the bare-knuckled and raw side of the contest, which grew increasingly bitter and personal toward the end. She attacked Coursey for an independent expenditure committee backed by oil and gas companies that reported spending $113,000 in his favor. Zane claimed it was meant to oust her from the powerful board of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

She also questioned his commitment to the job of an elected official, seeking to tar his attendance record on the City Council. Her sharpest jab: that in not seeking a second term on the City Council, he abandoned fire victims to go skiing.

“It was a personal campaign,” she said. “He dated me for three years. I never expected in my wildest dreams he'd run against me. It was very personal. And the attacks were personal, too. He didn't have a record, so he had to go after mine.”

Coursey returned fire during the campaign, calling Zane an egotistical leader who was eager to take credit when things were going well and quick to pass blame when they weren't. He cast her lead role in the Chanate proposal as an effort to offer a sweetheart deal to one of her biggest political benefactors, local developer Bill Gallaher.

He called her leadership on that deal and bungled public outreach a “matter of political malfeasance.”

Coursey, looking ahead, said the transition into office next January could prove “an awkwardly long time.”

“Over the past three years, this county has been hit by disaster after disaster. Who knows what the next 10 months will bring?” he said. “All I can say at this time is that I'll be prepared.”

Zane, meanwhile, relied on the solace offered late Tuesday and Wednesday by close friends and supporters. They included her former district director, Michelle Whitman, as well as former North Coast Rep. Doug Bosco, a longtime McDonald Avenue neighbor and political supporter, who attended her party on election night.

Bosco, a Democrat, suffered a painful loss while seeking his fifth term in Congress in 1990, losing the seat to Republican Frank Riggs, who would go on to serve just one term.

“Life doesn't end when you lose an election,” Bosco said, sharing some of the counsel he offered Zane on Tuesday.

“I certainly know how hurtful it is,” he said. “But after a period of time, you reinvent yourself, and oftentimes you can end up with a happier life than you had when you were in public office.”

Bosco is an investor in Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat.

Zane's tenure representing central Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park has been marked by crises and tragedy. She was elected at the outset of the Great Recession and saw her first few years marked by a succession of budget woes requiring deep staff and spending cuts.

In 2011, she lost her husband, Peter Kingston, who took his own life after a long struggle with depression. In 2014, she lost her mother. She made her grief public in both cases, and after Kingston's death, became a fierce advocate for improved mental health care.

“Grief is profoundly personal,” Zane said. “And when you're grieving in the public eye, it is incredibly painful.”

She adopted Lucy in 2015. Visiting her on Wednesday offered another brief moment to heal.

Zane spoke about the chestnut mare's nutrition, about her stubborn demeanor and admired how quickly her coat was drying after a mid-day bath.

She fed her some snacks and then, dressed in cowboy boots and a SMART button-up, collared T-shirt, she turned to leave. She had a special Board of Supervisors meeting on the coronavirus to make in Santa Rosa, and she was running late.

Before pulling out of the gravel driveway and merging into traffic on Highway 101, she offered an unvarnished coda.

“Politics is ugly,” Zane said. “This is a helluva lot better.”

You can reach Staff Writer Tyler Silvy at 707-526-8667 or at tyler.silvy@pressdemocrat.com.