Been a great week!

We had our first debate Saturday, Jan,26 a the Sebastopol Veterans Auditorium. Big thank you's to SOS Save Our Sonoma, the SCWC Sonoma County Water Coalition, and the Atascadero Green Valley Creek Association. I was a little nervous this being the first debate for Supervisor in the Fifth District in 12 years. You think about it the last Supervisor "elected" not "appointed" to office in Sonoma County was when Mike Reilly ran in 1996...now we have two open seats up for election including Tim Smith's seat from 1988. Interesting...

Lot's of great questions and answers with a standing room only crowd. We will be trying to put some videos up soon. Meanwhile check out the good job that Sonoma West did...including a front page photo at:

http://www.sonomawest.com/articles/2008/02/01/sonomawest/news/news1.txt

5th District forum draws overflow crowd
More candidates expected to enter race
by Frank Robertson - Sonoma West Staff Writer
ALL ALIGNED — Candidate Tom Lynch (standing) was joined by five other announced candidates for the 5th District Board of Supervisors seat now held by Mike Reilly who is retiring. Other candidates pictured from left is Rue Furch, Maddy Hirshfield, Dan Kahane, Jim Maresca and Guy Smith. The forum held last Saturday at Sebastopol’s Vets Memorial hall was organized by the Sonoma County Watershed Coalition and was moderated by Stephen Fuller-Rowell. The Primary Election is June 3 and run-off would be held in the November General Election if no candidate wins 51 percent of the June vote. - Photo by Rollie Atkinson
SEBASTOPOL - Nobody really won or lost the first debate in the 5th District Supervisors race last week.“I'd call it a draw,” said Jeannette Dillman, a Guerneville resident among the standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 who packed the Sebastopol Veterans Auditorium last Saturday.Rue Furch's formerly delinquent taxes, prominent in last week's news, came up briefly but didn't seem foremost on the minds of voters polled after the debate.
= 1147323600) && (nAdsysTime

Dillman said she's still a Furch supporter despite the flak Furch caught from critics who say her property tax issue set a bad example for a sitting Sonoma County Planning Commissioner and candidate for Supervisor.Despite that “I think she has a good working knowledge of the County,” said Dillman. “I think she'd do a good job.”“I deserve criticism,” said Furch, in her opening statement at Saturday's debate. “I've handled them,” she said of her back taxes. “I've fixed it.”
As expected at Saturday's forum all six attending candidates - Furch, Tom Lynch, Maddy Hirshfield, Dan Kahane, Jim Maresca and Guy Smith - spoke of their desire to preserve the West County's rural character and strengthen its tourism and agricultural base.“All of us have excellent environmental credentials,” said Jim Maresca, so the voters' challenge is to put the best person on “the team that runs the county for the next four years.”Graton resident Guy Smith said he cares passionately about the West County's natural environment and healthy ag industry and can bridge “the dichotomy” between the two camps.Dan Kahane, an environmentalist by profession and self-declared “un-politician,” said the environment is his top concern and that “all other issues fall under that umbrella.”Guerneville resident Tom Lynch reminded the audience of his early activist years fighting Santa Rosa wastewater discharges when he earned the nickname Manure Man for spreading fertilizer in front of Santa Rosa City Hall.Nowadays “My wife won't let me get arrested so I'm doing things more responsibly,” said Lynch, who's calling for a freeze on county spending.
Maddy Hirshfield emphasized her background in healthcare and the “established relationships” she has within government and the community as an aide to state Assemblywoman Patty Berg.Most of the questions last week dealt with watershed issues important to the forum's co-sponsors, Save Our Sonoma County and the Atascadero and Green Valley Creek Watershed Council.Environmentally “We are all pretty much all on the same page,” said Hirshfield after the forum. With the candidates views sounding remarkably similar, Hirshfield agreed that voters will be assessing traits such as character, personality and style.“People forget most of what they hear” when political candidates talk, said Hirshfield. “People will remember how you make them feel.”People will also be seeing some more candidates. With the first day (Feb. 11) still two weeks off to officially enter the race, the 5th District field has now grown to 10. Candidate Eddie Alvarez of the Roseland area did not attend Saturday's event owing to a death in the family. Two other marginal candidates, Narayan deVera, a world health activist, and Phil Graf a conservative gun advocate, have taken out petitions to circulate in lieu of paying filing fees.And now supporters say there's a viable tenth entrant, Efren Carrillo, who will announce his candidacy within the next few days.
Carrillo, who's active in the Roseland area and serves on the board of directors of the Southwest Community Health Center, was formerly a business and field representative for state Assemblyman Joe Nation.Carrillo works as education and government relations manager for Redwood Credit Union and is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley. He graduated from Roseland School and Santa Rosa High School.An 11th potential candidate, Karrie Singler of Forestville, also took out a petition in lieu of filing fee this week.