Stanislaus County was once a stronghold for the democrat party and the Condit machine had been a powerful force for years all the way until the Levy scandal broke. The collapse of Condit and that machine has opened Stanislaus for GOP dominance at the state and local office level. Continued population growth and local election victories bode well for maintaining the surge in Republican officeholders and voter registration numbers. Here’s the lowdown:
County Board of Supervisors
Not so long ago, county government had a strong contingent of democrats. Now, after a string of defeats there are zero democrats on the Board of Supervisors. County GOP Chairman Jim DeMartini and William O’Brien defeated long-term democrat incumbents in 2004 and are serving their first terms on the board. The seat of retiring board member Ray Simon was claimed by former state Senator Dick Monteith keeping that seat in the Republican column. They are joined by long-time board member Tom Mayfield and Jeff Grover, a growing power player in Stanislaus County who sailed to re-election in November.
DeMartini and O’Brien will come up for re-election in 2008 for the first time but face much better odds than they did when they defeated entrenched incumbents Paul Caruso and Pat Paul the first time around. Rumors of Mayfield’s retirement are swirling along with the possible candidacy of former Sheriff Les Weidman to replace him. If Weidman doesn’t make the race, expect a free for all that could include Farm Bureau Board Member Vito Chiesa, Turlock Councilman Ted Howze, former Turlock Mayors Curt Andre and Brad Bates along with a slew of others who have been waiting for this seat to open up.
Countywide Offices
Republicans held onto the Sheriff’s office with Adam Christiansen and the District Attorney’s office with Birgit Fladager (who prosecuted Scott Peterson) and also claimed the Superintendent of Public Education post. Fladager and Christiansen have long-term potential with high profile positions and keep the Republican bench very deep in the coming years.
State Legislative Offices
Once the land of the conservative democrat, the extinction of those values in the democrat party on the state level has foreshadowed their near extinction in state legislative seats in this conservative county. The Senators are currently Jeff Denham and Dave Cogdill while on the assembly level Greg Aghazarian, Tom Berryhill and Cathleen Galgiani represent portions of the county (though Galgiani represents just a small sliver on the west side). The growing Republican infrastructure will make it very difficult for democrats to compete in the coming years.
Stanislaus Dems Hoarding Cash in Last Report
An interesting development recently was the end of year finance reports for the Stanislaus County Democrat Party. Major money was moved to the committee not only before last year’s election but after it as well and there is now a cash-on-hand balance of over $290,000. The question is, will this money be used locally or is the party content to be a storage facility for targets around the state?