Election season will heat up on the local front this month as the August deadline to file to run approaches.
Pleasanton Mayor Jerry Thorne declared his candidacy for re-election last fall and has yet to draw an opponent publically. There will be one open seat on the council because Cheryl Cook-Kallio is termed out this year. Councilwoman Kathy Narum, who won a special election in May 2013 to fill the remainder of Thorne's term after he won the mayor's seat, has announced she will run for a four-year term.
Joining her in the field is former Planning Commission Arne Olson who announced his candidacy last week. He served eight years on the commission and is a retired banker.
Time will tell whether there will be a race in Pleasanton, but there will be a competitive race for mayor for the first time in Dublin. Citizens have directly elected three people mayor—Guy Houston, Janet Lockhart and Tim Sbranti—each time they won with token or no opposition and then comfortably won re-election.
In Dublin, with Sbranti running for state Assembly, a three-way race is shaping up between Councilmen David Haubert and Kevin Hart along with former Councilwoman Kassie Hildebrand, who served eight years in the council before she was termed out.
Both Haubert and Hart have served on the Dublin school board and are running from safe council seats (both have two years remaining on their terms—2nd for Hart, 1st for Haubert).
Haubert has lined up endorsements of the Interstate 680 mayors with Danville Mayor Robert Storrer, San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson and Pleasanton Mayor Jerry Thorne serving as co-chairs of his fundraiser last week at McNamara's steak and chop house. What that will mean in terms of votes remains to be seen.
Two of the city's best known politicians, Sbranti and Congressman Eric Swalwell, are staying out of the race, according to Haubert.
Sbranti has his hands full this fall in his run for Assembly against attorney Catharine Baker, while Swalwell should cruise in the fall because Republican Congressional candidate Hugh Bussell continues to lead termed-out state Senator Ellen Corbett in the three-way primary race. Bussell leads by 230 votes and if the vote is certified then he will face Swalwell and Corbett can ponder a return to private life (she has been an elected official for 20 years, 14 in Sacramento).