Patch's Guide to the June 5 Election

The June 5th election is coming up fast, and to save you some time researching the candidates you'll be deciding between, Los Altos Patch has put together this handy guide for you.

Below, see links to candidates' websites and a little bit about each person running for a position in a district that includes Mountain View.

Above all: don't forget to vote on June 5th!

SANTA CLARA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, 5TH DISTRICT

Current Supervisor: Liz Kniss (term is up)

Candidates Running:

• Kris Huyilan Wang, Cupertino City Councilwoman (Party affiliation unknown). Wang has degrees in statistics and business management, and completed graduate studies in computer science. She has worked for many Silicon Valley high-tech companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Visa. She has served as the mayor of Cupertino twice. She is currently president of the Santa Clara County Cities Association and Chair of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Commission, as well as being active on many more committees and commissions. If elected, she has said she would work on job creation and improving the county's fiscal management, economy, education and sustainability.
• Joe Simitian, current California State Senator (Democrat). Simitian is a former State Assemblyman, former mayor of Palo Alto, former president of the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, and former County Supervisor. He is known for authoring many Senate bills for causes such as education, public safety and the environment.
• Barry Chang, Cupertino City Councilmember and small business owner (Party affiliation unknown). Chang has lived in Cupertino since 1985, and has served on the City Council since 2009. He has also previously served on the Cupertino Public Safety Commission, the Cupertino Union School Board, and both the School Site Council and Parent-Teacher Association for Lincoln Elementary in Cupertino. He has also served many local charitable organizations and nonprofits such as Bay Area for Clean Environment and Vision New America. As a City Councilmember, he was instrumental in progressing the ban on single-use plastic bags, and says he has worked hard to help balance the City's budget. If elected, he says job creation, fiscal responsibility and education would be his top priorities.

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLYMAN, 24TH DISTRICT

Current State Assemblyman: Paul Fong (transferring to newly-forming 28th District)

Candidates:

• Chengzhi "George" Yang, software engineer (Republican). Yang earned his bachelor's degree in computer information systems from Golden Gate University in San Francisco in just under two years, and went on to earn a master's degree in telecommunications management. He has worked as a computer programmer for a local startup, working in cooperation with such companies as Siemens, Cisco and Visa. He has taught Mandarin in Sunday School, and served as a member and chairman of the San Bruno Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Committee for five years. He has said the issues that are of highest priority to him in this election are fostering a competitive environment for businesses to thrive in, ensuring all children have access to a quality education, and reforming the state government and helping to balance its budget. Yang lives in Menlo Park with his wife and two daughters.
• Geby E. Espinosa, small business owner (Democrat). Espinosa is 47 years old and lives in Mountain View. (Further information was not available).
• Richard S. Gordon, current State Assemblyman (Democrat). An experienced State Assemblyman, Gordon is also an executive for a youth nonprofit agency, and a member of both the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and Board of Education. He is also a former minister of the United Methodist Church. In his first two years as an Assemblyman, 15 of the 19 bills he introduced were signed into law by the governor. He co-chairs the Bay Area Caucus and is a member of both the Environmental Caucus and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Caucus. Gordon was born and raised in San Mateo County.

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, 14TH AND 18TH DISTRICTS

Current U.S. Representative: Anna Eshoo (running for re-election)

Other Candidates Running in June 5th Election:

• Dave Chapman, Software Engineer (Republican). Chapman has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Rensselaer and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Yale. Chapman has said his top priorities if elected are to help create jobs by reforming our trade policy, to help create jobs by cracking down on immigration fraud, and to help create jobs by reforming our international monetary policy. 
• Carol Brouillet, producer/publisher/writer (Green Party). Brouillet attended Hawaii Loa College, Reed College and the University of Grenoble. She has said she considers herself a "media activist" who "seeks to connect people, vital ideas and important information to nurture healthy social change, economis justice and ecological sustainability." She credits herself with helping to found the "9-11 Truth Alliance" and helped edit "The Invisible Nuclear War" about the health effects of low-level radiation and nuclear issues. Brouillet ran for Congress in 2006 and 2008 but was not elected.
• William Parks, attorney, former semiconductor engineer (Democrat). Parks has said he wants to fight "corruption in our government," help implement a fair tax system, end the war in Afghanistan, stop wasteful military spending, and "spend our tax dollars in a way that creates jobs, such as on infrastructure, schools, teachers, police and firefighters. He adds, "[If we do that], we will turn this economy around and return to prosperous times we had only a few short years ago."

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE, 11TH AND 13TH DISTRICTS

Current State Senators: Elaine Alquist (Democrat, 13th District - term is continuing) and Joe Simitian (Democrat, 11th District - term is up)

Candidates Running in June 5th Election:

• Jerry Hill, current State Assemblyman and business owner (Democrat, 13th District). Hill has said he plans to work toward job creation, improving public education, helping public educators, balancing the state budget, and "standing up for the issues we hold dear, including consumer and environmental protection, and health care for all."
• Christopher Kent Chiang, public school teacher (Democrat, 13th District). Chiang has taught government, economics and history for eight years in Cupertino, New York City, Los Angeles, Mountain View and San Mateo. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from UC-Irvine, a masters degree in educational leadership from Columbia, and a masters degree in teaching from Stanford. Chiang has said, if elected, he will advocate for a state policy agenda that benefits schools and children's services, and will work with the governor on "bold pension reform." Chiang has said he is opposed to high-speed rail. He has also said he would work to cut prison construction to secure funding for children, and he wants to redesign state testing, teacher and principal state certification, and community college-based job training "to reflect the 21st century economy."
• Sally Lieber, environmental policy activist (Democrat, 13th District). Lieber served in State Assembly from 2002-2008 (22nd District), where she was only the third woman since 1849 to serve as Assembly Speaker pro Tempore. While an assemblymember, she has said she worked to increase educational and economic opportunities for all citizens of California, protect public health, end human trafficking, and helped increase the state minimum wage and initiate measures to protect vulnerable senior citizens and people with disabilities. If elected to the State Senate, she has said she wants to improve prison conditions for female prisoners in California. Lieber is also a former mayor of Mountain View and a County Commissioner.
• John H. Webster, software engineer (Libertarian, 13th District). Webster served in the U.S Navy from 1964-1968, including in Vietnam. After his service, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington and a master's degree in computer science from Santa Clara University. He has worked for a number of high-tech companies in the Bay Area. Webster has said his philosophy is, h believes the government has grown too powerful and now controls the people, rather than serving them. He thinks checks and balances as well as loyalty to the Bill of Rights and Constitution need to be restored. He suggests devising a plan to secede from the federal union if these changes are not made, and that he would like to help with that, should he be elected.

Superior Court Judge, Office No. 5, No. 7. The candidates for Office 5 are Alexis Cerul, Paul Colin and Chris Cobey, with the latter being poised to win due to some important endorsements. The candidates for Office 7 are attorneys Cynthia A. Sevely and Steven R. Pogue, who's a Los Gatos Patch blogger.

Measure A: To provide the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors with flexibility in operating the County jails to ensure continued cost-savings and improvement of efficiencies, shall the Board of Supervisors have the discretion to determine whether the Sheriff, Department of Correction, or any other department or agency, or any combination of them jointly operate the jails? (Majority vote to pass)

Voting

If you have not mailed in your ballot yet, you can drop it off at the Registrar's Office, 1555 Berger Drive, Building 2, in San Jose. There is a white, 24-hour drop box in the parking lot.

You can also drop off your ballot at any county polling place between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Election Day and any Santa Clara County City Hall, or Los Altos Ciy  Hall, Los Altos Hills Town Hall between regular business hours.

To learn more about Tuesday's election, please click here.

For more information on the June 5th election in Santa Clara County, visit the election page on the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters' website.

Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Get our daily newsletter | Blog