Fresno City Council Elections in 2006

Fresno City Council Elections in 2006
What Role Will Progressives Play in These Races?
By Mike Rhodes 

Do you care about air pollution, getting an independent police auditor that will hold local police accountable, making medical marijuana available for those who need it, paying a living wage to city workers, or seeing the homeless treated with dignity and respect? If you care about these issues, then the 2006 Fresno City Council elections will be of interest to you. What role, if any, will the progressive community play in these elections? Is there a strategy for progressives to win political power and take this city back from the right-wing Republicans who currently dominate the political landscape, or will it be business as usual? 

Fresno City Council Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 will be up for election on June 6, 2006. With conservative city council members representing districts 2, 4, and 6, progressives will need to win all four seats in the 2006 elections to have a majority. 

Tom Boyajian, who currently represents District 1, is a liberal and the only council member who can’t run again. Boyajian is "termed out," and there is intense speculation about who will replace him. Among the likely candidates in District 1 are Green Party member Larry Mullen, Democrat Cary Catalano, and Blong Xiong, who is being supported by Susan Anderson and Juan Arambula. It is expected that the Republican party will also run a candidate in this district. The Republicans are not satisfied with the power they already have—they want more. Without a unified strategy, the progressive community could be so divided in this race that it gives the right wing an opportunity to divide the progressive vote and win the election. 

The race in District 3, which is located in West Fresno and the Southern Tower district, will likely be between incumbent Cynthia Sterling, former City Council member Dan Ronquillo, and whoever the Republican party selects. Sterling, the only African American woman on the city council and generally viewed as a progressive, has had a difficult time in her first term on the council. She has not been welcomed into the good old boy network, and her ability to successfully support a progressive agenda has been affected by this exclusion. Ronquillo is seen by some as a viable Democratic candidate, who would also be a more effective council member. Analysts are concerned that scarce financial and human resources will pour into this race where there is already a viable progressive elected representative on the city council. That could mean fewer resources for progressive candidates in other races. Another question being asked: Is it possible that a battle between Sterling and Ronquillo would give the right wing an opportunity to divide and conquer the district, resulting in a victory for the Republican party?  

Mike Dages, the incumbent in District 5, is a Democrat that often votes like a Republican. In fact, Dages was a Republican until recently. Dages voted against the independent police auditor, against full funding for the Human Relations Commission, and for an outdoor drunk tank for the homeless. District 5 is in Southeast Fresno and has a large Latino and Southeast Asian population. While it is too early to predict who will run against Dages in the June 2006 election, Brad Castillo’s name has come up. Castillo, a former city council member, is a Democrat allied with District 7 council member Henry T. Perea. Castillo lost a 2004 city council race in District 4 to Larry Westerlund, a Republican. Castillo, who is a Democrat, would be a strong candidate in this district. Dages just squeaked to victory in his 2002 victory over Silvia Astorga Salcido. Dages had 50.5% of the vote. 

Henry T. Perea is the incumbent in District 7 and is expected to run for re-election. In 2002, Perea won by only 55 votes and will undoubtedly be targeted by the right wing, which is seeking to increase its power on the city council. While Perea has not been a strong ally of the progressive community, he is probably better than whatever alternative the mayor and Republican Party have in mind. 

Each Fresno City Council district has more than 60,000 residents. In 2002 only 5,852 votes were cast in District 3 and 4,654 in District 5. An astounding 90% + of the residents in these districts are not voting. While a rule of thumb is that about 1/3 of the residents in these districts are under 18 and therefore too young to vote, that still means that fewer than 6,000 voters out of 40,000 adults are participating in the democratic process. 

Many of the people who are not voting in these districts are poor working people. Reasons for not voting include the belief that one vote will not make any difference, the belief that there are no "good" candidates, or ineligibility to register to vote (for example, the person is not a US citizen). The Republicans and right wing don’t have those barriers blocking them from voting. The fundamentalist churches, the business owners, and wealthy vote and their candidates get elected. The interests of the elite are well represented in Fresno city government because they get out and vote for candidates who they know will represent their interests. They are only getting10% of the eligible voters in a district to vote for their candidates, but with such rampant apathy and disfranchisement, that is all they need. They get 10% and claim they have a mandate!

The candidates run by the elite and the Republican party in this community are funded largely by developers and builders, who will benefit from the decisions these elected officials make. A look at the public records will show you who is financially supporting the races of the City Council members. The names of developers like McCaffrey, Assemi, and Bonadelle come up time and time again. It costs more than $100,000 to run a viable campaign in a Fresno City Council race and the donations made to these campaigns are viewed as "investments."

A few years ago, Operation Rezone revealed that Fresno City Council members were taking bribes from builders and developers for voting to rezone land in North Fresno. One city council member received a set of tires for his car for a favorable vote. Another council member got a cheap suit. One former city council member told me that the developers were so bold that one came in and handed him several hundred dollar bills in an envelope. This council member took the money out of the envelope, called his staff into his office, and counted the money. He said that the developer had just given him the money and he was returning it. Needless to say, that particular council member was not re-elected because his opponent, supported by the developers and builders, got all future campaign contributions. 

Does the progressive community in Fresno have a plan to win political power in the 2006 city council elections? While there are some encouraging signs of movement in that direction, there is no visible strategy at this point. Individual candidates with progressive credentials are planning on running. A new progressive PAC is raising money and talking about a Get Out the Vote campaign, and an alliance of progressive groups who work on electoral campaigns is now meeting regularly to build the unity needed to develop a successful strategy.

If you are interested in working on Fresno City Council elections and developing a strategy that will lead to the progressive community winning political power, go to <www.cvppac.org > and get involved.

###

Mike Rhodes is the editor of the Community Alliance newspaper < www.fresnoalliance.com/home > in Fresno, California. Email: AllianceEditor@Comcast.net