Name, experience paid off for 'unknown' Vito Chiesa

By JEFF JARDINE
jjardine@modbee.com

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Shortly after conceding defeat to Hughson farmer Vito Chiesa on Tuesday night, former Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman headed out to remove his campaign signs from throughout the district.

"Three trucks, six guys," Weidman said. "I'd forgotten we'd put those things in when the ground was soft. It's hard now. When we were pulling them up, you could watch the whole ground move."

The ground, however, didn't prove to be as hard as the turf, meaning the district Weidman sought to represent. It is Chiesa's home turf, where he was raised, where he farms and where he lives.

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One constant throughout the history of the American West is that no one fights harder to defend their turf than farmers, anchored to the soil like the roots of the trees and plants they grow. The sodbusters, as they were called, usually persevered in their conflicts with cattlemen.

That might help explain why Chiesa so handily defeated Weidman for a seat on the Board of Supervisors. Many outside District 2 believed Weidman would prevail based upon his name recognition and political experience.

A onetime rodeo cowboy who runs cattle on his ranch east of Hickman, Weidman served 15 years as sheriff before spending a year working for Gov. Schwarzenegger in Sacramento. He amassed a wealth of political connections and savvy, and his endorsements for candidates in other elections have been golden over the years.

Thus, when people from outside the district, which includes Turlock and stretches from the Merced County line to Hickman and eastward, frequently told Weidman he would win easily, he cautioned against overconfidence.

"These are observations made by people who don't have a clue about District 2," Weidman said.

Weidman and his wife, Linda, have lived in the district for more than two decades, but they've never been as connected to the community as Chiesa.

Yes, Chiesa raised more money and hired a professional campaign consultant. But he also tapped into a huge local base of support built over a lifetime.

"I'm not the smartest guy in the county, but I'm not the dumbest, either," Chiesa said. "I bring people together."

He and his supporters energetically and relentlessly walked precincts and delivered campaign fliers. They placed campaign signs and made phone calls.

"He worked an absolutely perfect campaign," Weidman said. "It wasn't so much that I lost this election. He won it. They were viewed as the underdog, and it motivated them. That's what he found -- a battle cry for people who felt they were the underdog and wanted to get involved."

Misconceptions also played a role:

• That the 43-year-old Chiesa is a newcomer to politics. To the contrary, he has vast political experience as a member of the county and state farm bureaus, which lobby the state and federal governments on behalf of agriculture.

"I've been to (Washington) D.C. about a dozen times lobbying, and to Sacramento once a month for the last six to eight years," Chiesa said. "But that wasn't what I was going to run my campaign on. (People) know how many connections I have, who I can call. I'm secure in my feelings they knew."

He also knew voters in general share a basic distrust in government and seized upon that sentiment. In many ways, his campaign paralleled that of Barack Obama, who came out of nowhere to run for president as a change agent and drew a new generation of people into participating in the political process.

The 60-year-old Weidman's mantra was "Tested and Trusted." Like Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain at the national level, he touted his experience in elected office. But potential voters weren't satisfied with the status quo they deemed him to represent, accurate or not.

"I got lots of feelings about change," Weidman said. "I got the sense that it was out with the old and in with the new. The economy's bad, and you can't blame somebody who hasn't held elected office."

• That Weidman was a battle-tested campaigner. Back in 1990, he beat Burl Condit in a hard-fought sheriff's election in which he was the novice taking on a politically connected opponent.

"(Condit) had a big machine," Weidman said. "We had an upswell, a grass-roots campaign of people who wanted to get involved."

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

That campaign was the only one Weidman had to mount. He ran unopposed for his remaining three terms. No political machine necessary, no prolonged fund-raising efforts, no effort whatsoever in terms of getting re-elected. He simply filed and won every four years. It was that easy.

Ultimately, this election came down to the man of the district versus the man of the county, the farmer versus the rancher. And it came down to the image of the perceived political novice versus the seasoned politician at a time when the unknown seems to be more attractive to voters.

The sodbuster won, leaving the cowboy to ride off into the sunset.

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at jjardine@modbee.com or 578-2383.