Sly: More candidates for office needed

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Like most Californians, valley residents are angry at their elected officials these days, but apparently not angry enough to run for their positions.

With just two months until the filing period opens, few people are surfacing as candidates for the November election. That ballot will feature dozens of seats on Stanislaus County schools boards, irrigation districts and two city councils -- Modesto and Ceres.

As mentioned earlier, three people have filed statements of intent to run for District 4 for the Modesto council -- Joe Muratore, Jeff Perine and Robert Stanford. There were no other statements filed with the city clerk's office as of Friday afternoon.

Councilwoman Kristin Olsen confirmed Friday she does plan to run for a second term. She is in District 5.

I've yet to hear about anyone who plans to run in District 2, the south and west neighborhoods whose lack of representation in the past helped spark the change to district elections.

Four of the seven Modesto City Schools board members are up for re-election this year. All four -- Nancy Cline, Steve Collins, Cindy Marks and Belinda Rolicheck -- told me Friday they plan to run again.

There are multiple ways to interpret small candidate fields. One is that people are happy with the status quo. Another is that taking on an incumbent is too hard and potentially too costly in a tough economy. Yet another is that elected positions don't have much appeal; they bring a lot of grief with not much reward -- financially or otherwise. And maybe people realize that although organizations have had to make painful budget cuts, more such decisions loom.

As a voter and a journalist, I hope these races and others get livelier in the next few months. A community benefits from robust debate of how our local agencies are performing.

In February, The Bee helped sponsor a workshop for prospective candidates. We have a follow-up session planned July 11, providing more specifics on campaign finance reporting requirements and strategies. For reservations, call the Modesto Chamber of Commerce at 577-5757 or e-mail chamberassistant@modchamber.org. I'll provide more information once we have the program firmed up.

Just a year ago, we were delighted that two San Joaquin Valley legislators -- Dave Cogdill and Mike Villines -- had been elevated to leadership posts in Sacramento. Now they're both out of their leadership jobs. It's not because their constituents didn't like them or because of inappropriate behavior. They were punished by their fellow Republicans for reaching a budget resolution with the governor and Democratic leaders. Is compromise now a felony?

Sly is editor of The Bee's Opinions pages. Contact her at 578-2317 or jsly@modbee.com.