Tough choice to make in Stanislaus supervisor’s race

Jim DeMartini has been an excellent Stanislaus County supervisor. He is attentive to constituents’ needs, does the hard work needed to understand complex issues and is unafraid to speak his mind. More than any other supervisor, he attends meetings throughout his district, takes questions, deals with controversy and communicates.

Luis Molina has the makings of an excellent county supervisor. He has worked his way from the Stanislaus County Board of Education to mayor of Patterson and sits on the Stanislaus Council of Governments. As a manager in the county’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, he would bring a county employee’s perspective to the board.

Normally, we recommend only one candidate for any seat – after all, only one person can fill the District 5 seat on the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors. But in the June 7 election, voters can elect both. If neither gets 50 percent, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in November. And that’s a distinct possibility.

Eileen Wyatt-Stokman is also running for the seat. The former Ceres Unified School District board member and recently retired county social worker would bring an employee’s perspective and could poll enough votes to deprive the other two candidates of the necessary 50 percent.

While her service is valuable, she appears to have left county service a bit disgruntled. She is concerned over staff morale and blames top administrators. That worries us. We believe Stanislaus County is one of the best-run government organizations in the region; no top-down shakeup is required.

So we’re endorsing DeMartini and Molina – one without reservations, the other a little more cautiously.

Many people recognize DeMartini as an active member of the Stanislaus County Republican Central Committee. On national and state issues, he is unabashedly partisan. Under his leadership, the committee has been fined by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for laundering campaign contributions. But supervisor is a nonpartisan post, and such issues rarely arise. Instead, DeMartini has proved a reliable voice for both common sense and conservation. He speaks his mind with refreshing candor.

DeMartini favors the half-cent transportation sales tax, but wants none of it spent on rail. He embraces the long-term Focus on Prevention program and he will be ferocious protector of the area’s water rights. Finally, he would protect farmland by requiring developers to adequately mitigate any conversion of farmland to housing before annexation to a city.

Molina shares DeMartini’s thoughts on water and the transportation sales tax. But he is even more supportive of Focus on Prevention and, unlike DeMartini, he has no problem planning for climate change.

But Molina lined up against a sensible farmland mitigation policy, voting to dismiss Hughson Mayor Matthew Beekman from the county board that authorized it – a decision benefiting the development community at the expense of agriculture. That was a mistake. He also admitted to the Patterson Irrigator to two DUI arrests, the second roughly 20 years ago. He believes he learned from those mistakes, and we believe him.

Three good candidates, and two can win – until November.

If we must choose one now, it’s DeMartini. He puts enormous effort into his job, works hard for constituents and frequently makes good policy decisions. He’s been a good supervisor and has earned the right to continue.

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Tough choice to make in Stanislaus supervisor’s race."