EDITORIAL: Endorsement Cheat Sheet: Mercury News and East Bay Times Editorial Boards explain their top picks
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The Mercury News and East Bay Times' Editorial Boards interviewed nearly 50 candidates in the most critical, competitive races on Bay Area voters' ballots. Here are our choices and abridged explanations for how we arrived at our decisions, which we reached after careful deliberation and extensive research. Please know we endorse in as many elections as possible but prioritize open races. Also, we do not endorse in gubernatorial races.
You can read our full endorsements, analyses and interviews with dozens of candidates here.
CALIFORNIA STATE OFFICES
Lieutenant governor: Fiona Ma
Success as this state's No. 2 requires understanding its levers of power. Currently treasurer, Fiona Ma already knows how to leverage them. Her agenda does not set her apart in the least from her Democratic challengers. The differentiator here is the scope and scale of Ma's experience. The next lieutenant governor must be as capable of navigating uncharted waters as the governor whom she or he might need to replace at a moment's notice. By that standard, no other challenger is remotely as qualified as Fiona Ma.
(Our interviews with the main candidates for lieutenant governor - Fiona Ma, Michael Tubbs, Josh Fryday and Gloria Romero - are here.)
Treasurer: Eleni Kounalakis
California's next treasurer should expect to inherit the most financially volatile environment since the Great Recession. The state faces long-running structural shortfalls. Growing federal deficits will likely drive up the state's borrowing costs. Counties are scrambling to fill gaps in once-federally funded services. Lieutenant governor Eleni Kounalakis' record in business, politics and diplomacy is public and extensive. There are few blanks to fill in. The challenges awaiting the next treasurer require a tested policy and economic operator. That is Lt. Gov. Kounalakis.
(Read the three main candidates for treasurer - Eleni Kounalakis, Anna Caballero and Tony Vazquez - in their own words here.)
Insurance commissioner: Ben Allen
Bay Area voters must understand: When they choose termed-out Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara's successor, the viability of homeownership is what's really on the ballot. The conditions for deadlier and most destructive wildfires keep growing. And there is no end in sight. There is only one candidate who grasps the complexity of this crisis and has the legislative experience to address it. That is Ben Allen.
(Our interviews with insurance commissioner candidates Ben Allen, Patrick Wolff, Jane Kim, Stacy Korsgaden and Steven Bradford are here.)
U.S. CONGRESS
District 14: Aisha Wahab
Of nine candidates vying for ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell's vacant seat, State Sen. Aisha Wahab is the best choice to represent Alameda County. The U.S. Congress is no place to send a novice. Wahab isn't one. As the assistant majority leader, she is currently the third most powerful lawmaker in the California Senate. In that chamber, the 39-year-old Democrat has had a front-row seat to the affordability debates affecting this 750,000-person, 580-square mile district, which includes Hayward, Fremont, Castro Valley and Livermore. There is only one reliable, proven candidate in this race. That's Wahab.
(Our interviews with candidates running to replace ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell - Aisha Wahab, Dena Maldonado, Rakhi Israni and Melissa Hernandez - are here.)
CALIFORNIA SENATE
District 10: David Cohen
Bay Area schools, transit and health care are entering an era of constraint. Chemist-turned-councilman David Cohen can handle the challenge, representing this million-person district spanning parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties.The 57-year-old San Jose Democrat brings more than 20 years of elected experience, including 14 years on the Berryessa School Board and six on the San Jose City Council. Also, Cohen sits on the boards of two regional transit agencies, the VTA and Caltrain; and he is a senior leader at the California League of Cities, where he has worked on policies affecting hundreds of municipal governments statewide. His record is encouraging. In San Jose, Cohen has developed a reputation as a principled realist who has pursued progress over purity. This need not be a hard choice for voters.
(Our interviews with District 10 state Senate candidates David Cohen, Anne Kepner and Scott Sakakihara are here.)
ALAMEDA COUNTY
District Attorney: Ursula Jones Dickson
Sadly, recalled ex-Alameda County D.A. Pamela Price, who doesn't know when to call it quits, is trying to get her old job back. In little over a year, Ursula Jones Dickson has done a remarkable job returning the D.A.'s Office to its core mission - standing up for victims, impartially evaluating cases and prosecuting lawbreakers. Voters should elect Jones Dickson, who has restored integrity, fairness and professionalism after Price's disastrous tenure.
Oakland Measure E - Parcel Tax: No
Vote no on Measure E, yet another in a long string of broken ballot promises in a city where residents pay comparatively high property and sales taxes and city leaders fail to manage the money responsibly.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Assessor: Vince Robb
This is a complicated job. It requires mastery of California valuation law, depreciation schedules, commercial appraisal standards and appeals procedures that can take years to understand. Many voters may want a clean break from 'Bad Boy' Gus Kramer's legacy. Under different circumstances, we could relate. But Vince Robb, 43, is the only qualified candidate.
Clerk-recorder: Kristin Braun Connelly
Kristin Braun Connelly was first elected to this office in 2022 at a time when residents had reason to be concerned about the integrity of their elected department heads. Since then, Kristin Braun Connelly has efficiently administered the Clerk-Recorder's Office - which runs the county's elections and handles legal filings and marriage licenses - with integrity. Her only challenger is Pratima Sonavne, who operates a daycare out of her Danville home. Contra Costans deserve professional, well-informed leadership. For that, she deserves voter support.
Superintendent of Schools: Dana Eaton
The county's next superintendent will inherit some of California's most financially strapped schools. West Contra Costa Unified, the second largest of its 18 districts, is teetering. Antioch Unified faces a $32 million deficit. Declining enrollment and rising labor costs plague school districts across the Bay Area and California, but Contra Costa County schools' financial problems long predate its current crises. It needs a fiscal expert. That is Dana Eaton.
Measure A - Urban limit line: Yes
One of Contra Costa's great planning successes has been the county's Urban Limit Line, designed to protect open space from suburban sprawl. Measure A would extend successful limits on environmentally insensitive development for another 25 years. Moreover, renewing the Urban Limit Line would send a signal to county and city leaders throughout Contra Costa that voters want smart growth.
Measure B - Sales tax: No
Contra Costa leaders, collecting far more revenue from a 2020 sales tax increase than anticipated, are now trying to leverage fears about federal funding cuts to raise the tax even further. But the county's proposed five-year, 0.625% sales tax increase is regressive, excessive and avoidable.
Measure G - Community college bond: Yes
Costa Community College District officials are proposing a $920 million bond measure to renovate or replace some of the key structures. Measure G is a restrained and well-thought-out financing and construction plan.
SAN MATEO COUNTY
Assessor: Jim Irizarry
With a job as uniquely complicated as this, why put an amateur in charge - especially when San Mateo County voters don't have to? Jim Irizarry, 74, has spent the last 13 years running this office as Mark Church's second-in-command. Irizarry doesn't need to learn how to run elections on the fly. He doesn't need on-the-job-training to understand the taxable value of, for example, a genomics startup's new R&D lab in Burlingame. Irizarry is the only candidate who deserves San Mateo County's trust for a job as critical as this.
Superintendent of Schools: Hector Camacho
On their June 2 ballots, voters have two serious candidates. Hector Camacho is our choice. Camacho has broad executive and systems-level experience: teacher, counselor, school administrator, board president, county office cabinet member and architect of teacher-pipeline work across more than 220 school systems. Chelsea Bonini certainly understands San Mateo County schools' problems. Camacho is better prepared to solve them.
SANTA CLARA COUNTY
Measure D - Open Space Authority: No
Voters are being asked to approve a new parcel tax that would raise about $17 million annually, more than doubling the authority's annual tax revenue. But the authority has enough reserves to make it into the early 2030s, the tax is more than needed and the levy, while increasing annually with inflation, has no expiration date. Put another way, the tax is premature, costs too much and lacks voter guardrails.
San Jose City Council District 9: Genny Altwer
This district in the affluent southwest corner of San Jose - which includes Cambrian Park, Hillsdale, Kirk Park and parts of Willow Glen - does not have the same degree of vacant storefronts, job losses, blight and homelessness as other parts of this city. But it is not immune. Whoever replaces Vice Mayor Pam Foley, a key member of the mayor's business-aligned governing majority, must be able to address this 100,000-person district's concerns while helping solve citywide problems. We believe that candidate is Genny Altwer. Altwer, 45, represents neither the status quo nor a radical break from it. She is broadly aligned with the mayor and vice mayor's pragmatic approach, especially on public safety and homelessness. But her unconventional resume should bring new thinking to old policies.
We encourage you to read these candidates and their rivals in their own words at mercurynews.com/opinion or eastbaytimes.com/opinion.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 5:44 PM.