Sunday Contra Costa Times coverage of "Election Follies" in Benicia

By Roger Straw

BENICIA, CA / November 18, 2007, 8:30 AM
Here (below) is a very enjoyably written analysis of the Benicia election for Mayor and Council that appeared in this morning's Contra Costa Times. The CCTimes headline, Election shows money's limitations, doesn't begin to capture the playfulness nor the breadth of Lisa Vorderbrueggen's story. The first section covers campaign spending: "expands like the waistline after Thanksgiving." But don't quit reading there. The second section covers Benician Joe Kearns' arrest on election night, and the third section is an interview with former Benicia Herald reporter Oliver Symonds, who quit on the spot when told by Sam Li-Ron that he could not cover the picketing of the Benicia Herald. ...Juicy stuff! Thanks for covering Benicia, Lisa!

My only complaint: missing in the story is the total amount of money spent per vote for candidate Strawbridge. Quick, Norma - get out a calculator!

Excerpts follow. For the whole story, go to http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_7498742?source=email

Election shows money's limitations

By : Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 11/18/2007 03:09:23 AM PST

WITH EVERY ELECTION, the amount of money spent on campaigns expands like waistlines after Thanksgiving.

But a bowl of gravy-soaked cash does not guarantee success, as Benicia's recent election outcome proves.

The two losers outraised the three successful candidates two-to-one, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports filed as of last week. Combined, the candidates and the various independent expenditure groups had collected a shocking $331,000 for the mayor and City Council races in a town of 27,000 people.

Mayor-elect Elizabeth Patterson raised about $6 a vote, a fraction of the $30 per vote raised by or in support of challenger Bill Whitney.

Tom Campbell, the top vote-getter in the three-way council race, raised even less, at $4 a vote, while second-place finisher Mike Ioakimedes raised $14 per vote.

....

SAUSAGE OR PEPPERONI? No charges have been filed against Joseph Kearns, a Patterson supporter arrested and tossed in jail after allegedly peeping into a window of Whitney's campaign office on Election Night.

Kearns was apparently trying to videotape the presence inside of Albert Seeno III and Sal Evola, a Pittsburg City Councilman and a member of the Seeno family.

The Seenos own a large parcel of land in town proposed for a business park, which was a hot-button campaign issue. They preferred Whitney over Patterson, calling him the more business-friendly of the two candidates.

....

JOURNALISM IS NOT DEAD. The untold casualty of the Benicia election is a young Martinez man by the name of Oliver Symonds.

The 23-year-old says he was an assistant editor at the Benicia Herald until management told him he could not cover a protest going on outside the newspaper's building stemming from the firing of its editor in an apparent dispute over election coverage.

....

Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers politics. Read about political happenings every day on her blog www.cctextra.com/blogs/politicsblog/. Call her at 925-945-4773 or e-mail her at lvorderbrueggen@bayareanewsgroup.com.