Turkey
Day is every day in Benicia
By Rick Ernst
BENICIA, CA / November 21, 2007, 9:00 AM
Stroll up to the top of
Chelsea Hills some morning after sunrise and take a gander at the gaggle
of wild turkeys grazing behind the home located at the corner of Carslisle
Way and Chelsea Hills. This is up above the Southampton Park which
is located at Panorama
and Chelsea Hills.
At last count there were 10 hens and 2 toms. Quite
a site for our little town!
The turkeys range from the Valero Property off East 2nd (where there
are several groves of Eucalyptus) up to Chelsea Hills. There's open space
from
there
down to
Valero. I've seen them fly over East 2nd Street.
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Patterson extends
margin of victory to 184 votes; Cloutier ahead in Vallejo
By Roger Straw
BENICIA, CA / November 21, 2007, NOON
The Solano County Registrar of Voters has completed its count of provisional
ballots and posted the final
results of Benicia's elections,
with Mayor-elect Patterson extending her lead over Councilmember Bill Whitney
by 7 votes. None
of the Benicia races were altered by the addition of provisional votes.
Absentee voters accounted for 60% of the vote in Benicia.
Provisional ballots decided the Mayor's race in Vallejo, with Councilmember
Gary Cloutier finishing with only 4 more votes Osby Davis. Davis
has asked for a complete recount, so we won't know the final outcome for
some time to come.
Here are the final results in Benicia:
MAYOR
ELIZABETH PATTERSON
4,052 (50.98%, 2403 absentee)
BILL WHITNEY
3,868 (48.67%, 2382 absentee)
WRITE-IN
28 (0.35%, 19 absentee)
TOTAL
7,948 (100%, 4,804 absentee) COUNCIL
TOM CAMPBELL
4,596 (35.82%, 2,703 absentee)
MIKE IOAKIMEDES
4,498 (35.05%, 2,722 absentee)
SCOTT W. STRAWBRIDGE
3,691 (28.76%, 2,313 absentee)
WRITE-IN
47 .37 (0.25%, 22 absentee)
TOTAL
12,832 (100%, 7,763 absentee)
Big
Money Campaign Blues Tune
Poetry by
Peter Bray
If I had more money I could buy a town, maybe, maybe.
If I had more money I could buy me a town, maybe, maybe.
If I had more money I could buy me a town,
maybe NOT in Benicia, so I'll have to look around.
If I had more money, I'll be looking around, maybe, maybe.
If I had more money, I'll be looking around, maybe, maybe.
If I had more money, I'll be looking around, maybe, maybe.
If I come to your town, maybe you can show me around.
We can both see what's goin' down,
maybe we can even split up the town,
turn into some new breed of town, maybe, maybe.
Out of town bucks are as green as can be, maybe, maybe.
Out of town bucks are as green as could be, maybe, maybe.
Out of town bucks are as green as could be, Campaign Reform is
for all to see,
won't lose your blues 'til you turn it around maybe, maybe.
On the national scene it's even more obscene, maybe, maybe.
On the national scene it's even more obscene, maybe, maybe.
On the national scene, or the backyard scene,
you can watch all the dollars start to lean,
when they try to buy the best string bean.
But if no beans are for sale, where they gonna lean?
If no beans are for sale, where they gonna lean?
Campaign Reform is for all to see, maybe, maybe.
Campaign Reform is for all to see. Oh, Yes!
©Peter Bray, 11/18/07 All rights reserved |
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Les Mahler, on Mayor Elect Patterson's comments on Willow Glen Skate Park
Art Mayoff, on BERT, the Benicia Herald, and the Independent
Editor Roger Straw, in response to Art Mayoff
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Peace Vigil on Thanksgiving
Christmas at the Camel Barns
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OP-ED column about Benicia elections appears in the
San Francisco Chronicle
Brutal election campaigns in California are almost always ignited by development concerns. The one scintilla of controversy in the otherwise sleepy San Francisco election was about parking, that is, about how the city will look and who it will serve in the future. In Benicia, where elections are typically a quiet and very civil exercise of democracy, development issues underlying the mayoral race flared into a big money and vitriolic campaign that - based on the most recent count - was swung by some 98 votes.
But with those few votes, Benicians have taken the first step toward reclaiming their town by rejecting all the influence money could buy. (continued on sfgate.com...)
GUEST COLUMN
Sticky Voting
by Dave Badtke
Guest Columnist
After Editor Les Mahler was fired and Assistant Editor Oliver Symonds quit, this article did not appear in the Benicia Herald
Not Published on Sunday,
11/4/2007
 While some plolitical slogans may be as sticky as gum stuck to the sole of your shoe, where here I'm using the stickiness factor popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point, this catchy slogan may lead to less than desirable public policy.
Read the Article
Check out QCounty.com
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766 West J Street
Benicia, CA 94510.
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