Editorial: Burned Out by This Election Cycle? Me Too

It seems many in Contra Costa County have taken to the antics of National Politics in an attempt to get every last vote ahead of Tuesday’s election.

I can’t blame them, they are running for office and trying to reach voters. But like many people, I’ve had enough and aside from doing my job, I’ve tuned most candidates out at this point in the election. The antics have just become too over the top—even for me.

The burnout is real!

Having said that, I do encourage folks to take the local election seriously because they will far more impact your life than who is president. This includes county supervisor, mayor/city council, school board and special districts. And with district elections, every vote matters and should there be a low voter turnout, any vote cast will be more meaningful.

Just look at the 2022 cycle in the City of Antioch where Tamisha Torres-Walker beat out Joy Motts by 4 votes.  In the City of Richmond, Cesar Zepeda and Andrew Butt tied for the District 2 council seat. Zepeda was seated after a bogus drawing out of a bag.  Many other races were within 100 votes. Depending on voter turnout, there could be some real drama next week.

Typically, I am eager for election night, this year, however, it’s just not exciting.

The local issues facing us all have rarely been discussed and instead we have been flooded with national political antics entering local elections which can be observed in social media postings, campaign material, misleading endorsements to some candidates blaming the media for their poor performance—its actually rather wild and entertaining.

Like many, I too can’t wait for this election cycle to be over. But you still must vote.

This is a poor stance, I admit it as we should be excited about the direction elected leaders may take us, or excited about change. However, in many races, its as if we are picking the “lesser of bad candidates” and that is because anyone that would be a “good” candidate is smart enough to avoid the nonsense from social media abuse and circus like antics of cancel culture.

Take for example the following races.

• Antioch Mayors Race: Clearly, Ron Bernal is the best choice by 10 football fields! Bernal has great ideas and will bring the community together in a variety of ways. However, that is overshadowed by the behavior of Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe who has taken to extremes the past few weeks to somehow blame Bernal for all of Antioch’s issues. I don’t have to go over the history of Hernandez-Thorpe behavior issues with his DUI, $350k sexual harassment settlement to many false narratives regarding the Antioch police department, one can google it, but Antioch has had enough of the lies, division and behavior from the mayor that the issues don’t really matter as long as Hernandez-Thorpe is voted out of office. But Antioch should care of the damage Hernandez-Thorpe has caused which was outlined by the Grand Jury Report. Its going to take a decade to fix.

• Antioch City Council: While I believe both Don Freitas and Louie Rocha are the best choices in each district race, its overshadowed by the mayors race.  None of the issues are being discussed. Again, it comes back to Hernandez-Thorpe and his antics. As long as neither supports Hernandez-Thorpe, they are golden. It is really stunning that the mindset is replace the mayor, and everything else will fall into place. Its actually unfair to all the city council candidates from Fretias and Rocha, to Dominique King, Addison Peterson and Antwon Webster who all have something to offer. At some point, hopefully Antioch will care about the issues again, not the person.

• Brentwood City Council District 3: Obviously, Brian Oftedal is the clear choice for me as he will bring civility back to Brentwood along with many good ideas to improve public safety. Meanwhile, Jovita Mendoza has been a disaster over the past four years by bullying staff and members of the community. I can think of 20 individuals off the top of my head that have spoken up, only to be attacked, social media stalked or threatened in other ways by Mendoza and her supporters. It’s gross and has caused great division in the community. Also, Mendoza has operated this whole campaign in the “gray area” from campaign materials taking credit for things she had nothing to do with, to her use of signs, city email address being used in her campaign, to even leaving up endorsements from the last campaign as if they are still relevant today. Not everything Mendoza has done for Brentwood has been bad, I admit that, but her tone and failure to accept responsibility is unacceptable. Instead of simply saying “sorry”, she doubles and triples down while playing the victim and blames everyone else—and 90% of the antics is all on video. Finally, what she and her family has done to Father Robert Rien crossed the line—that should be enough to dismiss her from her role on the city council. You do not have to take my word for it, you can read a 3-page letter response from Director of Community Development, Alexis Morris, in response to actions by Mendoza. Or, watch public comments from a city council meeting over the past year and see what staff has to say about the disrespect by Mendoza.

• Clayton City Council: This is a weird one as a group of wacky individuals have essentially gone to war against Holly Tillman. This might be one of the worst cases of mob mentality in Contra Costa County and showcases small town politics at its worst. The funny thing, Tillman is the one pushing for accountability, stability, transparency and inclusion. While I don’t always agree with Tillman on everything, she doesn’t deserve this treatment. Clayton voters must ask themselves why is Tillman under attack by a bunch of lowlifes? Everything Tillman has experienced the past four years, she has responded with class and stayed a good person. Tillman deserves another term as she is an example of a good leader who attempts to bring people together, not cause division.

• Contra Costa County Board of Supervisor, District 5 – while I am supporting Mike Barbanica, unfortunately, this race has turned nasty. And its neither because of Barbanica or Shanelle Scales-Preston, but rather outside influence accusing both of many horrible things – none of which I will repeat. Both candidates are very similar on issues except for how to deal with crime. Barbanica takes a no-nonsense approach while Scales-Preston is holistic. We have seen “holistic” in Contra Costa County and it’s been a disaster–just ask business owners and victims of crime. That said, outside influence through Independent Expenditures has turned a very respectful race into a war of words which neither Barbanica or Scales-Preston have control over. It also doesn’t help that Pittsburg councilmembers Juan Banales and Jelani Killings put out a goofy letter that deflected away from Pittsburg short comings, which is probably why Pittsburg is currently in the shape its in because of “blind love”. What Banales and Killings should have done is address the Independent Expenditures, not either candidate. If Baneles and Killings think Pittsburg is in good shape, maybe they are not the right people for the job because there is a ton of work to be done as the chaos in neighboring Antioch and Brentwood has allowed Pittsburg’s short-comings to fly under the radar.

• Oakley City Council: Much needed change in Oakley will come with Oleskii Chuiko. This is a “anybody but George Fuller” election. Fuller needs to go based on his behavior, multiple lies and statements made about councilmembers, treatment of staff and the lack of ability to get anything done. Did I mention his manners need work?  What is nice is all is quiet online after councilmember Fuller was put in “Nextdoor jail” for a few days and in response is has been bombarding folks through emails where his misleading statements are not exposed to the general public.

• Marsh Creek Democratic Club: After this election, I would hope the Contra Costa County Democratic Party or State Democratic Party comes in and cleans up this “club”. These might be the worst example of human behavior in the County outside of Clayton. There is little to no integrity and their endorsement process was a scam by stacking the deck against candidates they did not want to support because of personal relationships. If there was ever an example of a “special interest group” this is it because they did not use a democratic process, the fix was in from the start.

With all that being said, after Tuesday, we will all get on with our lives but the impact of the 2024 election will be felt. I urge you all to do your due diligence, vote for the candidate who best aligns with your beliefs and hopefully bring people together and bring back a sense of community versus continued division.

Perhaps by 2026, the bar for entry will be raised by solid elected officials and candidates who focus on the issues versus personal behaviors, bullying and cancel culture. Candidates who seek a better community, not something for a resume.

More importantly, maybe by 2026, we can all agree its okay to disagree politically and still be friends. Perhaps we will not be defined by who we vote for or cancelled over our beliefs. We can get back to conversations and discussions that result in real solutions with real community participation, rather than shouting down, excluding or blacklisting segments of the community.

Civility still matters, unfortunately, many have long forgotten that.

Mike Burkholder
Publisher of  ContraCosta.news
[email protected]