Thursday May 8

Nine Dems vie for six positions on central committees

GOP races are uncontested

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer

Elections for the Santa Clara County central political committees often slide by uncontested. Not this year.

An unusually large slate of nine candidates is competing this June for six seats on the county's Democratic central committee in Assembly District 21, which includes Palo Alto, Los Altos and 11 other surrounding cities.

"People usually don't want it to go on to the ballot because nobody knows what the heck it is," said Carolyn Curtis, one candidate from Palo Alto.

In essence, the central committees represent the major political parties at the local level. After the general public's election fever subsides, members of the central committees continue to register voters, research upcoming propositions and groom potential candidates for local elected offices.

"It is not a glamour job," said incumbent Los Altos resident Bill James, a patent attorney running again for the

central committee. "What the central committee does is provide a structure that's there continuously and keeps the momentum of the party going between election cycles."

But glamorous or not, a larger pool of politically motivated citizens, including six incumbents, want in. This year's crop of candidates include Curtis, James, San Jose City Council Assistant Aaron Quigley, teacher Brian Baker and incumbents Diane Rolfe, Francis La Poll, Jim Thurber, Anne Mack and Peter Chiu.

The comparable Republican race will not be contested this year as only six candidates are running for seven spots. There is more competition for the countywide Green Party Council, where 10 hopefuls are competing for seven seats, and for the Democratic central committee in the San Jose-based Assembly District 23, where 10 are running for six seats.

For the local and politically motivated, the race is on.

Rolfe, who taught U.S. history in the Palo Alto Unified School District for 31 years, has been an active Democrat since she met Sen. John Kennedy at the age of 15.

"For the next month, I gave speeches on the glory of voting for JFK," she said. Eventually, her Republican parents voted for him - "I think to shut me up," she said.

Rolfe, who met her husband when both were campaigning for George McGovern in 1972, said she is running for re-election to the central committee because she thinks now is a critical time in American politics.

"We either go forward and face up to the huge problems we're faced with or else we decline as a great nation," Rolfe said. The retired history teacher confessed to debating at a recent party whether the upcoming presidential election is the most important since 1932 or 1860.

"We realize we are not normal people," said Carolyn Curtis, who in 2003 took a year off from her job doing contract technology writing to campaign for Howard Dean, and spent nearly every weekend for several years registering voters.

Currently a member of the central committee's executive board, Curtis now wants to have a vote in the larger committee.

"A presidential year is always a good time to get involved because the whole public is paying attention," she said.

Larry Gerston, political science professor at San Jose State University, said this year's heightened interest reflects more than the traditional election season excitement.

"The turnouts across the country are at record levels for the presidential primary," he said. "The Obama campaign has particularly inspired first-time voters and record-level interest among young people."

In the lull between the primary and general elections, some of those campaigners are likely turning to local party organizations as part of the "logical progression," he said.

Bill James also noted that state party leaders publicized the county elections more this year in an effort to generate interest for elections in traditionally Republican counties.

"We're going to contest some of these parties in the interior of the state," he said.

Residents will be able to vote for local committee members in the June 3 election.



E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.