January 30, 2002

Jackie's voting for Gene. So am I

Sometimes I have to get pretty pragmatic about the people I vote for. No candidate is perfect, and unfortunately, some are even more imperfect than the usual .

This year, in the 19th Assembly District, I'm happy to say there are two good Democratic candidates, and even the third and fourth choices are not bad as candidates go.

If I'd known Gene Mullin was going to be in the running, I would not have signed Gina Papan's nomination papers. I don't regret having done so. She's a good person. However, I'm delighted to be able to enthusiastically endorse Gene Mullin, a teacher from South San Francisco who's spent about 40 years preparing to be an Assembly member, even though he didn't realize it at the time. Mullin taught high school government classes most of those years, the kind of classes that are sometimes called "Civics." He made thousands of kids better citizens. We need more idealists in government, and if he wasn't an idealist, he would have moved on to better paying jobs and perhaps fancier cities decades ago.

Instead, he spent those decades getting to know the territory presently within the boundaries of the 19th Assembly District. All politics is local, in the words of the late Tip O'Neill. Currently Gene is Mayor of South San Francisco. Jackie Speier has known him for a long time. In fact, she knows him so well she's enthusiastically endorsed him. Frankly, I think so highly of him I would have endorsed him even if Jackie hadn't gotten involved. And if I had no knowledge of him except for Jackie's endorsement, I respect her opinion enough that by itself it would also have been enough for me.

I detest term limits. Just about the time a new Assembly member knows where the restrooms are, they're forced to retire from the office. But term limits are a fact of life. Gene Mullin will be forced out of office only six years after he's elected. He'll still be young enough to enjoy an active retirement, though he's already retired from his decades-long teaching job.

Fortunately, because of his decades preparing for the Assembly, he will hit the ground running. He has a record in the local area he's proud to run on. In 2008, when Gina Papan can run to replace him, she will still be only about 45 years old, and presuming she's elected then, she herself will be term limited by the time she's in her early fifties. If she's then elected to the Senate in 2014, she will term limit out in about 2023 while still in her early sixties.

The other two Democratic candidates in the race are pleasant and intelligent. Both have enough money to run self-financed campaigns. I mean no disrespect when I say both are "generic" candidates. San Mateo County is not necessarily where they will be spending the rest of their lives. When this election doesn't work out, they can take a few polls, learn promising places to relocate, then move to any one of 15 or 20 Assembly districts with mediocre opposition candidates and be elected to the Assembly for six years, then move on, perhaps to the Senate, term limit out and still be young enough to spend some time in a statewide office or in the Congress. It's possible all four Democratic candidates will spend some time in California's legislative bodies. I'd mention the non-Democrats who are running, but their names have left no impression whatsoever on my brain, even though I've read each one quite a few times.

Paul Azevedo's opinions political and otherwise are his own, and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Tribune, which are expressed in editorials. One of his E mail addresses is Paul@thereactor.net. Check his website at http://www.thereactor.net.