The presidential election is over, and we’re all thumbs.
Thumbs up: To a newly constituted Los Altos City Council, with (presumably) Larry Lang aboard. Lang brings a great degree of thoughtfulness to the position, and he is sure to make informed decisions. We have no doubt our re-elected incumbents, Sally Meadows and Jonathan Weinberg, will continue their strong leadership as new challenges arise over the next four years.
Thumbs up: To the vigorous discussion around Measure EE, the Los Altos School District’s $350 million bond measure. At this writing, the word is still out on its outcome in the Nov. 5 election. Although we endorsed the measure, we believe there were legitimate reasons to oppose it. The district was quiet on funding committed to the 10th school site. And it was troubling that one of the district board’s own trustees openly opposed the bond because he was convinced $140 million of that bond was eyed for the 10th site and the housing of Bullis Charter School. We want to see the district be more forthcoming in the months ahead.
Thumbs up: To the local candidates who won their seats based on the hard work of going door-to-door and actually meeting their potential constituents. Special shout-outs go to Lang; Margaret Abe-Koga, who will succeed Joe Simitian as our new county supervisor; and Jessica Speiser, who ran a strong campaign and, as of last week, was ahead of a 17-year incumbent in the race for a seat on the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
Thumbs up: To local voters, who didn’t turn out as much as in 2020, but still participated in the 60%-70% range, according to the county Registrar of Voters. That was still better than the 49.52% recorded for all of Santa Clara County.
Thumbs even: For most voters (including us) sticking with the incumbents in most of the races where incumbents ran. Interesting that we criticize more than we praise their actions, yet elect them anyway when they run for re-election.
Thumbs down: For negative campaign mailers and ads creeping into the local elections. We expected it with Harris-Trump, and even Liccardo-Low, but to have it occur in our Los Altos races was sorry to see. Hopefully, candidates can continue to stay focused on the issues in future elections.
