The race is on to fill the State Senate seat vacated by Mark DeSaulnier's election to Congress last year. Two Democrats and one Republican are running. Rep. Joan Buchanan and Susan Bonilla are running on the Democrat ticket and attorney Mark Meuser is running as a Republican.
I don't know much about Susan Bonilla but I know more than I want to about Joan Buchanan. She was so dedicated to our District that a few months after being elected as our Representative to the State Assembly, she threw her hat into the ring to run for Ellen Tauscher's Congressional seat. Now that Buchanan is termed out of her Assembly seat, she has her eye on her next step up to State Senate. I'm not for that.
Buchanan's Democrat opponent, Susan Bonilla, lists a summary on her website of Bills she authored that were passed last year. If Bonilla and Buchanan were the only two running to fill DeSaulnier's Senate seat, I would choose Bonilla over Buchanan at this point.
However, there is a third choice and a chance to elect a Republican to the California State Senate ? Mark Meuser. Meuser, unlike Bonilla and Buchanan, is NOT a career politician. He's a lawyer with a good sense of humor about himself.
He presents a lot of common sense and straight talk on his website. He doesn't take politically popular positions. He looks at issues from a pragmatic perspective that almost anyone, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, could agree with.
Watch his video on the high speed train. He doesn't waste time attacking the train. He concentrates on our need to spend the money to maintain our roads and bridges to keep them from deteriorating. He makes the case that money is needed to improve transportation infrastructure and not for adding another new system to it.
I'm impressed with Meuser overall. As he puts it, he's not another Republican obstructionist. He's pragmatic and logical and wants to address real problems with realistic solutions. He's pro small business and animal welfare, which I am too.
Meuser doesn't have the name recognition of his two Democrat opponents, but he has a lot of common sense proposals about fixing some of the state's woes. He needs to get out and get better known. He's a refreshing change from the usual candidates with a party agenda.
Our District proved that a Republican CAN get elected in California by electing Catherine Baker to the State Assembly from the 16th District. We now have another chance to change the status quo in Sacramento. If enough Republicans, Independents, and open-minded Democrats vote in the March 17th primary, Mark Meuser could have better than a snowball's chance in a San Ramon summer of being our next State Senator.
