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Three problematic current and former Democratic officeholders and a little-known Republican are vying to fill a vacant northern Contra Costa Assembly seat in a race triggered by legislative musical chairs.
With state Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, pushed out by term limits and Assemblyman Tim Grayson, D-Concord, vying to replace him, the choice of Grayson’s successor in his heavily Democratic district is also on the March 5 ballot.
Of the four candidates, Democrat Karen Mitchoff, a former Contra Costa supervisor, is the best choice because of her proven record of practical political moderation and her superior knowledge of state issues.
Her 12 years on the county Board of Supervisors, from 2011-23, along with her time on the boards of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Association of Bay Area Governments, Contra Costa Transportation Authority and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy have prepared her well about the effects of state policy on regional and county issues.
She is thoughtful in her discussions of topics such as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mental health proposal incorporated into Proposition 1 on the upcoming ballot (she supports it), his proposal for a Delta tunnel (she opposes it), and an expected Bay Area tax increase ballot measure for public transit (she opposes it until she sees transparency and reforms at BART).
Throughout her career, Mitchoff has done her homework and understood the complexity of the issues put before her. As a result, she has adhered to political positions that balance societal needs with fiscal realities. In a state Legislature often dominated by hard-left Democrats, she would bring a much-needed centrist dose of practicality.
That said, no discussion of Mitchoff is complete without noting her sometimes abrasive or dismissive treatment of colleagues, staff and the public, an unfortunate trait we’ve noted before. Nevertheless, on her record of moderation, her knowledge and her policy positions, Mitchoff is clearly the best candidate in Assembly District 15.
The district covers Concord, Brentwood, Clayton, Martinez, Antioch, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill and a small portion of Walnut Creek. Nearly 53% of voters are registered Democrats, 19% are Republicans and 21% have no party affiliation.
The other Democrats in the race are Anamarie Avila Farias, a member of the Contra Costa County Board of Education, and Antioch Councilmember Monica Wilson. The Republican candidate, Sonia Ledo, a real estate agent from Concord, declined to be interviewed.
Avila Farias has significant experience working on housing-finance issues, including since 2015 as a board member of the California Housing Finance Agency. But her knowledge base on other state issues wasn’t as strong as Mitchoff’s.
Moreover, we remain troubled by her one term on the Martinez City Council, from 2012-16. She joined a council majority that appointed one of her former colleagues at the Oakland Housing Authority as interim city manager despite the person’s lack of even department management experience. In the decision-making process, the council majority improperly shut out two council members, denying their requests for the candidate’s resume and to interview her.
During her final year on the City Council, Farias ran unsuccessfully for Contra Costa County supervisor, then led a questionable but successful effort to force district elections on the Martinez City Council and school board.
In 2020, she won election to the Contra Costa County Board of Education. Two years later, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, she called for a boycott of the Fourth of July holiday. We share her anger over the high court’s decision but question the message she, an elected member of a county school board, was sending.
As for Wilson, her record on the Antioch council has been troubling and lacking in principle.
She was part of a three-member majority, led by Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, that hired a city manager without experience for the job who lasted just a little over a year before being placed on leave and eventually resigning. The same council majority could not hang on to a highly qualified, reform-minded police chief who abruptly retired after just 18 months in Antioch.
Most disappointing was Wilson’s defense of Hernandez-Thorpe’s behavior. An independent investigation sustained sexual harassment allegations that Thorpe grabbed the buttock of one woman and the bare leg of another, both of whom were subordinates when he was executive director of a troubled health care district. The district was subsequently disbanded, with its assets and liabilities turned over to Contra Costa County, which subsequently settled legal claims by the two women for $350,000.
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When the harassment allegations arose, Wilson quickly jumped to the defense of Thorpe, who is Black. She branded calls for his resignation “racially divisive grandstanding” by his opponents — even though she later admitted she hadn’t read the allegations before making the comments.
After the 2022 release of the investigation, Wilson stood silent, saying only that she wouldn’t be “pulled into the middle of this.” Asked again last month to explain her position, Wilson said commenting would be unfair to Thorpe because, she claimed incorrectly, the county had not released the investigation findings.
The report was a public document. The county released it at the time to this news organization, which made it publicly available and separately provided a copy to Wilson. We provided another copy to Wilson last month. She has remained silent since and did not return our call on Wednesday.
As we said in 2022, when she ran for reelection to the City Council, Wilson’s silence, her refusal to call out Thorpe and stand up for the women he harassed, is especially troubling given that Wilson’s day job is working to help people who are victims of human trafficking.
Each of these candidates is problematic. But Mitchoff is the best informed and the best choice in the March 5 election.
