Patch's Guide to the June 5 Election

The June 5 election is tomorrow and if you haven't already sent in your mail-in ballot, here's a reminder of what you'll see on it.

SANTA CLARA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, DISTRICT 5

Current Supervisor: Liz Kniss (term is up)

Candidates Running in June 5 Election:

• Barry Chang, Cupertino City Councilmember and small business owner (Party affiliation unknown). has lived in Cupertino since 1985, and has served on the City Council since 2009. He has also previously served on the Cupertino Public Safety Commission, the Cupertino Union School Board, and both the School Site Council and Parent-Teacher Association for Lincoln Elementary in Cupertino. has also served many local charitable organizations and nonprofits such as Bay Area for Clean Environment and Vision New America. As a City Councilmember, he was instrumental in progressing the ban on single-use plastic bags, and says he has worked hard to help balance the City's budget. If elected, he says the environment, job creation, fiscal responsibility and education would be his top priorities.
• Kris Huyilan Wang, (Party affiliation unknown). has degrees in statistics and business management, and completed graduate studies in computer science. She has worked for many Silicon Valley high-tech companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Visa. She has served as the mayor of Cupertino twice. She is currently president of the Santa Clara County Cities Association and Chair of Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Commission, as well as being active on many more committees and commissions. If elected, she has said she would work on job creation and improving the county's fiscal management, economy, education and sustainability.
• Joe Simitian, current California State Senator (Democrat). Simitian is a former State Assemblyman, former mayor of Palo Alto, former president of the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, and former County Supervisor. He is known for authoring many Senate bills for causes such as education, public safety and the environment.

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY, DISTRICT 28

Cupertino moves to the new district this year from District 22 where current Assemblymember Paul Fong is the incumbent.

Candidates Running in June 5 Election:

• Chad Walsh, (Independent) is the founder and President of an intellectual property law firm, Fountainhead Law Group PC, serving the high tech community. He has held positions as an R&D engineer at National Semiconductor Corporation and as an Intellectual Property Attorney representing high tech startups, mid-sized companies, and Fortune 500 companies. Walsh has served on the Governing Board for the West Valley-Mission Community College District since 2008 and is currently President and Chairman of the Board for the West Valley-Mission Community College District. He is also a lecturer at the Santa Clara University School of Law. 
• Paul Fong, (Democrat) has been the Assemblymember for District 22 since 2008. He served on the Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board of Trustees. serves as a voting member of the Higher Education, Utilities and Commerce, and Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committees. In addition, Fong serves as Chair of the Select Committees on High Technology and Climate Change and Coastal Protection and is a member of the Select Committees on Biotechnology, Career Technical Education and Workforce Development, Community Colleges, Government Efficiency, Technology and Innovation, Homelessness, Job Creation for the New Economy and Regional Strategies for the Green Economy.

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICTS 14 and 18

Current U.S. Representative: Anna Eshoo (running for re-election)

Other Candidates Running in June 5 Election:

• Dave Chapman, Software Engineer (Republican). Chapman has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Rensselaer and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Yale. Chapman has said his top priorities if elected are to help create jobs by reforming our trade policy, to help create jobs by cracking down on immigration fraud, and to help create jobs by reforming our international monetary policy. 
• Carol Brouillet, producer/publisher/writer (Green Party). Brouillet attended Hawaii Loa College, Reed College and the University of Grenoble. She has said she considers herself a "media activist" who "seeks to connect people, vital ideas and important information to nurture healthy social change, economis justice and ecological sustainability." She credits herself with helping to found the "9-11 Truth Alliance" and helped edit "The Invisible Nuclear War" about the health effects of low-level radiation and nuclear issues. Brouillet ran for Congress in 2006 and 2008 but was not elected.
• William Parks, attorney, former semiconductor engineer (Democrat). Parks has said he wants to fight "corruption in our government," help implement a fair tax system, end the war in Afghanistan, stop wasteful military spending, and "spend our tax dollars in a way that creates jobs, such as on infrastructure, schools, teachers, police and firefighters. He adds, "[If we do that], we will turn this economy around and return to prosperous times we had only a few short years ago."

MEASURES

• : To provide affordable education at West Valley and Mission Colleges by updating academic facilities and technology to prepare students for 21st century jobs/transfer to universities, upgrading healthcare, public safety and job-training facilities, and aging buildings for earthquake safety, and acquiring, constructing, repairing and equipping sites, buildings, classrooms and facilities, shall West Valley-Mission Community College District issue $350,000,000 of bonds, at legal rates with citizens’ oversight, no money for Sacramento, administrators’ salaries or employee pensions?  (55% vote required to pass)
• Measure H is for Cupertino Union School District to issue $220 million in bonds for fixing leaky school roofs, upgrading earthquake/fire safety, removing potentially hazardous materials from old structures, keeping schools clean and well-maintained, updating science labs/educational technology, providing classrooms for student enrollment growth, and renovating, acquiring, constructing, equipping classrooms/sites/facilities. The tax rate to be levied to fund the proposed bond issue is about $30 per $100,000 of assessed valuation on properties within the District.

For more information on the June 5 election in Santa Clara County, visit the election page on the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters' website.