Election 2010: Winners and Losers

Involvement in politics, whether as a candidate, volunteer, staffer, or contributor, is not for the faint of heart. November 2, 2010 saw many winners and losers and some of the biggest losers were not even running for office.

By now almost all of the races have been decided statewide.  We thought we would take a moment to discuss a few of the biggest winners and losers in San Bernardino County.

Winners:

Janice Rutherford—Supervisor-elect Janice Rutherford takes the biggest winner prize in San Bernardino County.  She defeated embattled Second District Supervisor Paul Biane by four points.

Ted Lehrer—As Rutherford’s senior campaign assistant, Ted Lehrer defied the rules and the odds to guide her to a victory.

San Bernardino County Public Attorneys Association— SBCPAA was the only one of San Bernardino County’s four major unions to have common sense enough to endorse and support someone who was not an unnamed co-conspirator in the “crime of the century.”  It chose instead to go with a candidate who was well respected in the city in which she served and who ran on a platform of ethics reform rather than being a subject of an ethics probe.  They donated $100,000 to Rutherford’s campaign.

Acquanetta Warren—If Rutherford took the biggest winner prize in the county, Mayor-elect Acquanetta Warren took the biggest winner prize in the city of Fontana.  She is both the first women to be elected mayor and the first African American.  She will hold the distinction of being mayor of the largest city in the United States headed by an African-American Republican. More important, though, is the fact she is well respected in the community and well qualified.

Cities of Fontana and Upland—Both cities supported Rutherford in her campaign for supervisor and Fontana now has one of their own representing it at the county level.

Chad Mayes—Chad not only scored a victory in his home town of Yucca Valley by being re-elected to the town council, he also was appointed yesterday as Supervisor-elect Rutherford’s Chief of Staff.

Supervisor Neil Derry—Supervisor Derry was the only member of the current San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors who did not contribute to Supervisor Biane’s re-election campaign, and as such, he now has badly needed support from Rutherford for his Ethics Commission and ethics reforms.

Russ Blewett—He was once a mayor in Baldwin Park and will now serve on the city council of Hesperia, which is in need of experienced leadership.

Rick Roelle—Apple Valley Town Councilman Roelle  supported Barb Stanton in her victory.

Losers:

Chris Jones—Easily the biggest loser of all, Chris Jones not only ran the campaigns of losers Chris Lancaster and Don Kurth in the primary, he brought about defeat for Paul Biane and Bea Cortes in the general election.

Tim Johnson—Johnson served as campaign manager for  the losing candidate, Paul Biane. It will be interesting when it becomes public knowledge that he, like his former boss, Matt Brown, cooperated with the district attorney Mike Ramos.  We are not sure how one plays both sides and then finds a job with another politico.  Maybe he should ask Brown for tutelage.  And we are not sure how this will affect his plans for a future city council run.

Jessica Austin—Blonde finally found a winning campaign but sabotaged all those around her.  After claiming she would be Rutherford’s chief of staff, we wonder if Janice will see through her or find her a place on the Fifth Floor.

Bret Henry—With Biane’s loss, San Bernardino County’s Fire Union president won’t have his “close” ally on the Fifth Floor.

Ron Nehring—As California’s GOP Chairman Nehring oversaw a disastrous election cycle, losing both the Republican Governorship and Senate race as well as races throughout the state in an otherwise Republican-dominated year.

Gary Ovitt—Ovitt was one of three supervisors who loaned Biane $10,000 for his losing campaign.  His staffer, Roman Nava, lost his bid for Chino Hills City Council.

Josie Gonzales—Not only did Gonzales loan Biane $10,000, but she was quoted as saying Rutherford is an “extremest” in one of Biane’s campaign mailers.

Brad Mitzelfelt—Mitzelfelt should have known better but also loaned Biane $10,000.  He just can’t say no.

SEBA—The safety employees union, i.e., cops, spent over $200,000 to get their candidate, John Doe No. 5, elected.  But Biane lost.

SBPEA and SB Firefighters—Here are two more unions that backed Biane.

Senator Bob Dutton—The good senator invested $10,000 to secure a future seat for himself but his candidate lost and now he will have to beat out a potentially tough incumbent.

Rancho Cucamonga—Rancho is the home town of  Biane and the only city to support him.

Al Vogler—San Bernardino County’s aluminum foil activist extraordinaire launched a negative campaign against Russ Blewett, Bill Holland,  and Thurston Smith with his infamous “Vote No” signs but the voters said “Yes.”