AD20 GOP candidate wants to ease traffic with a tunnel linking Dublin to San Mateo Bridge
AD20 Dem candidate will "mess up" Gavin Newsom's hair in order to ban fracking
ELECTION 2022
20TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT
—EAST BAY TUNNEL—Watching some of these candidates forums in the 20th Assembly District is beginning to strongly hint this will be a race without substance. A race devoid of debatable ideas. It’s what happens in the East Bay when a race is solely predicated on what labor unions wants. This is not an anti-labor statement. But when candidates know labor will pay the full freight of a campaign in a race like the AD 20 with three labor-friendly candidates, they tend not to say compelling things. In this context, it’s refreshing that at least one of the four candidates to replace Assemblymember Bill Quirk in the 20th District is thinking outside of the box.
—During an environmental-themed candidate forum earlier this month, Republican Joe Grcar made two radical ideas: He proposed making the entire bay shoreline a state park, while promoting additional park space in Southern Alameda County. The other idea, in order to quell traffic in the district, is to build an underground tunnel for traffic to travel from West Dublin to the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Noting the comment was made at a Sierra Club forum, it’s unclear whether such a massive public works project would do much to help the environment, let alone the staggering financial costs. But in a race that is almost entirely revolving around flimsy and aspirational platitudes, at least, Grcar is saying something interesting.
—NEWSOM’S HAIR— In response to a question about fracking in the state at the the same forum, 20th Assembly District candidate Liz Ortega-Toro said she would muss Gov. Gavin Newsom’s luxurious mound of hair in order to push for a ban on fracking. In the question, the speaker clearly opposed Newsom’s ambivalence toward banning fracking and expressed a desire to “pluck Newsom’s head,” meaning to add some sense to Newsom’s thinking on the subject by flicking his forehead with a finger. Ortega-Toro responded that she wants to end fracking, while adding, “I’d be happy to mess up Gov. Newsom’s hair.”
MORE IN THIS ISSUE: Candidate List Updates | 15th Candidate Joins Oakland Mayor’s Race | Oakland, San Leandro Cooperate on Traffic Project | Union City Eyes New Taxes | Community Cameras | Hayward’s Budget Overview |
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