Elisa Marquez appointed to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Supervisors give a surprising snub to labor's candidate; There's an opening on the Hayward City Council
COUNTY NEWS
D2 APPOINTMENT
—THE PICK IS IN—Elisa Marquez, a Hayward councilmember, was appointed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to fill the seat of late Supervisor Richard Valle, who passed away on Feb. 8.
—The Board of Supervisors made their selection early Thursday evening after three rounds of voting and over three hours of public testimony.
—Marquez, who has served on the Hayward City Council since 2014, will be sworn-in next Tuesday. Her appointment runs through at least next March.
—She will need to run in the March 2024 primary to maintain the seat through 2026, the last year of Valle’s supervisorial term, which he won last June.
—Marquez outlasted Fremont Councilmember Teresa Keng. Both advanced to the head-to-head final round of voting. Marquez and Keng each received three votes going in the climactic round.
—Supervisors Nate Miley, Keith Carson, and David Haubert voted for Marquez, while Lena Tam, who did not vote for Marquez in any of the rounds, backed Keng.
HOW THE VOTE WENT DOWN
FIRST ROUND (TWO CHOICES)
Haubert—Marquez, Mojadedi
Tam—Keng, Mojadedi
Carson—Marquez, Keng
Miley—Casanova, Marquez
Rank: Marquez 3, Keng 3, Mojadedi, 2, Casanova 1—Casanova eliminated
SECOND ROUND (TWO CHOICES)
Haubert—Marquez, Mojadedi
Tam—Keng, Mojadedi
Carson—Marquez, Keng
Miley—Keng, Marquez
Rank: Marquez 3, Keng 3, Mojadedi, 2—Mojadedi eliminated
THIRD ROUND (ONE CHOICE)
Haubert—Marquez
Tam—Keng
Carson—Marquez
Miley—Marquez
Rank: Marquez 3, Keng 1—Keng eliminated.
—PARALLELS TO 2014—Elisa Marquez’s start in local politics also began with an appointment. In July 2014, the Hayward City Council selected her to finish the remaining two years of incoming mayor Barbara Halliday’s council term.
—There are other parallels between her Hayward City Council appointment and today’s selection to the Board of Supervisors. In Hayward, Marquez became the second Latina to ever sit on the city council. She becomes the second in the supervisorial district after Nadia Lockyer.
—Much of Marquez’s argument for the supervisorial appointment was her lifelong residency in Hayward and the district at-large. In 2014, she used the same talking point for the council appointment.
—“This is my home,” she said in 2014. “This is where I’ve lived my entire life. I have no other aspirations other than to serve my community.”
—In addition, Marquez received the Hayward appointment in 2014 over Mark Salinas, the now Hayward mayor who sought the District 2 appointment, but dropped out of consideration last weekend.
—ELECTABILITY—The Board of Supervisors placed a premium on electoral viability in next year’s primary.
—By picking Marquez, they are betting she can withstand a potential challenge from Ariana Casanova, a political organizer for SEIU Local 1021, and whose campaign would certainly benefit greatly from union labor’s vast resources.
—Last Tuesday, Casanova told the board she would run in the primary with or without the appointment, but that remains to be seen after today.
—Both Harris Mojadedi and Teresa Keng gave little indication they intend to run in the March primary when asked by one of the supervisors last Tuesday.
—LABOR GETS SNUBBED—Labor came out hard for the appointment of one of its own, SEIU Local 1021 political organizer Ariana Casanova. And they went down hard on Tuesday after their preferred candidates received just one total vote from the Board of Supervisors.
—It’s not entirely clear what was the rationale of the board. Was it Casanova’s inexperience in electoral politics, anything she said or didn’t say during the interview process, or did they find it oft-putting that Casanova sought the seat after moving to the district just 11 days after Valle’s death.
—It’s a bit surprising the board was barely swayed by the Valle family’s endorsement of Casanova’s candidacy, in addition, to a narrative suggesting she was the late supervisor’s anointed successor.
—WHAT’S NEXT BROADLY—Elisa Marquez will be sworn-in at next Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting and return the board at full-strength for the first time since early January. It’s perhaps longer since Valle had missed many meetings after his health began deteriorating in the last half of 2022.
—Now the Hayward City Council is not at full-strength with Marquez’s appointment. Hayward councilmembers may just give a light dusting to a stack of resumes it looked over just a few months ago with the process leading to Councilmember Dan Goldstein’s appointment.
—Among the candidates who applied for the two-year seat to serve out Mayor Mark Salinas’ council term are Planning Commissioners Ray Bonilla, Aidan Ali-Sullivan, and Community Services Commissioner Artavia Berry. Each were lauded for impressive interviews last January.
—Sherman Lewis, the Cal State East Bay political science professor who ran for the council last year, could also be a potential applicant. It should be noted that Lewis’s campaign could be credited with helping get Councilmember George Syrop elected last November.
Editor’s Note: Sorry we couldn’t chat this morning. I was fighting a bug that appears to be going around. I went to bed early and dreamed about Trump getting indicted and baseball’s opening day. But I’m back. Get a pot of coffee going and we’ll talk tomorrow morning!