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Kliszewski Holds Thin Lead in Race for Bench

By Alex Gronke

With two thirds of the vote counted, Mark Kliszewski Tuesday night took a razor thin lead over David Krashna in the race for the Alameda Superior Court judgeship.

Both candidates fighting for the bench are court commissioners in the Alameda Superior Court. Kliszewski had 50.5 percent lead.

If Kliszewski does win it will be despite support for Krashna from much of the Alameda County political establishment, including Representative Barbara Lee, Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, state Senator Don Perata.

The core of Kliszewski's support was centered in the southern part of the county, chiefly from mayors. Kliszewski also had the backing of most county law enforcement agencies.

Both candidates are registered Democrats and in a contest that didn't figure prominently in most voter's minds they have struggled during the course of the campaign to distinguish themselves.

"It (the judge race) is right up there with watching a snail cross the lawn," said Kliszewski who became a lawyer in 1973 and Superior Court commissioner in 1988.

Krashna campaign spokesperson, Tom Meyer, used local geography to outline the difference between the candidates.

"David Krashna is from Oakland, Kliszewski lives in Piedmont. That more or less defines their differences," said Meyer.

Krashna casts himself as a man of the people and better suited than Kliszewski to hearing cases in a diverse county such as Alameda.

"I'm very involved with community outreach and I learn from the pulse of the community," said Krashna who has been a lawyer since 1975 and a superior court commissioner for 8 years.

Meyer also pointed to Kliszewski's bigger campaign bank account as evidence that Kliszewski lacks the common touch.

Kliszewski has raised more than $158,000, mostly from local attorneys since last November.

Kliszewski loaned his campaign $20,000 at the end of September

Krashna brought in about $78,000 and in October put $10,000 of his own money into the campaign to fuel the final haul.

Klieszewski acknowledged the difficulty of drawing voter attention to a campaign for the bench even though the contest is the third largest in the county this election year.

Kliszewski said he is "more middle of the road" than Krashna and drew a distinction between his experience as a juvenile court commissioner and Krashna's career as a traffic court commissioner.

"I've done a lot more criminal cases (than Krashna)," said Kliszewski.

Krashna said that if elected to the bench he will involve himself in the administration of the Superior Court.

"A survey shows that people are concerned about fairness and access in the courts. I want to improve access. I want to be a major player in that," said Krashna.

"I'm a big proponent of rehabilitating criminal offenders. I don't want to just get them out of our sights. I want to work closely with programs that rehabilitate," said Krashna.

Krashna said he was familiar with the hard choices a judge is compelled to make. "Everyday I have to put people in jail," he said.

Kliszewski said he wants to stay in juvenile court if he is elected. "It doesn't have the pizzazz of major crime cases that get a lot of publicity. But you are affecting thousands of kids. When you do get through to one of them it's pretty amazing," said Kliszewski.