|
|
|
BERKELEY - It is considered one of the tightest races in the city, and with a collective campaign chest of $81, 552, it is also the most expensive.
When moderate Polly Armstrong announced she would not seek re-election, District 8 became the battleground of a bitterly divided council. Split between progressive and moderate Democrats, with the progressives holding a one-seat advantage, the moderates are spending heavily to hold on to Armstrong's district.
Gordon Wosniak, a 30-year Berkeley resident and a moderate, has built the largest campaign war chest of $40, 962. A retired research scientist from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Wosniak says that if elected he would focus on reducing crime by increasing the efficiency and budget of the city's police force.
He believes that one of the greatest safety concerns in Berkeley is concentrated at and around People's Park, so he would ensure that no one slept in the park and would also provide more of a police force around it.
Inviting additional student input is his final goal. "They say they are residents of Berkeley and have rights, and I agree with that," he said. "But students also have to be responsible residents."
Seeking to take advantage of the council redistricting that was meant to bring more students into the election process, the progressives are backing Cal graduate student Andy Katz.
A member of the Class Pass Advisory Committee since 1998, Katz promoted the passage of the AC Transit Class Pass. Hoping to expand that program, he wants to develop a universal pass for students using the BART, as well as permit all city employees and UC Berkeley employees to ride public transportation for free.
Katz, who was also a Berkeley undergrad, has built a campaign chest of $25, 675. He cites affordable housing and crime prevention as his highest priorities. In terms of housing, he recommends using surface parking lots, vacant land, and one-story commercial spaces to increase housing options. These were all plans he promoted during his one-year tenure on the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board.
For crime prevention, Katz says he plans to call for increased bicycle and foot patrol officers, and he will also push for increased city funding for the police department.
"(The problem) is a matter of police staffing," said Katz. "No one should have to wait for an emergency call."
In addition to Wosniak and Katz, there are two candidates endorsed by neither major Berkeley faction -- including one who is radically liberal even by Berkeley standards.
A member of the Left Party and the Green Party, Carlos Estrada is running without any major endorsements and with no reported campaign funds. His platform urges "progressive taxation on the profits of big corporations" for "affordable housing, free transportation, and universal health care and education."
Estrada's platform also includes changing city law to allow documented and undocumented non-citizens to vote in city elections, and lowering the city voting age to 16.
Independent candidate Anne Wagley, who has built a campaign fund of $14,915, is a law grad and former financial analyst for New York's chemical bank. In addition to being the former chairwoman of Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission, Wagley spent 10 years organizing refugee camps for the United Nations.
She promotes city-wide organized mass transit and preservation of neighborhood and historic sites. "When things are done piecemeal, or on a block-by-block basis, some people are happy and others are not," she said.
She is endorsed by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, which is one of the leading supporters of Measure P. The measure, which Berkeley residents also have a chance to vote on this Tuesday, would limit the height of some new city buildings.
Although the Heritage Association is her major backer, and she donated $100 to their Measure P campaign, Wagley says that she does not support the measure because it would limit the development of affordable housing.