Gina Garbolino is the termed-out past mayor / current councilmember of Roseville. Her protege’ Tim Herman finished Second in the recently concluded City Council race and will succeed her.

My Family and I met Gina Garbolino at the Roseville Chamber of Commerce (as we did Tim Herman) in 1997.

Linda and Gina hit it off and became friends. It was an enduring friendship that survived Mine and George’s foray in to Partisan Republican politics.

I am writing this publicly, but this is what many people in Roseville knew… Gina was a family friend and was and is off-limits. I never took her on for the disagreements I had with her.

Gina Garbolino was always a straight-shooter. She did what she believed was right for Roseville. I watched her for the last eight years and can say that she served with class and integrity.

She endorsed Charlie Brown and donated to Jerry Brown and no one on Roseville’s right seemed to care. It is because Gina knew the art of diplomacy – her door was always open and she has built a ton of community goodwill.

In that stead – Tim Herman won for a lot of the same reasons. My Charge to him would be to parlay the relationships he has built over the years (that got him elected) to build bridges to people (like myself) that are not currently aligned with him.

Tim Herman has promised two things – to be a pro-business vote and to bring Drexel University to Roseville. If Mr. Herman is able to balance his green-streak with a true record of promoting business in Roseville… I’d be impressed.

I view both Gina Garbolino and Tim Herman as liberals. But, at the same time – I believe that Gina served Roseville well and that Roseville will miss her leadership.

I hope I can say the same about Tim Herman in four or eight years.

The recent article on the Roseville City Council Race has some interesting By-Lines to it:

Who is that masked e-mailer?

At least eight of these e-mails have gone out to recipients obtained by voter-registration lists. The domain server for the e-mails, “placercountygop.net” was purchased from GoDaddy.com through the domain name MarkKlang.info. That domain name is registered to Loomis resident Joseph Scharrer.

Scharrer isn’t new to local political controversy. In 2008, news stories reported that he bought dozens of website domains in the names of politicians he opposed to use the sites against the candidates.

Ooooooh, could it be?

They quote the “Non-Partisan” former employee of Charlie Brown for Congress (a liberal democrat) Lee Reed:

Roseville resident Lee Reed is upset by the partisanship of the e-mail messages. In 1960, at 21 years old, Reed tried to vote for the first time, but was turned away at the polling place, he said, because he “appeared to be a Republican” by his three-piece suit and shiny shoes in the Democratic-dominated city of Chicago — he actually planned to vote for John F. Kennedy Jr.

“I’ll never forget that,” Reed said. “I came from (a place) with some of the dirtiest politics in the nation. I moved out here to California. I want nonpartisan to be nonpartisan.”

Really? Then why Mr. Reed you file a complaint with the City Attorney’s office in an attempt to shut this blog down? Democrats. Free speech only works in one direction for them – you know, like the military ballots that several states deliberately did not send out in time?

whodunnit?

More quotes:

Cannon, chief of staff for California Assemblyman Paul Cook, said he’ll focus on restoring jobs, improving the local economy and promoting public safety. The Roseville Planning Commissioner recently earned the endorsement of the Roseville Police Officers Association, Councilman John Allard and Councilman Jim Gray.

And now Tim Herman:

“I’m looking forward to being done with the (campaign) and going on to the next stage,” Herman said. “I’ve enjoyed knocking on doors and talking to people. I’m feeling very positive. It’s a long experience — I started walking precincts in 105 degree weather and (walked) this past weekend in the rain.”

Sounds like Mr. Herman thinks he has it won already.

(Pople) He has raised $2,866 for his campaign, mainly from the Placer County Democratic Central Committee, Stonewall Democratic Club of Greater Sacramento and several individuals.

No surprise there. (The Stonewall Democrats are a lifestyle group of Democrats)

“(The campaign) has been very exciting and a lot of fun,” Rohan said. “I’m anxious to see the end of it. I’m just plugging away until it’s done. You do everything you can think of, and it’s best to just be settled.”

Amen, Susan. Just be settled – If I had a vote, I’d have voted for Sam and Susan already.

Tim Herman’s latest mailer looks like a Richie Ross special. Richie Ross is a consultant for the left and the far-left in California.

Those of us seasoned in partisan politics start to recognize the all-to-familiar work of consultants.

Tim Herman’s second mailer says nothing, and I mean nothing.

Here’s the front. Taxpayers will smile – is this a marketing peice for his dental practice?

Here’s the back - what is Mr. Herman trying to accomplish?

He touts his community service including a swin team his daughter isn’t even on anymore – and fails to say “Vote for Me” on the back side. People will probably confuse this as a marketing peice for his business.

This is classic Richie Ross when he has a liberal client in a not-so-liberal area. Thin content like the first mailer and fluff.

The interesting part is that it touts the endorsement of two prominent local democrats on the bottom right hand corner.

This mailer is an epic fail. It gets a 3 for a D as it fails on two of the basic premises of marketing.

Why will taxpayers smile? and what are people supposed to do as a result of this mailer?

P.S. Please note that the above review of the mailer is devoid of my usual criticisms of Mr. Herman’s liberal stances on issues as this mailer avoids any mention of policy whatsoever.

Kevin Johnson – the left-wing Mayor of Sacramento. He announced his endorsements today.

With every endorsement comes baggage. Kevin Johnson has a ton – a federal investigation in to his Charter School and his recent endorsement list is even worse baggage for anyone that is not a freaked-out liberal.

KJ endorsed Kamala Harris – you know, the SF Nutbag that refuses to prosecute Cop-Killers? He also endorsed SF Nutbag Gavin “any Twosome” Newsome.

KJ Endorsed Barbara Boxer – while left-wing papers are bailing out on her. KJ Endorsed Jerry Brown (to round out the SF freakshow) and John Chiang (the empty-suit who whores for unions every year at budget time)

Darrell Steinberg for Senate, Richard Pan (who can’t finish a sentence) over Pugno for Assembly and Roger Niello for…. WAIT!? Roger Niello?

Is this what effectiveness looks like? What does Roger Niello have in common with Darrell Steinberg!? If I was Roger Niello, I’d wink and say “You sure about that, Kevin… you know there is Ken Cooley on the ballot!?”

Otherwise – it looks like Roger Niello really IS a compromised Republican vs the conservative he is campaigning as. Ted Gaines will be sure to point this out to voters.

KJ’s endorsement sucks as bad as the Sacramento Bee’s does.

Now – Tim Herman? That’s a different story – Tim Herman had a recent fundraiser headlined by Kevin Johnson.

That’s right – KJ who went No on 23, like Herman and Yes on 25, like Herman. So they both support killing 1 million plus jobs and simple-majority tax increases at the state level.

Kevin Johnson is the biggest name yet that Tim Herman has gotten to endorse him – certifying his left-wing credentials. David Larson should be jealous – Herman snagged both the Sacramento Bee and Kevin Johnson.

The package is clear with Tim Herman – he is a liberal Democrat who forgot to register as such.

Think about it – his top supporters are all Democrats.
He supports Prop 25 – simple majority budgets / tax increases
He opposes Prop 8
He opposes Prop 23 - and supports an electric car ordinance in Sun City
He has talked about extending the time to pay city taxes, not cutting them…

The Kevin Johnson endorsement makes sense for Tim Herman.

It says little and is very general. I also note that it is a normal page folded in half. It, of course featured the obligatory pictures you’d normally see!

Please see the front and the reverse of the mailer.

I did pick a few items out that interested me.

1. The endorsement list is pretty thin – he seems to have about half the “High-Power” endorsements of Sam Cannon. This may not be a 100% negative in this “find-the-boogie-man” race.

(The irony is that Herman does indeed have the “Old Roseville” establishment pushing to the extreme for him)

2. It is absent the mention of his affiliation with the Charlie Brown for Congress Campaign – and is also absent a lot of local Dem leaders… with the exception of the three endorsements he has based his campaign on – Garbolino, Garcia and Bonner.

3. It features his service on committees – most notably (in my mind) the sustainability action committee. This dovetails well with his opposition to Prop 23, support of an electric car ordinance and his calls for more “Green Jobs”.

4. The mailer is bullet-pointed and has far less words than you typically see in campaign mailers. Either this is smart marketing or trying to stretch limited material out over a pre-prescribed area.

All in all, it is not a bad mailer – but, I am not impressed with it either. It needed more “meat”.

I give Tim’s campaign a 6.5 (a C+) on this effort.

Scale: 1-2 F / 3-4 D / 5-6 C / 7-8 B / 9-10 A