Point Reyes Light- November 5, 1998
West Marin voters still lean leftward
True to form, West Marin residents on Tuesday voted well to the left of other Californians, sending Marin's Barbara Boxer back to the US Senate with over 80 percent of their vote and backing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gray Davis by a similar margin.
Davis, Boxer, US Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, State Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, and most Democrats vying for state office took every West Marin precinct, although neither Boxer nor Woolsey won in Tomales, where Woolsey's unsuccessful Point Reyes Farmland Protection Act (supported by Boxer) was not overly popular.
In Stinson Beach and Bolinas, voters by a three-to-one ratio agreed to bump up their yearly parcel taxes (to $198 from $158) to help their school district.
"Obviously, we're elated and really appreciate the community support," said Bob Balzan, superintendent of Bolinas-Stinson Beach School District. He said the four-year increase will stabilize district finances and lift it out of deficit spending.
Like voters countywide, West Marin voters hoped to get something for nothing on county transportation Measures A and B. Voters here as elsewhere supported Measure A - the actual plan to reduce congestion in Highway 101 corridor - but turned down Measure B, which would have funded the new plan by increasing the sales tax.
In the San Geronimo Valley, customers of Marin Municipal Water District helped return conservation-minded incumbent Jared Huffman to MMWD's board of directors, giving him a 52-percent to 48-percent edge over Brian Oliva.
More than 60 percent of West Marin favored Proposition 4, which now bans the trapping of predators statewide. The West Marin vote more or less matched Marin's overall ratio. However, in the more agricultural precincts of Marshall, Tomales, Hicks Valley, and Nicasio (where coyotes take a bloody toll on livestock), the proposition lost.
Three-fifths of West Marin voters also voted against Proposition 6, a peculiar initiative which prevailed statewide; the proposition ends the nonexistent practice in California of slaughtering horsemeat for food.
Point Reyes Light Cover | News | Coastal Traveler