Considered the strongest challenger to Joe Simitian in the upcoming race for a seat on the County Board of Supervisors, Mt. View Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga sent a letter to her supporters Thursday announcing she will bow out of the race and throw her support behind the current state senator.
“In November, my good friend State Senator Joe Simitian entered the race, so he could continue his public service to the county,” Abe-Koga wrote. “After a great deal of thought and consultation with my supporters and family, I have decided to withdraw from the race for County Supervisor and throw my support behind Joe.”
That leaves former Saratoga Mayor Kathleen King as Simitian’s lone competition. Simitian will be termed out of the state senate at the end of this year, and he is now looking at returning to his prior job, which he held from 1997 to 2000, before being successfully elected to the state assembly. Simitian served in the assembly for four years until moving on to the state senate in 2004.
A couple quotes express how I feel about Simitian and other career politicians.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. Warren Buffett
Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough. Noah Cross, in movie Chinatown
There is no higher state office in Simitan’s realistic future SO FINANCIALLY, the best thing for HIM to do is return to the County Board of Sups and add another 4-8 YEARS of service credit to his CALPers Retirement.
Abe-Koga is a relative newbie compared to Simitan. She steps aside and endorses him now and gets paid back some-way some-how later.
Can you say “Machine Politics?”
You are aware that state legislators don’t receive CALPERS or any other public pension, right?
….which explains why it is in his financial interest to return to local Gov’t to add service credit to what he already earned in local gov’t rather than get a real job. (?)