Count Barbara Keegan among those most flabbergasted with her landslide victory last week for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board. But if it were up to the opinion editor at our local daily, Keegan would have pulled out of the race months ago. That would have allowed David Ginsborg, deputy to the county’s tax assessor, to easily claim retiring Joe Judge’s board seat. Barbara Marshman, the Mercury News’ editorial writer and decider of all things good and natural emailed Keegan in early August to try and cajole her into dropping out of the race.

One of the Election Night’s big surprises was the shellacking County Assessor deputy David Ginsborg took in his aggressive bid to win a board seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Barbara Keegan finished almost 25 points ahead of his paltry 32 percent of the vote, while Drew Spitzer finished a distant third.

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Living up to its reputation as the county’s favorite whipping boy, the Santa Clara Valley Water District repeatedly botched its ballot measure language to extend property taxes. A judge recently ruled that multiple mistakes on the ballot measure to extend property taxes won’t stop it from going to voters. That’s a good thing. Despite the drama, most of the money will go toward cleaning up creek beds, ensuring safe drinking water and providing flood control. We say “most” because some of it could go toward providing elder board members of the Water District board, a golden parachute. A recent board agenda item to give appointed board members health insurance for life was pulled at the last minute by Water District CEO Beau Goldie. Both Goldie and Olga Martin Steele, the district’s interim chief administrative officer, and other board members admit that the idea has been on the table for years and was recently resuscitated. The question is why? The timing is obvious.

Joe Judge will raise his glass and take a final sip from the Santa Clara Valley Water District chalice at the end of this year. The District 2 board member, who has held the position for 26 years, surprised many Tuesday by announcing that he will retire when his term expires in December. This comes as good or bad news, depending on how much you care about water.

Scott Knies seems to have adopted the strategy that less is more when it comes to unseating Joe Judge in the November election for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board. In a letter sent last week to supporters of his candidacy, Knies, the executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association, wrote that he has withdrawn from the race and will throw his support behind David Ginsborg, a deputy to County Assessor Larry Stone.

David Ginsborg, right-hand man to county tax assessor Larry Stone, is running for a seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board come next November. We’re not sure why anyone would want to spend waking hours noodling on water policy, but then again it can’t be any less exciting than tax assessments. Ginsborg isn’t the only one running against incumbent Joe Judge, though.