District Elections

By Jo Chamberlain

The San Mateo County coastside needs a dedicated supervisor. I support a coastside supervisorial district, and district elections rather than our current county-wide elections.

Constituent Accountability. Countywide elections mean that our supervisors have no real accountability to the voters of their indivdidual districts.

Campaign Finance. Running a countywide race is much more expensive than running in single district. The large amounts that candidates must raise and spend makes then beholden to their contributors, rather than to the voters. The expense of running countywide tends to inhibit challengers, giving an unfair edge to the incumbents.

Proportional Representation. District elections are a good start, but in the long run we should adopt a method of electing our supervisors that gives us proportional representation (PR). With PR, voters are not limited to districts, but can define their own constituencies. More information on PR is available from the Center for Voting and Democracy.