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Sonoma County 2nd District Supervisor candidate Pam Torliatt talks to Devin Castles, one of her volunteers at the Masonic Lodge in Petaluma. (CHRISTA JEREMIASON/PD)
By LORI A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Longtime Petaluma city official Pam Torliatt led four candidates in Tuesday’s primary for the 2nd District Board of Supervisors seat, but is headed toward a November runoff with her City Council adversary, David Rabbitt.
With all precincts reporting, Torliatt captured 6,607 votes, or 37.5 percent of the vote, followed by Rabbitt with 4,456 votes, or 25.3 percent. Mike Healy won 3,359 votes, or 19.1 percent, and John King received 3,168 votes, or 18 percent.
The top two vote-getters advance to the November general election.
The results, about 17,600 votes, account for a third of the 50,400 registered voters in the district, which includes Petaluma and rural areas from Cotati to the Marin County border.
The results appear to set up a November match with two markedly different candidates to fill the south county seat, vacant due to the retirement of three-term Supervisor Mike Kerns.
Torliatt, 43, has spent more than 18 years on the city Planning Commission, City Council, regional boards and as mayor for the past three years, building a reputation as a slow-growth proponent.
She says that experience is invaluable in managing the county’s future. Her opponents see her lifelong political work as a liability and wonder if she will seek state office again, as she did in her 2006 bid for Assembly.
“We’re extremely pleased with the current results,” she said.
“Our message has certainly taken hold,” she said. “I’m looking forward to communicating with voters and hopefully garnering support in November.”
Sonoma County 2nd District Supervisor candidate David Rabbitt, right, anxiously awaits the first results at his campaign headquarters in Petaluma with Cheryl Nelson, left. (CHRISTA JEREMIASON/PD)
Rabbitt, 49, an architect, is a first-term councilman who has won the support of business interests and the agricultural community.
A father of three, Rabbitt touts his experience in running a business, on the city’s architectural review and parks committees, youth sports leagues and the City Council. His opponents say he is beholden to business groups and doesn’t have enough political experience.
As the early results were released, Rabbitt said he was “not nervous, more anxious.”
“All I’m hoping for is that I’m in the top two,” he said. “It puts me in a great position for November. That’s all I can hope for.”
Rabbitt’s campaign consultant, Rob Muelrath, predicted Rabbitt will stay in the top two.
“He will undoubtedly make the runoff, and prevail come November,” he said late Tuesday.
Healy, 52, is a civil attorney and an engineer who has been on the Petaluma City Council for 10 years, following a term on the Planning Commission.
He is considered slightly more moderate, ideologically between Torliatt and Rabbitt, although he and Rabbitt frequently are on the same side opposing Torliatt.
“The night is young,” he said of his third-place position.
Torliatt and Rabbitt garnered the most endorsements and raised the most money, although Healy benefitted from strong name recognition and his lead role in fighting Indian casino proposals south of Petaluma and in Rohnert Park.
Water activist King, 53, an accountant and Penngrove rancher, billed himself as the rural candidate who would represent rural voters on the board.<NO1><NO>
Voters Tuesday found positives in each candidate.
Sam Trujillo of Cotati said he voted for Rabbitt because he appreciated the candidate’s outreach. From Rabbitt’s multi-page mailer and a Sunday visit from a campaign volunteer, Trujillo said he felt confident in Rabbitt.
“I got a lot of information from them,” he said.
Another Cotati voter, Sally Ladd, said she put faith in Torliatt’s history in Sonoma County.
“She’s a rancher,” she said. “She understands issues like land and water — not the easy-come, easy-go ideas. Money is always an issue, but she understands the long-term issues.”
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Torliatt and Rabbitt claim to have “messages” they got across to the voters. But if you look at all the mailers they sent out, there was no message, other than perhaps “play it safe” and use the appropriate buzz words and catch phrases to make it sound like we know what we are doing. A runoff between Healy and King would have been a real choice. Torliatt and Rabbitt were backed by big money and special interests. Don’t you wonder why that is? Maybe because they can be counted on to do the bidding of their supporters. It’s sad times ahead for Sonoma if this is the best we can do.
Pam has a problem. Her supporters are fanatical and would turn out if she was in a race against a pile of clay. Yet she only captured 38% this time …. so who is going to vote for her in November that didn’t already?
Rabbitt supporters…watch out for the hit piece that will be coming at you from the North Bay Labor Council. They painted Michael Wilson as polluting the Gulf of Mexico because his brother has some oil companies for clients. If Rabbitt has ever had a client, look out for the hateful mudslingers who control the unions.
Congratulations to Mayor Pamela Torliatt for her outstanding first place finish in Tuesday’s primary election. She received 38% of the vote in a four-man race. This is an enormous gain of 13% to 20% over her opponents. No photo finish there. Her overwhelming success at the polls is no accident. It is the electorate’s recognition of her 18 years of exceptional community service, 18 years of experience with both city and county government issues, and 18 years of earning the public’s trust. She is more than qualified to serve as a County Supervisor and has been for years. Its all talk until the votes are counted, and the reality of her achievement Tuesday night can’t be disputed. Bravo Ms. Torlaitt! I look forward to voting for you again in November, and many times thereafter.
Some of these negative comments towards Pam are ridiculous. She will easily be the winner in November.
Torliatt is using her rancher boyfriend and claims to be a “rancher” herself. She does not have a “real” job so she now claims to be a bookkeeper for her boyfriend.
We should all be very proud to have a candidate for supervisor as fine as David Rabbitt. His signs were on lots of rural parcels…protected by open space..so how can you claim that he is all about development? Without some development there would be no jobs. No jobs, no taxes, no police, no fire, no nothing. Pam wants to bankrupt our city and spend the entire reserve. A very dangerous idea. Rabbitt is the man!
Pam Torliatt is not a “rancher.” She knows nothing of land and water use. She has never had a real job, always being provided for by her family. People need to wake up. Like in Petaluma, she will only tie everything up in committee. She will never take responsibility for any problems, but tranfer them to appointed cronies. She will only hurt the residents of south Sonoma County.
David and Pam are both excellent candidates and we are very lucky in Petaluma to have such good choices. In most races you have to hold your nose and vote for the person who stinks the least; not so for the 2nd district. I wish people would stick to sharing their positive opinions instead of thinking that negative comments about one candidate will be good in the end for the other – the DA race showed that to be totally false, at least in Sonoma County.
Congrats to David Rabbit. I hope he prevails.
Ms. Torliatt feels that business owners should be honored to have the privilege of operating a business in Petaluma – lady, it should be the other way around! Petaluma should be thanking business for being there. With Torliatt’s attitude this county will continue to sink further into dysfunction. Vote for Rabbit!
I look forward to watching the Petaluma mayoral race shape up In concert with the 2nd District supervisor race. David Glass has prioritized “working with Supervisor Pam Torliatt” as one of his main objectives in a second Glass mayoral administration. Which makes sense in light of their ideological common ground on Petaluma’s city council. If 2010 continues to evolve as a tough year for those seen is incumbents (or worse, business-as-usual insiders), Jeff Mayne’s mayoral candidacy could make the race quite lively. Depends significantly, though, on whether Maynes has the energy and instincts of a compelling candidate.
Pamela Torliatt was born and raised in the Liberty area northwest of Petaluma where her family still lives. Rabbitt came here from San Francisco and has never claimed any time living in any rural area. Torliatt has 18 years experience in the political arena with 4 years as mayor. Rabbitt has four years of political experience where he never had an original thought in his head, never has shown real compassion for the people and has never shown anything resembling leadership. The last thing we need is another supervisor like that. Watch any city council meeting to see that.
I honestly wish that the runoff had been between Torliatt and John King. But I am so glad that Mike Healy completely tanked.
Rabbitt enters the runoff with a strong shot at garnering votes from supporters of moderate Healy and fiscal conservative King, especially because Rabbitt did not focus his campaign against either candidate. Thus Rabbitt stands a too chance of getting their endorsement as a sort of mainstream centrist alternative to left-leaning Torliatt, who, let’s face it, is simply biding her time for a shot at the compressional seat now held by the increasingly senile Lynn Woolsey. So a vote for Rabbitt this fall has the double advantage of electing a commonsense moderate and derailing liberal-careerist Torliatt’s quest to follow her mentor Woolsey’s example of holding on to a congressional seat by being a predictable vote against free markets, national defense, and individual rights.
Speaking of reckless, Pam just and her cronies just pushed through a budget that will deplete Petaluma’s reserves down to $5000…that essentially puts the city just one small incident away from being completely bankrupt. Couple that with her unrealistic views of how to increase revenues for the city…lets just say I am glad I dont live in Petaluma. But now people want her to help run our county. Just like her mentor Lynn Woolsey, all I have to say is “are we really better off with these two in office?” Isnt time we had better representation?
Congratulations to both candidates. I am sure common sense will prevail as it did in the north county election. I look forward to some honest debate.
Great job David and congratulations! Keep up the good work for the Petaluma community. Sonoma County truly needs your talents in the supervisor seat come November.
Torliatt is not a “rancher” – she supposedly works on a ranch that her boyfriend owns but lives in the city.
Or does she still live in the city? If she’s living on a rural ranch, that would mean she’s ineligible to serve as mayor, no?
David Rabbit has only one interest in mind: Development. All you have to do is look at where his signs have been posted. Check out any realtor or building materials company. They’re all backing him. His goals are reckless and only serve to fill their and his pockets.
Great campaign Mr. Rabbitt! So glad you will continue on to November. Your commitment to the community is appreciated by so many. Congratulations!!