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Two Fil-Ams poised to make history – again
SAN FRANCISCO – Two Filipino Americans in two counties are poised to make political history again as a result of the June 7 primaries.
Daly City Council Member Mike Guingona, the first Filipino American elected in Daly City, is gunning for a political seat never occupied by a Filipino or Asian American, while Contra Costa Ambrose Recreation and Park District board member Mae Cendana-Torlakson aims to be the first FilAm woman elected to the California State Legislature.
Both will duel with their co-winners in the Nov. 8 runoff.
Guingona, five-time mayor of the city in the continental United States with the highest concentration of Filipino Americans, will face fellow Daly City Council Member and current Vice Mayor David Canepa to represent District 5 on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.
Canepa bested a field of four with 5,991 or 45.74 percent of the vote in the primary. Guingona placed second with 2,840 or 21.68 percent. Torlakson placed first in her race by getting 25,380 or 32.5 percent; her opponent Timothy Grayson came a close second with 25,022 or 32.1 percent to represent Assembly District 14 covering Vallejo-Concord.
Meanwhile incumbent Assembly Member Rob Bonta, who in 2012 broke the Assembly race barrier for FilAms, sailed through with 60,092 votes or 87.9 percent over challenger Roseann Slonsky-Breault, who got 8,000 or 11.7 percent of votes for District 18 covering Oakland-San Leandro.
SAN MATEO COUNTY
The outcome in Daly City, northernmost town in San Mateo County, fulfills prognostication that the candidates from this city with over 100,000 would beat the candidates from the smaller towns. Cliff Lentz, current mayor of Brisbane, took 2,336 for 17.84 percent. Helen Fisicaro, current vice mayor of Colma, received 1,930 votes of 14.74 percent.
Placing second did not dampen Guingona's famous confidence.
"I am energized and excited to be in the runoff election despite being outspent by my opponents," he told Philippine News.
Topnotcher Canepa opted for magnanimity.
“We are humbled to make the top two and we will work hard to earn their (voter) support in November,” Canepa told PNews day after the primaries.
Guingona, seniormost of all four primary candidates with nearly a quarter of a century in governance, is optimistic the finals will favor him.
"The November general election will be very different as voter turnout was somewhat low even in this historic primary election,” he gave his analysis.
“The general election will include many more voters who will select only one of two candidates for Supervisor this time and not among four. I am already working to secure new endorsements and supporters and continuing to reach out to voters directly.”
The next round is a completely new contest, he told PNews, asking the electorate to fulfill his forecast.
“Like Hillary Clinton, my election will be an historic first for our community as I would be the first Asian – Pacific Islander San Mateo County Supervisor in our county’s 160 years of existence. I invite every voter in the district to help me make history."
Both candidates boast Filipino American leaders in their camps.
Canepa has community organization Pilipino Bayanihan Resource Center board chair Perla Ibarrientos and vice president Erlinda Galeon on his side. His biggest FilAm booster is fellow Daly Council Member Ray Buenaventura, who said Canepa “scored an impressive victory.”
“He did it with hard work and grassroots outreach,” said Buenaventura, previous president of PBRC. “He had a message that resonated.”
Current PBRC president Ray Satorre, however, beats the drum for Guingona, who last year appointed the entrepreneur to the Planning Commission.
Low-key but highly regarded business mogul Vince Agbayani rallied friends to his Hillsborough resident to raise funds for Guingona, Canepa hit the campaign trail first and posted signs earliest and widest. His name and smile flash from billboards at corner properties, on freeway islands and taxi bumpers.
Ibarrientos said she had expected her candidate to win “because I know he worked so hard.” But she admitted his commanding lead “shocked” her.
Former Filipino American Chamber of Commerce – San Mateo County president Ray Mascarinas blamed his community for the “disappointing" results.
"This shows that we Filipinos don't know how to live in America,” he told PNews. “Some Filipinos are gullible, believing they will be granted favors for their support. They don’t analyze the qualifications of the candidate.”
If voters bothered to study candidates closely, they would realize whose resume fits the supervisor bill, said Guy Guerrero, a Guingona confidante.
Guerrero, who sparked the effort in 2011 to shift supervisor elections by district from countywide, said a reversal of the outcome is possible in November if Guingona gains the support of Lentz, Fisicaro and their operatives.
In fact realignment is under way. Joanne del Rosario, lone elected FilAm woman council member in North County who had endorsed her fellow Colma council member Fisicaro, said she is now endorsing Guingona.
Guerrero said his candidate should be more visible than ever these next hundred days.
“Mike needs to walk the Filipino neighborhoods. He should hear Mass at various Catholic churches and Iglesia ni Cristo, approach FilAm caregivers and nurses.”
Canepa and Guingona, both Democrats, are vying to succeed termed out Supervisor Adrienne Tissier, a former council member in Daly City. She had endorsed Fisicaro. So did U.S. Congress member Jackie Speier, highest ranking Democrat in the area.
The opponents' websites list similar priorities.
Canepa vowed to “invest in public schools, expand programs for seniors and aid for at-risk youth while growing (the) local economy (by) creating permanents jobs… housing for seniors, veterans and young families, reducing traffic congestion, repairing transportation infrastructure and improving Caltrain.”
Guingona would “invest in services for seniors and youth, improve (the) transportation system and maintain the county health care system and quality of public safety services” while “promoting economic development for fiscally sound and sustainable government budgets.”
Guingona touts his profession (criminal justice lawyer, high school teacher and wrestling coach) and service (2nd lieutenant with the California State Military Reserve), and education (juris doctor, USF Law School, UCLA, Skyline College, Westmoor High School).
He is married to Jackie Castillejo, champion tennis player and theater producer in Manila. He has a son, Kai, from his first marriage.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Torlakson credited her win to “hard work and determination…unlike my opponent, who relied heavily on outside special interests and multi-millionaires and their lies about my record.”
Hers is the classic immigrant story.
Today she manages the University of California at Berkeley MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) program. Recently she won a third term on the Ambrose Recreation Park District, serving 28,000 residents of Bay Point and parts of Pittsburg east of San Francisco Bay.
Lately she has been reaping success, but she has had her fill of challenges.
“One of the reasons I have always dedicated my life to fighting for working families is that I have had struggles of my own,” she shares on her website. “When my first husband left me, I had bills to pay and had to raise my two kids by myself. I had to declare bankruptcy. That experience gave me even more empathy for people who are going through difficult times.”
As a new immigrant and single mother, she faced debt and lost her home, but her “faith in America” kept her focused on finding a better life for herself and her two children.
Experience “forever changed” her and inspired her to seek higher office to “create jobs,” she says.
Torlakson’s site lists her chairship of the Friends of the Delta Trail, under which the program received $4.5 million to “create a continuous trail network through five Delta counties while protecting sensitive habitat.”
Like Bonta, Torlakson was born in the Philippines. She came to the United States in 1988 following a successful sojourn in entertainment as a singer and recording artist.
She used earnings from that brief career to pay her tuition and earn her degree at the University of the Philippines, according to her site.
Electing U.S. citizenship in 1994, she says she shares her passion for public service with current husband Tom Torlakson, state superintendent of Public Instruction. He is a former member of the State Assembly and the state Senate.
Cendana-Torlakson is among the women achievers named Most Influential by the San Francisco-based global sisterhood Filipina Women’s Network. —Philippine News
