When I was on City Council, a young woman was hired as an assistant in the administration office. I watched as she began to study, learn, and eventually to practice her craft under the guiding eyes of the very capable city clerk.
Now Elaina Cano is the appointed SLO County Clerk-Recorder, and she is running to be elected to continue in that office.
Clerk-recorder is not a political office, but rather a very technical position. Fair and transparent elections are vital to our democracy, and it is important that we have someone who has experience doing the job.
The nonpartisan office is not a place to learn by doing. Elaina Cano is a certified professional who has studied, learned, practiced and is now providing the public service required of a clerk-recorder.
To this day, I do not know what Elaina’s personal politics are, as it should be. I encourage everyone to vote for the most qualified candidate for SLO County clerk-recorder on the ballot in June. Elaina Cano is the one.
Christine Mulholland
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Best of SLO County 2022.
My 2 cents on the clerk-recorder candidates:
On 4/21/22 New Times published the three questions that I sent to the candidates for clerk recorder (https://www.newtimesslo.com/sanluisobispo/…).
I posed those 3 questions in hopes of discovering if any of the candidates were right-wing nut-jobs intent on subverting our democracy by limiting access to the ballot.
On the basis of one brief phone call I can safely report that James Baugh is that right-wing nut-job. Talking to him was like being in a conspiracy-theory chat-room where EVERYONE WRITES IN ALL CAPS!!!!!! In response to my question about the 2020 Presidential election he said that we would never know who really won that election because THE EVIDENCE HAD BEEN DESTROYED!!!!! I terminated the call as quickly as I could, but not before he told me that he wanted to restrict access to vote-by-mail ballots.
Regarding the other two candidates: I have no additional information to add to the discussion because neither responded to my questions. However, based on the fine reporting in the New Times, and a quick tour of their websites, I would like to offer the following opinions:
Stew Jenkins is an attention seeker who likes to show off his socks. He has no experience running a clerk-recorder office. He embraces the Big Lie with his campaign slogan.
Elaina Cano is a competent bureaucrat – a bit of a nerd, helpful, unbiased, patient – just the kind of person we want in that office.
-Moe McEwen, Morro Bay
Thank you, Moe McEwen, for relating your encounter with Stew Jenkins. The goal of white nationalist Trumpers/conspiracy hustlers is to seize power in order to impose a minority rule that favors a right wing authoritarian positions, suppresses LGBT people, and reduces women to second-class citizenship, etc.
Gordon Fugile: You might want to read Stew Jenkins candidate statement. He is a registered Democrat, and active in the ACLU, and an unlikely member of the “white nationalist Trumpist/conspiracy hustlers”. But, hey, don’t let that ruin your narrative and outrage.
I made an error in my earlier posting. I meant to describe James Baugh, NOT Stew Jenkins. I apologize to Mr. Jenkins.
Stew Jenkins is unfit for public office.
Want to offer a few corrections to Mr. Satchmo. He is a registered Democrat, but has not been involved with the SLO County Democratic Party for years. He helped form a non-sanctioned Democratic club that endorsed candidates, but it was misleading since his club’s endorsements were not official endorsements of the official club.
Jenkins is not active in the ACLU as he disbanded the ACLU chapter more than two years ago.
And he *is* a conspiracy theory hustler as he peddled the Big Lie with regard to questioning the “integrity” of the Clerk-Recorder’s office during the 2020 presidential election. He also served as pro bono attorney for CalCoastNews, one of the largest conspiracy theory hustlers of the Central Coast.
Reading through the GOP candidates’ statements in the California primary election mailer was disquieting, to say the least. If Timothy McVeigh hadn’t been executed, today’s GOP would have pardoned him and elected him President.
It’s pretty sick that sdj, one of the candidates for Clerk-Recorder, and his high school buddy mike nolan, had their buddy, t kieth gurnee, be the front man to file their frivolous lawsuit about comma placement on the ballot, of what the appointed Clerk-Recorder’s title would be. It is embarrassing and disgusting.
It was nice to see the judge threw the bogus intimidating (dirty) suit out of the court. That attorney(s) should be sanctioned for that frivolous lawsuit.
sdj says he’s nonpartisan. He says a lot of things that are not true. he is a cult member, contributor to and a defender of the local yellow press tabloid. The online tabloid is a cult dispensing in conspiracy theories and falsehoods. I can’t read it.
I will be voting for the nonpartisan appointed County Clerk Recorder, Ms. Cano.