Menesini Apparently Will Run for Supervisor of District Five

Last week, City Councilman Mike Menesini announced to the Martinez News Gazette that he is running for county supervisor. This came as a  surprise to virtually no one who is even a little familiar with Menesini and his long-held ambitions. He’s had his eye on the supervisor’s seat for many years, and this year it was just a matter of waiting to see which district he was going to run in.

Now that it’s District 5, he apparently feels comfortable enough with the political landscape of East County and a couple of our western neighbors (Crockett and Hercules) to take on Federal Glover. It’s ambitious — Glover may not be that well-known to this area (yet), but he’s well-liked in East County and has been a supervisor since 2000 (two terms as board president). Menesini has won handily in Martinez, but has lost every other election he’s gone after outside of the city. That would include his run for county supervisor of District 2 in 1992, which he lost to then-fellow councilman Jeff Smith, and his 2002 bid for Contra Costa County District Attorney.  But Menesini has won every race he’s run in Martinez, beginning with his first bid for mayor in 1984. He has a lot of union support, but so does Glover. This is likely to be one of those local races next year that everyone keeps a close eye on.

So what about the other members of the City Council? It’s not like Menesini is the only politically ambitious one on the council. You almost have to assume that anyone who would have the nerve, energy and chutzpah to raise all that money and put up all those signs and knock on all those doors just to be one of five council votes for four years would have ambitions beyond the city, right?

So we asked.

Here are the results of our informal, but thorough, telephonic poll, conducted last week. We kept the question simple – are you planning to run for a higher office in 2012?

Mayor Rob Schroder:
“I do not have any plans at this point. There’s too much work to do with the city that I want to complete. I just went through an election. Emotionally and physically I’m not ready to go through another one at this point.”

Mark Ross:
“Sure, we all think about (running for higher office). Other than that, no comment.”

Lara DeLaney:
“I’m not ready to say anything at this point. “

Janet Kennedy:
No.

Mike Menesini:
The rascal never returned our phone call, so we can't confirm his intentions. But I would bet the farm that he's running. 

EVENTS:

TODAY IN HISTORY (from Wikipedia):

1920 - The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

1958 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.

1963 - American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.