Former mayor Mickie Winkler running for governor

Winkler announced her plans in the listserv Menlo Park’s Future. There, she laid out “six in-your-face problems” her campaign plans to highlight — drought, fires, education, unions, power outages and transportation.

Winkler is one of about 20 people who have announced they are running for governor in Newsom’s recall election.

On the recall ballot, voters will be asked two questions — whether Newsom should be recalled and, if he is recalled, who should replace him.

The race is on now for those who want to appear on the statewide ballot to submit their roughly $4,000 filing fee or 7,000 signatures. Candidates must also be a U.S. citizen, a registered voter and can’t have any felonies involving the misuse of public money.

Others who have announced they are running are Caitlyn Jenner, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, former Congressman Doug Ose and 2018 gubernatorial contender John Cox. Other contenders include Jenny Rae La Roux, a Redding businesswoman and Riverside County Supervisor and libertarian Jeff Hewitt.

It’s likely that other candidates like Winkler will appear on the ballot. In the state’s one other recall, that of Gray Davis in 2003, 135 people qualified for the ballot. That included future governor and action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Diff’rent Strokes” actor Gary Coleman, former Huffington Post owner Arianna Huffington and porn actress Mary Carey, who is running again this year.

For her part, Winkler, 84, is running as an independent, and questions if any of the other candidates running will confront the power of public employee unions in politics.

“I call California the State of the Unions, and as long as we are a one-party state, the public employee unions will retain control of our legislature,” Winkler wrote in her campaign statement. “As governor, I will call out every bit of legislation that is introduced by the unions or a surrogate.”

Winkler also calls high-speed rail “a mess” and that the state should look instead at drones, air taxis and gondolas.

Winkler was on the Menlo Park City Council from 2002 to 2006, serving as mayor in 2005. While on council, Winkler voted against police raises, for the Rosewood Hotel on Sand Hill Road and for public bathrooms at Burgess Park. In 2010, she helped spearhead a successful pension reform ballot measure. Winkler now lives in Palo Alto, but previously told the Post she still prefers Menlo Park’s political scene, calling Palo Alto’s “unproductive.”