Editorials in the Daily Post represent the opinion of the newspaper’s management and in no way reflect the views of the reporting staff.
Of the 11 candidates in the March 5 primary for Congress, Joe Simitian has more achievements and experience than anyone else in the race.
The top two vote-getters in the primary will go on to the general election in November and replace Anna Eshoo, who has represented Palo Alto and the Mid-Peninsula since the 1990s.
His priorities line up with those of the district: reversing climate change, protecting reproductive rights and tackling the housing crisis.
But unlike the other candidates who also claim those are their priorities, Simitian has a track record of getting things done.
In 2017, he led an effort to save the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park at 3980 El Camino Real from being replaced with new condos.
He’s championed teacher housing at 231 Grant Ave. and special needs housing at 525 Charleston Road, both in Palo Alto.
He’s also got a long list of accomplishments in the category of health care. To combat the high price of prescriptions, he led the effort to establish a county pharmacy and a program to ensure people get insulin, EpiPens and inhalers.
He was the driving force to add a wing for adolescent psychiatric treatment at Valley Medical Center and a drop-in store-front location for youths seeking help called Allcove. With his persistence against the sluggish county bureaucracy, Allcove opened in 2021 at 2741 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto.
Simitian wrote the state bill that created transitional kindergarten — the first new grade level in California since 1891.
Public service has been Simitian’s life: He graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1970. He earned his bachelor of arts cum laude in political science at Colorado College. He received a master’s of arts in international policy studies from Stanford, a master’s in city and regional planning from UC-Berkeley, and a law degree from UC-Berkeley.
He was on the Palo Alto school board from 1983 to 1991 before being elected to city council. He then went on to the Board of Supervisors, the Assembly and the state Senate before returning to the Board of Supervisors in 2016.
The problem with most of the candidates is that they have little or no experience bringing people together to solve problems. They talk about how they’ll get things done in Washington, but they have no achievements they can point to.
Simitian is easily the most qualified of the candidates in the House primary and deserves your vote on March 5.
Happy 71st birthday Supervisor Joe Simitian!
Eisenhower may have been president when you were born but your memory is still better than Joe Bidens!
In November 2024, your kids would still have to wear a face masks, if they need to see a doctor in Santa Clara County. Supervisor Joe Simitian is doing nothing to stop never ending face masks mandate in the county
The result of this editorial is that my faith in the Palo Alto Daily Post has plummeted to near nothing.
Santa Clara County has a $250 million deficit because of the blatant mismanagement of Supervisor Joe Simitian. Name one other field on this planet where you can leave your organization in a $250 million dollar hole and then be rewarded with a promotion or higher office.
Beyond that, Simitian showed utter disregard and a complete lack of ethics towards the employees of Santa Clara County in 2021. The state doesn’t get to choose what goes in our bodies. We do. My body, my choice. And Simitian was one of the most egregious violators of this most basic principle of autonomy and respect.
Shame on you, Palo Alto Daily Post. I thought you were better than this.
So-called climate change is a total hoax based on the same faulty, immature models of the fake “Covid” crisis and “pandemic”. We can admit as much CO2 as we like with no effect, because atmospheric CO2 and water vapor are almost completely saturated. This has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with control of how how ordinary people work, travel, eat, cook, shower, and vacation.
The government should never be in the business of providing pharmacies and drugs. The private sector can handle it adequately if government would stop micro-managing drugs and health care, which is why insurance prices keep sky-rocketing.
Reproductive rights? Please. Where was Simitian on forced vaccinations (my body, my choice?), forced masking (my body, my choice?), lockdowns (my business, my livelihood), school closures, quarantines – the worst civil rights abuses in our lifetimes, with not a shred of evidence that those measures saved or extended any lives. The CDC just announced that 5-day isolation period for positive PCR cases has been repealed and should be treated just like ordinary flu. So CDC caught lying once again since 2020 and “Covid” is no different than the flu, just like how the 6-feet rule was completely made-up with no “trust the science” behind it or the masks. Does Simitian support the CDC?
Why should we Palo Altans give our congressional seat to San Jose?
Joe is the smartest about critical issues, most experienced and caring of candidates.
We would be well represented and served by him.
Go Joe!