BY AMELIA BISCARDI
Daily Post Staff Writer
The San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee has voted to endorse a measure in a March special election to give the county Board of Supervisors the power to remove controversial sheriff Christina Corpus.
Only two years ago, the same committee endorsed Corpus in her bid for sheriff.
Committee chair Karen Maki said the committee’s vote on Thursday was 29-0 in favor of endorsing Measure A, with one abstention.
The county Board of Supervisors wants to remove her from office because of a pattern of “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest and abuse of authority,” as a report by retired Judge LaDoris Cordell put it.
Maki said she describes the Democratic Party as a large tent, with space for lots of opinions.
“We don’t agree on everything, but we do agree on accountability and being responsible,” Maki said.
Maki said many in her party were excited and helped the Corpus campaign.
“People are quite unhappy this happened,” Maki said. “Having a young woman, a Latina, as a sheriff is a big deal. So it’s quite disappointing to have it not work out.”
Corpus’s attorneys filed a petition on Jan. 10 in San Mateo County Superior Court asking a judge to stop the impending March 4 election.
Corpus contends that the election shouldn’t happen in March, but instead in November 2026 because the law says charter measures should only appear on the ballot in general statewide elections.
A recall effort, led by retired state Sen. Jerry Hill of San Mateo and retired Caltrain/Samtrans CEO Jim Hartnett of Redwood City, is in its early stages.
Reps. Anna Eshoo-D Menlo Park, and Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, are among the five people who have signed the argument supporting the measure.
The others who signed the argument are county Supervisor Noelia Corzo, Sgt. Sean Harper and Deputy Matthew Silano.
Meanwhile, the deputy sheriff’s union has created a political action committee to fundraise in for the special election on March 4.
The committee is called “Law Enforcement Against Corruption by San Mateo Deputy Sheriff’s Association” and is headed by Deputy Sheriff Eliot Storch, according to forms filed with the county.
Corpus and her supporters have not filed any fundraising forms with the county.
But Pacifica resident and volunteer diver Dan Stegink is the lone signatory on the argument against the charter amendment.
Stegink argues that the measure is “a political power grab by a few local supervisors, who seek to appoint an insider loyal to them.”
Stegink credits Corpus with the “near elimination” of catalytic converters thefts, a decrease in rape, burglaries and assaults.
I agree with Dan Stegink about the power grab and then wanting an insider, a “good ol boy”. I also feel the Sheriff’s Department was corrupt long before she came along. I feel they resent being led by a woman of color. I feel she has been set up. I voted for her, and support her fight to remain sheriff and for HER to clean up the corruption in the department. They can not just remove her. She is for the people.