A decade after being toppled from the political pedestal he occupied for a quarter of a century, Joe Baca Sr is back, not too far from where he started more than four decades ago.
On Tuesday, the old lion was elected to the Rialto City Council in a five-person contest, replacing incumbent Karla Perez.
Adversity, perseverance and triumph has been the pattern throughout Baca’s storied political career, one in which he has soared to significant heights and dived to crushing depths.
In 1979, he cut his political teeth when he was elected to the San Bernardino Valley College District Board of Trustees, the first Latino to hold that post.
A Democrat, Baca nonetheless remained boxed in by his quintessential rival, Jerry Eaves, a unionist Democrat. Baca’s political ambition led him to challenge Eaves, who served as a Rialto city councilman from 1977 until 1980, Rialto mayor from 1980 to 1984 and as a member of the California Assembly from the 66th District from 1984 to 1992. Eaves turned back each of Baca’s challenges. In the 1988 Democratic Primary, Eaves captured 15,944 votes or roughly 54.87 percent to Baca’s 13,112 or 45.13 percent. In the 1990 Democratic Primary, Eaves with 13,336 votes or 56.45 percent outdistanced Baca, who polled 10,287 votes or 43.55 percent.
In 1992, Eaves elected to leave the Assembly and make a run, one that was ultimately successful, for Fifth District San Bernardino County supervisor. In doing so, Eaves designated his protégé, then-Rialto Mayor John Longville to succeed him in the Golden State’s lower legislative house. Continue reading →

By Mark Gutglueck
In a long-delayed visitation of political retribution, Grand Terrace Mayor Darcy McNaboe was voted out of office on Tuesday.
McNaboe was returned to regular civilian status as a result of what was a relatively narrow loss. In her head-to-head contest against Councilman Bill Hussey, she polled 1,052 or 48.66 percent of the 2,195 votes that had been tallied as of 4 p.m. today, November 11, while Hussey had claimed 1,127 or 51.34 percent.
History will record that McNaboe, who was first elected to the city council in November 2010 to fill a two-year vacancy and then reelected to the council in 2012 before she was elected mayor in 2014 and reelected mayor in 2018, was bounced from office by the voters on November 8, 2022. In actuality, however, the politically fateful day for McNaboe was July 12, 2017, on which she, as the Grand Terrace representative to the San Bernardino Association of Governments, the joint powers authority that serves as San Bernardino County’s transportation agency, voted with the majority of her colleagues on that panel in support of the I-10 Toll Lane Project. Continue reading →

Montclair’s reputation as one of the most politically stable cities in San Bernardino County over the last three decades remained intact with the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
While in the 1980s politics in Montclair had grown somewhat indecorous, with the differences between councilmen George Klotz and Walter Hackett on occasion declining to fisticuffs, and then-Mayor Larry Rhinehart engaging in some questionable interactions with some working girls on Holt Avenue just east of the Montclair City Limits in the midst of the following decade, Rhinehart’s successor, Paul Eaton, established a regime that lasted more than 23 years.
During Eaton’s tenure he was elected mayor and reelected four times. Throughout that time, councilmen Leonard Paulitz and John Dutrey and Councilwomen Elouise “Dolly” Lewman and Carolyn Raft and then Councilman Bill Ruh and Councilwoman Trish Martinez served with Eaton. The only changes during that time came when Lewman did not run in 1998, clearing the way for Ruh to take her place and Paulitz did not run in 2014, at which point Martinez filled that void. Continue reading →

It took a dozen years, but Kelly Chastain, who was ignominiously consigned to political limbo in 2010, has managed at last a political comeback.
Remarkably, Chastain achieved that feat as the seven-member city council on which she served from 1996 to 2010 made a contraction to just five members.
In 1996, Chastain defeated embattled Third District Councilman Abe Beltran in the same election in which Mayor George Fulp was recalled from office after he served just two years.
Chastain immediately formed a firm and fast alliance with District 5 Councilwoman Deirdre Bennett, one which lasted a decade during which time Bennett made the transition to Colton Mayor. That amiable relationship came to an abrupt end in 2006, however, when in that November’s election, Chastain eked out nine-vote victory over Bennett in the mayoral contest, 3,235 votes or 49.93 percent to 3,226 votes or 49.79 percent, wherein the margin of victory was a by-product of the 18 votes that were cast during the contest for write-in candidates. Continue reading →

By Mark Gutglueck
Thurston Smith, whose unlikely rise to the California Assembly in 2020 stunned many political pundits, was solidly drummed out of office this week in his contest against a savvier and more experienced political operator in the form of Tom Lackey.
Smith, an uncomplicated concrete contractor, came into political office in 2006 when he successfully vied for the Hesperia City Council with the support of Bill Postmus, who at that point was San Bernardino County’s First District supervisor and chairman of both the board of supervisors and the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee as well as a successful candidate for county assessor in that year’s election.
Smith served on the Hesperia City Council from 2006 to 2014, including a stint as mayor. He opted not to seek reelection in 2014, but in 2016, he ran for and was elected without opposition to the board of the Mojave Water Agency. Continue reading →

Over the last 14 years, the quartet of Ontario Mayor Paul Leon and his colleagues Councilman Alan Wapner, Councilman Jim Bowman and Councilwoman Debra Dorst-Porada have evolved to become an uneasily aligned political establishment at what is the center of San Bernardino County’s financial universe. Ontario is the most economically sound of all 24 of San Bernardino County’s municipalities, with more than two-thirds of a billion dollars running through all of its funds annually, making it more than twice as wealthy as its nearest competitor among the county’s cities and incorporated towns. It boasts being host to the corporate headquarters of a number of companies, by which the city claims the sales tax those entities generate. It is the location of the Ontario Mills, which features more than 200 stores and is billed as California’s largest outlet and retail shopping destination. In 2015, it closed a deal with the City of Los Angeles to have the megalopolis return to Ontario control over Ontario Airport, which Los Angeles had operated since 1967 and owned since 1985. Continue reading →

There were no surprises in Steel Town this electoral season, as Acquanetta Warren and the two incumbent members of her political machine cruised to easy victories in the 2022 Fontana Municipal Election.
Warren, who was appointed to the city council in 2002, elected in her own right and reelected in 2004 and 2008 and elected mayor in 2010 and reelected in 2014 and 2018, bested her two opponents in this year’s race, Shannon O’Brien and Councilman Jesse Sandoval.
Warren, as of the results available from the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters office at 4 p.m. on November 10, held 8,418 or 47.75 percent of the 17,628 votes counted to that point. O’Brien had received 4,071 or 23.09 percent and Sandoval 5,117 or 29.03 percent.
In the city’s District 1 council contest, Councilman Phillip Cothran Jr, with 3,579 or 63.55 percent of the 5,632 total votes cast, trounced his competitors, Ricardo Quintana, who registered 646 votes or 11.47 percent, and Alfred Gonzales, who came in second with 1,399 votes or 24.84 percent. Continue reading →

Based upon the election returns from Tuesday night’s voting, Helen Tran will become the City of San Bernardino’s first Asian mayor and, at the age of 40, one of the youngest in the city’s 168-year history.
According to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters’ office, Tran comfortably outdistanced former San Bernardino City Attorney Jim Penman in the contest, 9,444 votes or 62.02 percent to 5,763 votes or 37.85 percent as of 4 p.m. Thursday, November 10.
Tran will replace incumbent Mayor John Valdivia next month.
Valdivia, who first sought an elected position on the San Bernardino City Council when he ran unsuccessfully for Ward 4 councilman in 2009 and then succeeded when he relocated to Ward 3 and defeated then-Councilman Tobin Brinker in 2011, beat incumbent Mayor Carey Davis in the 2018 election after the city switched to even-number year elections. Continue reading →

In a rematch between the two losing candidates in the 2020 race for District 4 in Barstow, Carmen Hernandez competed and prevailed this week against Martha O’Brien, with the prize this time being the District 1 council position.
Council terms in Barstow, as elsewhere, run for four years. Hernandez and O’Brien were able to run again in just two years because of the shift in district lines that came about with the redrafting of the city’s electoral map in 2021 following the 2020 census.
Councilman Tim Silva, who has been on the Barstow City Council for nearly 16 years, is the current District 1 representative. He opted out of running for reelection.
Hernandez was an incumbent council member in 2020. She was challenged at that time by O’Brien and Marilyn Dyer-Kruse. When the dust had cleared, Kruse came out on top, with 570 votes 37.25 percent. Hernandez was turned out of office, having come up a bit short with 549 or 35.88 percent. O’Brien trailed both, with 411 or 26.86 percent. Continue reading →