The Amador County November Elections Race is seeing some new, as well as familiar faces. The final deadline for filing was extended to this past Wednesday at 5 PM. According to the Amador Elections Office, the only change since last week is the addition of former councilmember Keith Sweet as a candidate for the Jackson City Council, which has three open spots. Of those, two are currently held by incumbents running for re-election, and the third will be vacated by Mayor Rosalie Pryor Escamilla, who has been on the Council for eight years. “(Being on the council) is a lot of time and effort,” says Escamilla, “but I’ll still be involved in the issues important to me.” Competing for the three open spots is Jackson Planning Commissioner Dave Butow, appointed-incumbent Wayne Garibaldi, incumbent Al Nunes, and local activists Judy Jebian and Marilyn Lewis.
Three candidates are competing for the two open spots on the Ione City Council. Incumbents Andrea Bonham and Jerry Sherman are being challenged by David P. Plank, a retired marketing director. The Ione City Clerk position will still be held by Janice Traverso, as she is running uncontested, and the City Treasurer Sharon Long is being challenged by Nancy Baldi. In Amador City, all open spots have candidates running uncontested. For City Council, Aaron Brusatori is running for a four year term. For the two year term, Michael Vasquez, a local Realtor, holds that spot. And for City Treasurer, the appointed incumbent Janet Spencer is running solo. Plymouth’s City Council race includes six candidates running for a total of three spots. Current members Greg Baldwin, Jon Colburn and Patricia Shackleton are all running for re-election. Gary Colburn, the brother of incumbent Jon Colburn, is also running, along with Maria E. Nunez and Darlene R. Estey, both of Plymouth. City Clerk Gloria Stoddard and City Treasurer M. Suzon Hatley are both running uncontested. In Sutter Creek, the three open spots for city council matches the number of candidates. Two are incumbents, Tim Murphy and Gary Wooten, with newcomer Sandra Anderson.
And in the School District race, four candidates are competing for three open spaces. PJ Karnaze and Mary Walser are up for re-election, and are running against Deputy District Attorney Janelle Redkey and Wally Upper, a retired college president. Amador Water Agency has four district races occurring, with at least two candidates in each district. In District One, appointed incumbent Madonna Wiebold is challenged by local businessman and engineer Bill Condrashoff. District Two’s incumbent John Swift is being challenged by electrician Gary Thomas. In District Three, Joseph Bonini is running against Don Cooper, a retired agricultural engineer. And in District Four, appointed incumbent Paul Scott is challenged by local activist and business owner Debbie Dunn, and business owner Brent Parsons. And finally, for the Volcano Community Services District, we have Nancy Bailey, incumbent, Terry Grillo, and Jane W. Norcross all competing for a four-year term, and Richard Gorremans running uncontested for a two-year term. We’ll have more in-depth profiles on all the candidates as we move toward the November 4th election.