Central Coast races remain heated as Election Day approaches

Election day for the June Primary is next week.

While many people have received mail advertisements and seen campaign promos on television, some might have sensed just how heated some of the races have become.

“You do not get to leverage that movement on John Phillips. Not John. I will not stand for it.”

Those words came out with emotion from the mouth of Salinas City Council member Kimbley Craig, who stood with other prominent women on Thursday at a press conference in Salinas in support of Monterey County Supervisor John Phillips.

Phillips is running for a second term as supervisor for district two. He is facing what his campaign calls “negative, mud-slinging” attacks from his opponent Regina Gage, who currently works as executive director of Meals on Wheels of the Salinas Valley.

Among the attacks the Phillips campaign says is being flung at him: a comparison of Phillips to President Donald Trump and suggestions that Phillips would be unfair to women.

“That’s absurd. That is just absurd. There is nothing in his record that would show that,” said Phyllis Meurer, a former Salinas city council member. In her speech at the press conference, she remarked: “We cannot afford an elected official who resorts to baseless accusations, name calling, scare tactics and outright distortions in order to try to get elected.”

Phillips himself was shocked by the direction the race has taken.

“The campaign for Gage has turned quite negative,” he said. “Now they’ve accused me of being unfair to women after you’ve devoted a lot of your life to making sure the women in our community got equal representation.”

KION reached out to Gage’s campaign. They did not respond to our requests for comment.

The Monterey County supervisor district two race shows just how heated these local elections can get.

One concern of Phillips and a prominent issue in the Monterey County Sheriff’s race is partisanship.

Sheriff candidate Scott Davis has purposefully branded himself as a democrat running for the law enforcement seat. According to incumbent Steve Bernal’s supporters, the sheriff’s race has always been, and should continue to be, non-partisan.

Davis has also been accused of embezzling money into his campaign.

“I knew from the start that the allegations were completely false and they were completely untrue,” said Davis at a different press conference in Salinas.

While that accusation has prompted the state’s fair political practices commission to investigate Davis, his campaign staff suggests the whole thing is a political stunt orchestrated by the Bernal side.

Expectedly, a spokesperson for the Bernal campaign has called that idea false.