Trio jockeys for supervisor seat in San Rafael
Three San Rafael residents are vying for the District 1 seat on the Marin County Board of Supervisors held by Damon Connolly.
Mary Sackett has worked as an aide to Connolly since 2017. Connolly is giving up his seat to run for state Assembly. Sackett, who previously worked as an attorney, has emphasized her experience and familiarity with county government.
“I have constructive relationships with not only department heads but also front-line staff,” Sackett said during a candidates' forum sponsored by the Federation of San Rafael Neighborhoods last month. “I have a track record for cutting through the county bureaucracy and delivering results.”
“I have a different voice than our current supervisor and will do things differently, but I've learned a great deal about what the issues are that our county faces,” she said.
Gina Daly, a San Rafael Board of Education trustee, has worked as director of federal relations for the University of California, Berkeley, since 2015. Prior to obtaining a master's degree in public policy from the University of California, Davis, Daly spent about three years working as director of field services for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
“The past two years have shown us that today's challenges require fresh ideas, a willingness to ask new questions and the capacity to discover the opportunities in these challenges,” Daly said at the forum.
Daly and Sackett have staked out similar positions on many key issues. Both support the county's “housing first” approach to addressing homelessness and identify climate as one of the top challenges facing the county.
A third candidate in the race, George Saribalis, the owner of a San Rafael construction company, has focused much of his campaign on addressing crime.
“People no longer feel safe living in the city of San Rafael or Marin County,” Saribalis said at the forum. “People are afraid to go out.”
Saribalis said tools costing thousands of dollars were stolen out of his truck four times in the last two years and his neighbor was recently robbed at gunpoint.
“This can't be going on anymore,” Saribalis said. “We need cameras and license