The Weekly’s endorsements in select 2014 primaries, with a look at the long and stressful process before we vote.

This is how the sausage is made.

Over the course of a month, the Weekly’s editorial board invites candidates for certain elected offices and the backers of select ballot measures into our offices. Sometimes they bring their campaign managers or advisers; if they do, the advisers sit in the corner with the understanding that if they try to speak, they will be asked to leave.

The candidates and ballot-measure teams give opening statements, then we ask them questions. Some responses are better than others. Each contender is given two imaginary “chits” they can throw down at any time to refute what an opponent has said.

The candidates leave, and that’s when the fun – and we use that term loosely  – begins. After checking out the campaign lit and doing some follow-up research, the five members of the Weekly’s endorsement board go into a room and don’t come out until we have argued every point, gesture and nuance. We vote, we fight and we vote and fight until we reach consensus – or, if the divide is unbridgeable, a majority vote that decides which candidates and ballot measures we will endorse. These debates take longer than the interviews.

As of this writing, the Weekly is the only newsmedia in the county that still does endorsements. We believe it provides a valuable public service and helps cut through all of the noise in an election. We believe, based on the feedback we receive, our readers agree.

MONTEREY COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE

Andrew Liu

Much has been made about the “anointing” process in this year’s unprecedented judicial elections. Unprecedented, because three veteran Monterey County Superior Court judges – Kay Kingsley, Russell Scott and Susan Dauphine – simultaneously announced their retirements and endorsed the individuals they had seemingly hand-picked to succeed them.

There’s a sense that the anointing means an assured win. Stephanie Hulsey, in the race for Dauphine’s seat, is running unopposed.

In the race for Scott’s seat, the so-called anointed one is veteran Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers.

But Somers’ opponent, Andrew Liu, is not an outlier in this election. He has wide support from a diverse cross sector of the community – from U.S. Rep. Sam Farr and Assemblyman Luis Alejo to Seaside Deputy Police Chief Louis Lumpkin and Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter, a veteran ex-Salinas detective. He’s also backed by eight current Monterey County judges, a number of retired judges and several appellate court judges.

More important than who’s backing him is Liu’s depth and breadth of experience. He’s been a prosecutor, Assistant DA in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and a trial attorney on both sides of the system in Monterey County. That combines to make him a unique and valuable addition to a bench heavily weighted with ex-prosecutors.

In other words, Liu will bring balance. And it’s why the Weekly is endorsing him for Office No. 3 of the Monterey County Superior Court.

Within three months of joining the Monterey County DA’s office, he was promoted to the major felony unit, where he notably prosecuted former Registrar of Voters Tony Anchundo for embezzlement of public funds. After three years with the county, he became a defense attorney.

How does a veteran prosecutor change sides? It’s a question many have asked him. His answer: By realizing justice is a two-way street that must take into account justice for the victims and vigorous representation for the accused.

“Having now been on the inside and the outside, I have the ability to affect the community in a broader and more positive way,” he says.

During the Weekly’s editorial board meeting, Somers said prosecutors are ethically, legally and morally bound to do the right thing. But that’s a credo held by all attorneys because it’s in the canon of ethics. He’s definitely a hard-charging prosecutor who, at least recently, has been put before the public on a series of high-profile cases, most notably the prosecution of King City police officers accused of corruption.

Both men are qualified, but experience and the balance he will bring give this one to Liu.

MONTEREY COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE

Heidi Whilden

OK. Technically, Heidi Whilden is an anointed one: Superior Court Judge Kay Kingsley endorsed Whilden’s candidacy simultaneous to announcing her own pending retirement.

But our endorsement of Whilden, who faces Administrative Law Judge Luma Serrano Williams in the race for Office No. 10 of the Superior Court, was an easy decision: Whilden has already been doing the job as an appointed court commissioner on assigned cases since 2011.

She was appointed to that job with a unanimous vote of all the Superior Court judges. Before that appointment, Whilden served a judge pro tem since 2008, acting as a temporary judge for family law and Department of Child Support Services calendars.

In family court, Whilden is known for her deft handling of people going through some of the worst times of their lives. Her temperament is pitch perfect, but she maintains decorum and discipline – a delicate balance.

She is especially adept at handling children in crisis, something that relates back to her own childhood. Her parents were killed in a car crash when she was very young, and she was raised by a grandmother who didn’t have a lot of resources.

“It’s a natural fit for me,” she says of her work in the family court system. “I think back to what I needed, and I see these at-risk kids, and it makes it really measurable for me.”

Whilden also advocates for the system to provide interpreters throughout the family law system. Currently, many parties find they need to bring their own interpreters to court. Further, she will advocate for her current commissioner spot to be converted into a judgeship, which should help improve case flow.

THE WEEKLY IS THE ONLY NEWSMEDIA IN THE COUNTY THAT STILL DOES ENDORSEMENTS.

Serrano Williams works as an administrative law judge (ALJ) for the state’s Unemployement Insurance Appeals Board. She’s highly educated, with a law degree from Columbia, and her experience gives her a good understanding of process. But a recent campaign mailer gave us (and other media) pause. Serrano Williams claimed she was the only candidate with judicial experience, and that’s not true. Whilden has proven she doesn’t have to bend the truth to win.

MONTEREY COUNTY SHERIFF

Scott Miller

This one is relatively straightforward, thankfully. The Weekly editorial board backs incumbent Sheriff Scott Miller in the four-way primary election.

The vote is a referendum on Miller’s job performance during his first term, and he’s done well tackling some formidable – and entrenched – obstacles.

He was asked to slash budgets without sacrificing safety. He’s done that by hiring lower-cost civilians to replace highly trained, highly paid deputies in positions that don’t require special training – like jail oversight in areas where prisoner handling doesn’t take place – and bringing in former Pacific Grove City Manager Jim Colangelo to capture efficiencies at a lower salary than a high-level deputy would earn.

He has also surrendered and deferred some of his own pension dollars – a fact his opponents tried to capitalize on by claiming Miller had lied about the deferral and which, frankly, ended up making them look dumb.

That’s just one place where the extensive public service experience as a Salinas beat cop, sergeant, captain, Pacific Grove police chief and city councilman has served him.

Miller was asked to address overcrowding and understaffing at Monterey County Jail. He has secured $89 million from the state to add safety, square footage and 576 beds. (He’s also hired 40 deputies since 2013.)

He was also asked to soothe relations with unincorporated communities like Cachagua and Big Sur, which helped lead the ouster of past sheriff Michael Kanalakis. Increasing accessibility, transparency and communication – including a noticeable increase in professional association and community meetings – appeared to aid that effort; impressive partnerships between law officers and private residents in the response and aftermath of the Pfeiffer Fire this winter confirmed there’s been progress.

At the same time, his fluency in Spanish and pro-immigrant politics (he supported Assemblyman Luis Alejo’s bill allowing undocumented citizens to carry driver’s licenses) have led to progress working with largely Latino communities in cities like Castroville and on the outskirts of King City.

There isn’t an absence of complaints within the ranks of the deputies about Miller, though. The strongest choruses: 1) Miller’s son’s drug-related crimes show Miller can’t police his own property (so how can he be expected to manage the entire county?); 2) district attorney-sheriff communication systems are antiquated; and 3) morale is low.

That morale, say his opponents – former Sheriff’s Cmdr. Mike Richards, retired Cmdr. Fred Garcia and Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Bernal – is a prime reason they’re running.

Miller’s son Jacob was most recently arrested and booked for a series of burglaries in Pacific Grove. In 2012, Jacob was placed on three years probation for selling methamphetamine. Scott Miller has been open about the ugly situation, even turning it into an opportunity by talking about how jail conditions need to improve and funding for addiction treatment needs to increase. (For better or worse, Miller demonstrates a cagey sense of how to spin things in his favor.)

He also has an eye for efficiency. DA-sheriff case-filing software is already in the process of being replaced. Miller is spearheading an effort to streamline booking and court times.

Richards was fired from the department and has a claim pending. Bernal and Garcia, meanwhile, are running under a banner of “crimes against the agriculture industry are the worst crimes.” In a county known for its gang violence, that’s a non-sensical stance.

Morale isn’t sky high, but it’s significantly higher under Miller than it was under Kanalakis, and that can be partially attributed to the house cleaning that came with the regime change.

MONTEREY COUNTY SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 2

Ed Mitchell

In our many years of holding endorsement interviews, no candidates have walked into our office more prepared for questioning than the three currently running for the seat being vacated by Lou Calcagno, who’s retiring after 16 years as a Monterey County supervisor.

Maria Giuriato, a former Salinas City Councilwoman and chief aide to Supervisor Simon Salinas, went on to become an appointee of the Schwarzenegger administration, working on health issues of the impoverished and then becoming the governor’s real estate liaison, helping Californians slammed by the subprime fallout.

John Phillips is a retired Monterey County Superior Court judge and former assistant district attorney who founded Rancho Cielo, which provides a safe haven, education and vocational training for troubled teens seeking a way out of crime and violence. Rancho Cielo, under Phillips’ dedicated leadership, has been nothing short of a game changer in the quest to get kids out of the gang life.

And Ed Mitchell is a West Point graduate, retired Army officer and former RAND Corporation fellow with deep experience in government contracts. He is now an environmental and water activist for North County.

The district, which encompasses part of North Salinas and the unincorporated county, will be well served by any of them.

But our endorsement goes to Mitchell, both for the small picture of what District 2 needs, and for the bigger picture of balance on the too-often unbalanced Board of Supervisors. Mitchell won’t have to catch up on the important issues in the community, such as water supply, land use and fracking, because they’re issues he’s already involved in.

North County, Mitchell says, has been abandoned in the quest for economic development because it was cut out of the opportunity to participate in the now-defunct regional desalination project. And District 2 was cut out, Mitchell maintains, because of a lack of political leadership.

“The future of Monterey County is going to be desal, and the sooner we get into it the cheaper it will be. Water equals jobs,” Mitchell says. “And there’s a specific way to get to there. I have evaluated every one of them.”

Mitchell also has taken a leadership position on the issue of fracking, and it’s a position that might take people by surprise. Fracking is going to happen in Monterey County, he argues, and the sooner we regulate it, the better off the county will be. Through his group, ProtectSalinasValley.org, he’s created a 22-point action plan for how that regulation should occur. Mitchell’s plan puts the onus on the fracker with an eye on protecting individual landowners and the agricultural industry. While he supported the two-year moratorium the county planning commission recently agreed to pass on to the supes, Mitchell has created a fully formed, 31-page ordinance that could provide the blueprint for how the county deals with fracking in the future.

“If I have to live with the gorilla, it means seeing people move from crop picker to roughneck,” Mitchell says. “So let’s do it in a manner [that leaves] no negative impact. This is not Oklahoma.”

The Board of Supervisors, in our opinion, sees too many 4-1 votes. Mitchell would provide a second progressive and knowledgeable voice to join Supervisor Jane Parker’s. He would also ally with Simon Salinas to pass approvals needed to develop the wine corridor.

“My focus,” he says, “is on getting jobs.”