Squid ruminates on election season antics, including a Weekly "sit-in" by Marina candidate Kevin Saunders.

Corner Office…Squid can barely turn Squid’s eyes away from the spectacle that is Donald Trump and the imploding Republican party, but Squid turned Squid’s gaze local and saw more campaign drama than Squid expected.

There was the case of the disappearing Bruce Delgado for Marina Mayor campaign signs, that enraged Delgado so much that he filed a police report. But his rage level is nothing compared to challenger Kevin Saunders, who was uncharacteristically composed and rational during a recent candidate forum, but let his old self shine through when he unleashed a string of emails slamming the Weekly’s endorsement process. (The Weekly hasn’t yet released its candidate endorsements—that’s coming Thursday—but the editorial board has interviewed dozens of candidates in person and by email.)

When Weekly Interim Editor Sara Rubin asked Saunders to reply to some questions by email, he instead demanded an in-person interview, and paved the way for a sit-in in the Weekly’s lobby until he got one. “I will wait patiently until I am seen and interviewed properly,” he wrote. “Don't turn this into a 'shit storm' Sara, I'm much bigger than you in this world!”

Saunders, remarkably, has proven himself to be bigger than the third mayoral candidate, Harold Krotzer, who’s running as a write-in. During a recent forum, following a coherent discussion about rent control, Krotzer excused himself: "They're way out of my league as far as this is concerned. I'm going to leave,” he said, then continued as he walked out the door: “You guys finish up. Sorry!"

But all of this campaign drama sidetracked Squid from a visit to Assemblyman Luis Alejo’s, D-Salinas, district office. Like the disappearing mayoral signs, Alejo’s office seemed to have vanished overnight. For years, it was in the federal building on West Alisal Street, next to the U.S. post office and Congressman Sam Farr’s office. Squid showed up and saw a sign on the door: “The office of Assemblymember Luis A. Alejo has relocated.” It doesn’t say where, but Squid oozed around Oldtown Salinas looking for the new office, and found it wasn’t gone, just relocated to a couple of blocks away, in the law office building of L+G. It’s owned by attorney Jeff Gilles—who recently held a fundraiser in that very same building for Alejo and his wife, Watsonville Councilmember Karina Cervantez Alejo, who’s running to succeed her husband in the Assembly.

Alejo’s job as assemblyman ends at the end of this year, when he takes his new position as Monterey County supervisor—which comes with a nice office just across the street, in the county admin building.

Squid wondered if the sudden move is Alejo’s way of telling Cervantez Alejo’s opponent, former Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, “I'm much bigger than you in this world!” 

Alejo, however, says the move was motivated by entirely innocent aims. In an email, he explained the move was two years in the making, and was because his former office didn't have working heater or air conditioner, and its narrow steps resulted in "serious injuries" to both visitors and staff. 

Furthermore, Alejo writes that whomever his successor is will move into his current office. 

Which might get a little awkward if Caballero wins, when she'd have conduct business in a building owned by one her opponent's supporters. It would be like Saunders setting up his campaign shop in the Weekly lobby.