By Deb Murphy

Inyo and Mono counties each have one contested supervisorial seat; Mammoth Lakes has two openings and three candidates, or is it three candidates and three seats? No, no—it’s three candidates with a fourth mounting a write-in campaign, two seats and an extra dedicated ballot just to make sure Mammoth voters get it right.

Inyo Supervisorial Districts 4 and 5, Mark Tillemans and Matt Kingsley, are running uncontested. District 2 incumbent Jeff Griffiths will share the ballot with Russ Aldridge.

Mono Supervisorial Districts 2 and 3, Fred Stump and Bob Gardner, are running uncontested. District 4 incumbent Tim Fesko will face off against John Peters and Bob Tems.

The three Mammoth Town Council candidates are Jennifer Burrows, Cleland Hoff and Bill Sauser. The write-in candidates, Brent Truax, will be helping his cause by offering rides to the Mammoth voting place, Mammoth High School.

These posts will be sharing the ballot with candidates for the California Assembly, Senate and House of Representatives, and then there’s the Presidential primary. According to Kammi Foote, Inyo’s Registrar of Voters, folks have been registering to vote in unprecedented numbers.

Who gets to vote for whom is a bit confusing since California has tried very hard to keep members of a specific political party from scuttling another party. If you believe the polls, the Democrats and Republicans are doing a pretty good job of scuttling themselves.

While it’s too late for voters to switch parties now, here’s the run-down, straight from Inyo County’s Registrar of Voters web page. If you did not declare a party at registration or registered as an Independent or Nonpartisan, you get to vote for everything but the Presidential primary. But, if you want to cast your ballot for the Democratic, American Independent or Libertarian party you may request one of those party ballots when you sign in at the polls. Voters who want to vote for a Presidential candidate from the Republican, Green and Peace and Freedom party are out luck. You needed to have registered with that party by May 23.

Since this is a Primary and not a General Election, the top two vote getters for Senate, House of Representatives and California Assembly Districts 5 and 26, for Mono and Inyo counties respectively, will appear on the November ballot. According to the most recent polls, California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, both Democrats, will make it through to the finals in the Senate race. Candidates for the House include incumbent Paul Cook, Tim Donnelly, John Pinkerton, Rita Ramirez and Roger LaPlante.

Mono County candidates for State Assembly, District 5, are Robert Carabas, Kai Ellsworth, incumbelt Frank Bigelow and Mark Beiden. Candidates for Inyo’s 26th District are incumbent Devon Mathis, Ruben Macareno and Rudy Mendoza.

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