Under the most recent prior TC ownership, policy prevented us from endorsing candidates for office.
And, I won’t always endorse a candidate unless I’m strongly compelled to do so. And in this election, I am quite strongly compelled to endorse Jeff Stone for the state Senate race.
He closely involves himself in our litte communities as much as did Kay Ceniceros when she was our county supervisor.
Because of his efforts, we finally — after about a decade — enjoy a larger library, but one beyond what we could have imagined. The community room, upgraded computers, large space and pleasing design benefit Idyllwild and made use of a long unoccupied old Cornet building. The county didn’t build, it rebuilt, respecting our community’s resistance to development.
The Historic Preservation District, another Stone idea, means many beautiful old structures downtown receive protection from people who might lack respect for this town’s unique history.
When Bonnie Garcia was Assemblywoman representing this area, she promised me once she would have a mobile office on the Hill once a month. I was excited and offered our office. I ran a brief, ongoing story in the paper announcing this great public service. But alas, we received only one visit from her rep.
She or her staff were not frequent visitors to our community. It was that lack of involvement, or more so, Stone’s very involvement, in these mountain towns that leads me to endorse Stone in the upcoming general election.
Mind you, his monthly meetings to Idyllwild became fewer as he hit the Senate campaign trail, but he made those visits regularly for years and he listened to us without making idle promises.
Becky Clark, Editor
