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November 2014 Volume 3 • Number 11
Locally Owned & Produced
Communications Building Community Bridges
Lucid, Gutierrez Top Ballots for CSD; MH Military Veterans Lampel & Clements for LUSD Group Founder Speaks Out
Light General Election Voter Turnout Results in CSD Board Shake-Up & Some New LUSD Direction
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By Bryan Harrison
ovember 4th was general election day across this nation. Mid-term elections, like this one, have been trending increasingly downward in recent years, suffering considerably lower voter turnout than in Presidential election cycles. Early estimates had appeared that the Mountain House turnout would rate even lower than the lowest statewide numbers. However, the reality was quite to the contrary.
The Washington Post reported that this midterm election turnout dropped to the lowest level since World War II, nationwide, stating that only 36.4% of the registered voters nationally bothered to cast their ballots.
However, according to the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters, 2,336 people, from a pool of 4,295 registered Mountain House voters, actually voted. That equates to a little better than 54%. County wide, the voter turnout was about 42% overall. Regardless of where the specific numbers landed, results from this election are significant. The Lammersville Unified School District Board saw the reelection of incumbent Sharon Lampel, with Colin Clements beating out Atul Khanna in a race for a total of two open seats. In the Mountain House Community Services District Board race, Steve Gutierrez was the lone reelected incumbent, with new-comer Brian Lucid winning the overall popular vote, also for a total of two available seats.
What stood out most glaringly, analysts say, was the apparent vote for "not the incumbent" in the CSD race. Not only did Lucid take the popular vote, with more than 31% of vote totals for the four registered candidates, coming in third place was Thomas Lee, a candidate who did not campaign at all, and who denounced his own candidacy prior to the election. Lee stated that he had intended to run for the School Board position.
With two board positions to fill, Lee fell to Gutierrez by just about 3.4 percentage points, while managing to beat out incumbent Celeste Farron by a handful of votes. Lee's papers filed at the County clearly state, "in his own handwriting," according to Registrar Of Voters Austin Erdman, that he filed to run for the CSD. continued page 4
Why the Club is Important to the Community, Veterans By Steve Gutierrez
I organized the Mountain House Military Veteran’s Group (MHMVG) as a social network designed to enable veterans to link up and share military experiences. The “link up” sounds like a common factor, but actually serves an important therapeutic process.
Many professions that often engage in traumatic experiences find it difficult and challenging to cope and deal with the trauma. Research shows that peer support groups interplay significantly in healing steps to identify their hot spots (haunting memories) and offer the tools to show veterans how to cope with their traumatic experiences (hot Steve Gutierrez spots).
The MHMVG offers the opportunity for its veterans to serve their community in memorial civic events to keep the Never Forgotten remembered. We find recognizing the Never Forgotten also therapeutic in our long-lasting guilt we hold of loss comrades.
The MHMVG also serves as a group that reaches out to veterans’ family members as a support network, especially with members on active deployments overseas. These are often vulnerable and uncertain times for the family members. To hear a voice of a veteran or a warm handshake brings a sense of relief - you are not alone.
The MHMVG provides the outlets for other civic organizations to share recognition of military veterans such as the Quilts of Valor, the Cub Scouts and many more. Knowing that the community is supporting veterans helps with the healing process. This is evidenced when you see the different response Vietnam veterans received as compared to the more recent war veterans. One member of our group mentioned the difficulty being
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