The Citizen spoke with State Treasurer Bill Lockyer Thursday night at the campaign grand opening of Nadia Lockyer’s headquarters in Hayward. He talked about his wife’s crendentials for the District 2 seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, his role, the lawsuit against her opponent Liz Figueroa and the fate of San Leandro Hospital. 

The Citizen: There is not doubt your presence in this race influences nearly every aspect of this campaign for Nadia and her opponents. 

Bill Lockyer: My district was essentially this district from 1973 to 1998, then my district got bigger–from Oregon to Mexico. I met Nadia 10 years ago when she was president of the school board in Santa Ana. She was this passionate reformer who wanted to do things about educational equality, particular in a district that was heavily minority. She was also a lawyer for the unfairly convicted. She’s a woman who wanted to change the world and we’ve been together ever since and now this is her election, it’s her time. I’m just a volunteer.

Some people in the area see parallels with the notion when Rep. Pete Stark steps down, his wife will take over.

I’ve heard that before.

This situation is a little different, she’s not trying to succeed you, but the charge out there is why does Nadia Lockyer think she is qualified to be supervisor. Is it because she’s Bill’s wife?

No. Well, some might say that, but she’s independently qualified. She ought to be doing this sort of thing. I help and hurt, I guess.

Having your backing is also a boon to her, right?

There’s nothing I or she can do about. It’s a fact that were married [pointed to their son, Diego] It’s a fact of life and I suggest people should decide whether it’s tie for something new or do they want more of the same old politics. If they want someone with a little energy and passionate about change and helping people, I think they will say yes, but she has to do her campaign I can’t do it.

Last week, a lawsuit was filed against one of Nadia’s opponents, Liz Figueroa, was there a ruling Thursday? 

The judge said it was a misleading ballot designation and needed to be rewritten. Instead of “job developer”, it’s “unemployment case worker” and that’s sort of not totally accurate, either, but OK. Our point really was, if you start your campaign trying to mislead the voters, someone really ought to call you on it.

There could be announcement on San Leandro Hospital any day now. Any thoughts?
All the candidates in this race are essentially of the same view that it should stay open. It’s important to the community.

If elected, and nobody knows how long the hospital’s fate will lie in limbo, the occupant of this seat could become the important third vote on the board that isn’t there, since current Supervisor Gail Steele has not been supportive of the hospital outside of having the county run it.

As I understand it, what is the relationship between the county hospital and San Leandro and are there shared facilties? Is there county money involved to try keep it open as an ER? So, those are issues that could imvolve the county.

The problem with the issue is nobody has put forth any money.

Well, we don’t know that yet. There’s a question of whether there ought to be.

Would you say the District needs to pony up some money?

I don’t know. I don’t know.

But you’re Bill Lockyer.

I’m just watching. I’m not the one who has authority to do anything about it. I’m for keeping it open and I think they should try hard to do that, maybe the District, Sutter or the county and various entitities are going to have to figure out how to get it done. Nadia’s argument is, she’s good at that. She has a history of bringing people together that are at war with each other, thinking things out and making progress. She has a good track record at that.

Thank you, sir. 

Thank you.

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