ELECTION ‘12//ALCO DIST 2 | Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi received one of her most stunning rebukes yet last Wednesday from members of a local Democratic club that lies within the supervisorial district seem hopes to represent this fall.

The chair of the Tri-Cities Democratic Forum, Dr. Raj Salwan, also a planning commissioner in Fremont, said its members voted “overwhelmingly” to issue a vote of no-confidence against the controversial assemblywoman who is aiming to resuscitate her political career as at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Hayashi is termed out of the Assembly at the end of the year and was convicted of misdemeanor shoplifting last January after she purloined $2,450 in apparel from Neiman Marcus in San Francisco.

In a statement, Salwan said Hayashi’s behavior and her current campaign for county supervisor is unacceptable to Democrats in the Tri-Cities of Fremont, Union City and Newark.

“We hold our public servants and elected officials to the highest moral and ethical standards, and rightly so–they create public policy that impacts every aspect of our lives,” Salwan said. “The most basic of our expectations are simple: honesty and obedience to the law. We realize that not everyone is perfect, and we all do make mistakes.”

However, our members felt that Mary Hayashi’s behavior has created deep and critical concern among local democrats. In addition, they felt that her insistence on continuing on in public service is seen by many as unacceptable. Although we wish her well in her personal endeavors, the members of the Tri-Cities Democratic Forum have chosen to make a public statement of disapproval for Hayashi’s continuation in public office.”

The Tri-Cities Democratic Forum is not the first south county group to register disapproval for Hayashi’s run. Earlier this month, the South Alameda County Young Democratic Club also supported a vote of no-confidence against Hayashi.

Although, the stern tone of the rebukes may be increasing from a small group of local groups, it is clear Hayashi’s star among special interests with deep pockets has not diminished. And while, she has not yet been able to procure endorsements from any local leaders of note, the flip side is none have come close to issuing any type of public condemnation for either her brush with the law or her run for supervisor. The reason, according to many in the area, is Hayashi still holds cache among monied interests and her ruthless reputation still precedes her.

CURIOUS PHONE POLLING Over the past week, numerous sources in Hayward have reported receiving phone calls from pollsters regarding the Board of Supervisors race in District 2. They include queries gauging voter acceptance for a candidate previously convicted of shoplifting and interests in a candidate who suffered from a brain tumor. Sounds familiar, huh?

However, two sources reported being asked another highly curious poll question. “How would you feel if a candidate had breast cancer?”

Although men can certainly face incidents of breast cancer, it is far more prevalent in women. Of the four candidates for supervisor—Richard Valle, Mark Green, Mark Turnquist and Hayashi—she is the only woman.

The poll question maybe nothing more than the campaign testing the waters for a gambit eliciting sympathy for Hayashi or a merely a strategy that never sees the light of day. Hayashi’s campaign had no comment.

VALLE’S BID TO BE THE SAVIOR OF HEALTH CARE Supervisor Richard Valle has been making the rounds recently giving speeches and attending round table discussions about the state of health care in Alameda County. On Friday, Valle spoke to residents in Hayward to discuss how to save St. Rose Hospital along with stabilizing the county’s hemorrhaging problem of serving more uninsured and underinsured residents.

On the subject of St. Rose, Valle is certainly an odd choice to lead the community hospital’s renaissance. Over the past decade, as a Union City councilman, Valle sat on the St. Rose board of trustees during a time when the facility nearly went bankrupt. Through rising health care costs and an increasingly poor payer mix that features a high percentage of uninsured patients, the hospital has surely been struggling for some time. However, there is more than enough evidence to show it was also poorly mismanaged under former CEO Michael Mahoney.

After the fiscal mess at St. Rose was finally revealed to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors earlier this year, the once pristine reputation of Mahoney quickly became that of a charlatan who hid the facility’s dire financial health from county supervisors until the moment it could barely meet payroll. At that point, the county rushed in to prop up the hospital with loans and a proposal to merge the facility with the nearby Washington Hospital Health Care District.

So, when did Valle, as a member of the St. Rose board, first know of the hospital’s poor financial situation and why didn’t he sound the alarm?