“You just wait until my campaign is over. I’m going to find you and beat your (expletive) (expletive), you (expletive).”
Joel Young, former 18th Assembly candidate, to an aide for Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan at the Make Westing bar in Oakland, according to a police report.

“There were a number of personal factors that led to the situation where I made this absent-minded error. My medical condition may have complicated the situation, however, I want to be clear that I take full personal responsibility for my actions.”
Mary Hayashi, Jan. 9, following her attorney’s statement implying an undisclosed benign brain tumor made her shoplift from Neiman Marcus in 2011.

“We have a lot of unhappy people. They want to throw the bums out. We’ll see.”
Pete Stark prophetically tells a room full of constituents, Jan. 21, at a town hall meeting in San Lorenzo about Congress’s historically low approval ratings.

“With the strong encouragement and support of the people in my life who love me, including my husband, my family, and my friends, I decided to get help and treatment so that I may fully heal and recover.”
Nadia Lockyer, Feb. 14, announces she is entering rehab.

“There’s a way bigger story than sex tapes,”
Steve Chikhani, Nadia Lockyer’s ex-boyfriend, tantalizes a reporter and the entire Bay Area, Feb. 28, at a San Jose courthouse.

“Mike lied to us. He sat here and lied to us.” 
–Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Mar. 13, in an uncommonly blunt and public assessment of former St. Rose Hospital CEO Michael Mahoney during a Board of Supervisors meeting.

“He’s not exactly David Letterman, is he? He’s not Mr. Charisma. He’s not the type you have a drink with. I mean, you’re not going to go on a fishing trip with Bill Quirk. There’s no excitement there.”
Mark Green, April 27, describing the personality of his Assembly opponent, Bill Quirk, following a forum at Cal State East Bay.

“You’re a fucking crook.”
Pete Stark is overheard, April 10, telling Eric Swalwell following the infamous “bribery” forum in Hayward.

“There were two hold ups in that area. Apparently the city thinks that’s better than a Walmart.”
Daniel Temkin, a Hayward business owner, April 4, during a planning commission hearing that disallows his application for a Walmart grocery store at his empty Whipple Road and Industrial Parkway property.

“I may be done, but I did the right thing.”
Olden Henson, a Hayward councilman, May 28, following his tie-breaking vote that halts Walmart’s expansion in the city. However, the vote will cost him re-election a month later and ending 18 years on the council.

“If someone wants to say I was responsible for ACAP, I stand accused.”
-Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, May 2, at a forum in Castro Valley in response to an opponent criticizing his handling of the dissolved county anti-poverty agency.

“Sutter [Health] as a corporation is unfair, unjust and indecent.”
Jeanette Dong, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan’s chief of staff, May 3, at a discussion of Sutter’s potential plans to shutdown San Leandro Hospital as a general acute care hospital.

“So, what did u buy?”
Jesus Armas, Hayward’s school district president, texted on June 16, 5:56 p.m., to fellow school board member Maribel Heredia.

“Crotchless panties”
Maribel Heredia replies four minutes later.

“There are a couple of people in the audience inviting me to resign. Thank you for the invitation, but I will decline that invitation because I see no reason to take that course of action.”
Jesus Armas, Aug. 22, in response to residents calling for his resignation. He ultimately does not seek re-election in November.

“Bi doesn’t define who I am. Two spirits defines who I am at the core.”
Abel Guillen, a candidate for the 18th Assembly District, ambiguously reveals his bisexuality to the Bay Area Reporter.

PHOTO/Matt Santos
“The philosophy at Tri CED is: you can’t take a life unless you can replace it. You don’t have the right to take a life unless you can replace it. So, no matter what it is, an ant, a snail, a bug, you don’t take its life because it is connected to the universe and we are all part of the universe and there is a real connection between all of humanity and all of them.”
– Alameda County Supervisor Richard Valle, Sept. 21, waxing philosophical about his Buddhist faith and his recycling company’s ethos in a repsonse to a young girl’s question about faith.

“I’m Tea Partyer. I’m voting for you.”
-Unidentified Pleasanton resident in The New York Times, Sept. 25, who registers support for Eric Swalwell, a Democrat.

“She is going to play dirty because that’s what she does, but when she attacks, we are going to wait and see the white of her eyes and then we are going to come hard”
Richard Valle, Oct. 1, after taking a beating from Mary Hayashi at a forum in Hayward, he finally lashes out against his rival for supervisor.

“Check your facts, sister.”
Ursula Reed, a San Leandro councilwoman, Sept. 25, after her opponent accuses her of receiving a city-owned iPad. The allegation is found to be false the next day.