Who will replace Tommy Gong as SLO County clerk-recorder? It won’t be Julie Rodewald

Former County Clerk-Recorder Julie Rodewald — a highly respected election official who’s been mentioned as a possible replacement for Tommy Gong — says she’s not interested in filling the job on an interim basis.

“I have obligations to family and friends and volunteer positions I’m passionate about,” said Rodewald, who retired in 2014 after 20 years as top official at the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office.

Her successor, Tommy Gong, is leaving next month for a job in Contra Costa County, creating a vacancy in what’s become one of the most visible and vulnerable positions in county government.

Over the past several weeks, Gong has been relentlessly attacked by conservatives calling for everything from a “forensic audit” of 2020 returns to hand-counting of ballots. One critic questioned whether Gong was a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

This type of pressure is happening elsewhere as well; across the nation several election officials have either left their jobs or been forced out, leaving the door open for partisan conservatives to be elected to replace them.

“There will always be critics,” said Rodewald, “but I’ve never seen anything like the criticism being leveled at election officials now, and it came home to San Luis Obispo.”

It falls to the county Board of Supervisors to appoint someone to fill out the remainder of Gong’s term, which ends in December 2022.

The person selected will, in all likelihood, have a big advantage when voters select the new county clerk-recorder in the November election.

While the board has yet to decide on a process for filling the position, one person has already submitted a letter of application: attorney Stewart Jenkins.

Jenkins was the Democratic candidate for state Assembly in 2004, when he lost to Sam Blakeslee.

“I was a Democratic activist in the past but gained the trust of my friends in the Republican Party and in some of the less prominent parties,” Jenkins said, adding that he would run the elections office in a “completely nonpartisan way.”

“No one can do the job unless they maintain an absolute nonpartisan attitude for themselves and their office,” he said.

We agree, which is one of the reasons the departure of Tommy Gong is such a loss.

That’s especially true right now, when the county elections chief faces some of the toughest challenges in years:

• There’s a vocal minority of voters still pushing for restrictions that would limit opportunities to vote.
• There’s an upcoming gubernatorial recall election — which will be run as a vote-by-mail election on account of COVID.
• There’s redistricting followed, in short order, by the 2022 elections.
• And it’s possible the state Legislature may pass a bill requiring counties to send vote-by-mail ballots to all registered voters in every future election, which is another change the new elections chief would implement.

The Republican majority on the county Board of Supervisors may be tempted to appoint a like-minded conservative to the position.

That would be a mistake. From a practical standpoint, this isn’t the time to thrust someone into the job who’s had little or no recent experience running elections. This calls for an experienced hand, which is why it makes sense to look in-house first, at current senior staff members in the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office.

There’s also the matter of public trust. Appointing someone with a reputation for partisanship — either Democrat or Republican — also would be a mistake.

Rodewald advises running the office not just in a nonpartisan way, but in an apolitical manner.

“Apolitical to me means you really have no focus on any of the politics,” she said. “You have a ministerial duty to follow the state law, and it should not be colored by political leaning.”

That’s what San Luis Obispo County voters deserve from the person entrusted with ensuring elections are free and fair; we strongly urge the Board of Supervisors to keep that top of mind when choosing an interim clerk to replace Tommy Gong.

This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 6:30 AM.