It’s down to the wire. Here’s our endorsement for San Luis Obispo County supervisor | Opinion

On the surface, there’s not a whole lot that separates the two candidates who hope to replace Debbie Arnold on the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.

They have similar credentials — Heather Moreno, 56, is mayor of Atascadero and Susan Funk, 66, is mayor pro tem.

They’ve voted together on many city issues, and in the current campaign, they’ve proposed some of the same solutions to countywide challenges like homelessness, the lack of childcare and threats to groundwater basins.

Both candidates are smart, highly capable and would be able to make a near-seamless transition from city to county government.

But scratch the surface and there are some profound differences.

Moreno is a Republican, which gives her a slight edge in a district where there are roughly 1,000 more Republican voters than Democrats. And while those demographics may be a deciding factor in the race, Moreno downplays the role of partisanship in local elections.

“This race should be a nonpartisan race,” she said at a recent candidate’s forum. “And if you look at my record, there is nothing about me as mayor that shows me as a partisan mayor.”

Moreno declines to speak about national politics, and on local issues of a partisan nature — the effort to recall liberal Supervisor Bruce Gibson, for instance — she’s remaining neutral, almost to a fault, unfortunately.

She also declined to state a preference on what ranks as a watershed moment in SLO County politics: Whether the so-called Patten redistricting map — which radically redrew county lines in a way that gave the GOP an advantage — or the version that made only minor changes was the better choice.

“I never took a position on the map, and I don’t have one now,” she told The Tribune Editorial Board.

‘We don’t need bogus efforts’

Funk, a Democrat, has no such compunctions. She criticized the Patten map as “very destructive to public confidence” and dismissed the Gibson recall effort as a “bogus effort to go back and re-do elections.”

Nor does she miss an opportunity to draw a distinction between herself and Moreno on broader issues.

Take climate change.

Funk emphasizes that human beings are “a contributing factor” to climate change — which reads as a direct rebuke of Moreno, who co-wrote a Tribune op-ed in 2014 that questioned whether human activity is involved.

The piece referenced the views of a scientist, Dr. Richard Lindzen: “He acknowledges warming of the Earth, but stipulates the warming is minimal as will be its effects on the Earth, with natural and cyclical explanations better describing what is being observed in our climate.”

That was written 10 years ago, and Moreno’s views have evolved since then. “I think that it has been proven that there is some (human) contribution,” she told The Tribune Editorial Board.

Another Debbie Arnold?

Still, some Funk supporters point to that outdated op-ed as just one indication that Moreno will pick up exactly where Debbie Arnold left off in carrying on a far-right, Trumpian crusade.

Supervisor Arnold — who often vehemently argues for extreme, far-right positions — has been a divisive force on the board for years. Just this week, for example, she pushed for an discussion on the county’s Dominion voting machines and repeated a suggestion that we switch to counting ballots by hand.

Never mind that conspiracy theories targeting Dominion voting machines have been thoroughly debunked. Or that Fox News agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit.

Moreno, on the other hand, is no extreme partisan, and she deserves to be evaluated on her own merits.

Unlike Arnold, Moreno has broken with the local GOP on more than one occasion: in supporting the late Steve Martin, a Democrat, for Paso Robles mayor and in backing two local tax measures to improve services in Atascadero — a courageous move for a member of the party of No New Taxes.

Consider, too, that the city of Atascadero has been a leader on several issues liberals hold dear.

It has an impressive record for creation of affordable housing. It’s ECHO homeless shelter was, for many years, the only such facility in the North County. It’s championed the LGBTQ+ community and created a program to help homeowners remove racist, “whites only” covenants from old property deeds.

No one person or agency is responsible for these successes, but as the leaders of the city, Moreno and Funk both share in the credit.

What each candidate would bring to the table

No matter which candidate is elected, she will hopefully change the dynamics of an often dysfunctional board that’s seen more than its fair share of partisan clashes.

In Moreno, we have someone who would strive for consensus, as she’s done as mayor. She also would bring a moderate perspective to a board that has tilted either left or right for years, with little in-between.

We also like the analytical approach she takes to issues. For instance, she’s calling for an audit of homeless services to make sure that funds invested in services are well spent.

Funk, on the other hand, is more transparent. Rather than avoiding issues, she is willing to acknowledge the current political environment and to call things as she sees them.

Consider her response to this question posed at a forum: “Do you fully support our county clerk-recorder and believe in the accuracy of the voting process?”

Funk forcefully stated that county supervisors “need to stand up for the clerk-recorder” when election integrity is questioned.

Moreno offered a more lukewarm response: “I don’t have any particular issues with the County Clerk’s Office. I think they are doing the best job they can do.”

Granted, the Elections Office has made mistakes. But so has the Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office, yet support for those agencies remains steadfast among conservatives. The Elections Office deserve the same level of respect and support.

Our endorsement

We have deep respect for Heather Moreno, but this is not the time to default to neutrality or to keep a narrow focus on San Luis Obispo County, as though we’re immune to what’s happening in other parts of the nation.

Attacks on the integrity of Dominion voting machines, for example, didn’t arise in a vacuum. They are part of a broader conspiracy.

Our democracy is fragile. Elected officials at every level must forcefully call out falsehoods and condemn abuses of power wherever they appear, whether it’s in the form of verbal attacks on an elections official or adoption of a gerrymandered redistricting map.

We saw what happened in 2020, when followers of a defeated and bitter president led numerous efforts at national, state and local levels to undermine the U.S. Constitution and invalidate the results of a legitimate election. We hope there is no repeat in 2024, but we need to be prepared, and that means electing leaders who will stand up to those who would undermine our democracy by any means necessary.

We have no doubt that Funk would do exactly that, while at the same time bringing the expertise she’s gained in Atascadero to San Luis Obispo County.

The Tribune endorses Susan Funk for District 5 supervisor.

This story was originally published February 9, 2024 at 5:00 AM.