Greg Sowards

Craig Green

In 2010, Placentia City Councilman Greg Sowards lost his re-election bid to elected City Treasurer Chad Wanke by 3.9%.  (In the race for two seats, Councilman Joe Aguirre won 23.9% of the vote, Wanke 23.3%, Sowards 19.4%, and three other candidates split the remainder of the vote.)  The Placentia Council then appointed Craig Green as Treasurer to fill the vacancy left when Wanke joined the Council.

On Monday, July 16, the first day of the filing period, Green pulled papers to run for re-election as Placentia City Treasurer.  The following day, Sowards pulled papers to challenge Green for Treasurer.  Then yesterday, Jo Ann Sowards (wife of Greg Sowards), pulled papers to run for the Placentia Library District Board of Trustees.  Incumbent Library Trustee Richard DeVecchio has already filed while recently appointed incumbent Gayle Carline has pulled papers.  Incumbent Jean Turner has not yet pulled papers.

How will Placentia voters take a husband and wife running for two offices simultaneously?  Particularly, when neither one of them is an incumbent.  If Green, DeVecchio, Carline, and Turner all file for re-election, will Placentians be willing to vote for a husband-and-wife team of challengers?  If one of the incumbents does not file, will one Sowards spouse be able to ride the coattails of the other spouse into office?  How much attention will there be for the campaigns for Placentia City Treasurer and Placentia Library Board?  How do you even campaign for City Treasurer or Library Board?  The Sowards family has just made Placentia’s November elections interesting to watch.