Anyone familiar with San Benito County local politics?

[musiclawyer]

I wish to know if its board of supervisors is a reasonable bunch(progressive/democratic) or if the county is run by right wing nutjobs. This is important to me as it has to do with applying for a job there.

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. I live in Hollister

You don't want to come here. Trust me.

The supes aren't exactly right-wingers, but "progressive" and "reasonable" aren't words I'd use to describe them or anything else about this dogforsaken hellhole. Three of the five supes are Good Ol' Boys and there's a lot of political in-fighting and a constant battle of Old vs. New — Old wants no change at all, unless it gives them more control of the land, and New has no solutions whatsoever. The county votes about 55 percent Democratic except on social issues, where there's a large "family values" contingent, possibly because of the county's relatively large concentration of Mormons (about 7 percent).

San Benito County is 56th of California's 58 counties in return of tax revenue from the state. The economy is horrible and has been for quite some time. The unemployment rate is 12.1 percent, two points higher than the state as a whole. There was a tremendous housing boom in the '90s as the Hollister area became an auxiliary bedroom community to the Silicon Valley bedroom communities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill. The population doubled in the decade, but the infrastructure couldn't keep up, resulting in a moratorium on new sewer connections imposed by the state in 2002. It was only recently lifted, but building hasn't resumed because the economy is so bad; in the last three years, the average home price has dropped by about half, but no one's buying. (I've been trying to sell my house for 15 months so I can get the hell out of here.)

If you want any more info, PM me.