KERN COUNTY FACING CHANGE REDISTRICTING, TERM LIMITS OPEN MAJOR OFFICES.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

MOJAVE - Term limits, redistricting and a retirement meant Tuesday's election gave east Kern County a new sheriff, a new county supervisor, a new assemblyman and a new state senator.

In the only close contest, former California Highway Patrol officer Mack Wimbish edged out county supervisor Steve Perez to become Kern County's first new sheriff in 12 years, replacing retiring Sheriff Carl Sparks.

In the 2nd District county supervisor race, voters opted to replace Perez with one of his staffers - Don Maben.

Maben, a former sheriff's lieutenant who has served seven years as Perez's field representative, soundly beat Linda White, a former staffer for state senators Don Rogers and Phil Wyman.

``I'll go back to work now on the transition, so in January I'll be ready to take on the illegal dumping issue and get the county cleaned up,'' said Maben, who spent the morning after the election taking down campaign signs.

Maben's opponent ran into trouble in her campaign when it was disclosed she had been arrested three times on suspicion of drunk driving.

The race for the 18th Senate District was settled months ago when no one filed to run against Assemblyman Roy Ashburn.

Unable to run again for the Assembly because of state term-limit laws, Ashburn saw his political fortunes change when the state Legislature redrew 18th Senate District boundaries to cover much of the Assembly district he now serves.

In the race for the 34th Assembly District, Tulare County Supervisor Bill Maze, 55, beat Democrat Virginia Gurrola, who struggled just to get her name on the ballot.

Gurrola, a Porterville councilwoman, ran as a write-in candidate in the March primary after she missed a deadline to submit candidacy paperwork in December. She needed a court ruling to get onto the November ballot after getting wrong information over how many write-in votes she needed in the primary to qualify for the ballot.

The 34th District covers the east Kern County portion of the Antelope Valley plus Inyo County and much of San Bernardino and Tulare counties. Since much of their districts overlap, Maze and Ashburn have discussed sharing costs on field offices to allow them greater reach to constituents.

Wimbish, 58, will run a department with more than 1,000 employees and be responsible for law enforcement in unincorporated communities and the cities of Tehachapi, Maricopa, McFarland and Wasco.

He spent 33 years with the California Highway Patrol officer before retiring last year. The last 10 years of his career were spent in public relations, appearing as the CHP's spokesman for television and radio in Bakersfield.

Wimbish vowed to bring more deputies to the department; reinstate the position of lieutenant, which was eliminated during the late 1980s; and develop a 10-year plan for the department, laying out specific goals for performance and growth.

Wimbish also vowed to improve community relations with the department and to visit each community at least once every three months.

Maben said he wanted to enact an ordinance that would require residents to either have curbside trash collection service or sign up as a self-hauler.

Those who choose to haul their own trash would be issued a card that could be scanned at a landfill, providing a record of compliance with the ordinance.

Maben said he also wanted to see large-item collection pickup days established as well.

Maben, 60, a Tehachapi resident, said during his campaign he wanted to continue to work on such issues as the government center proposed for the community of Rosamond that would include a sheriff's station, a fire station and offices for the Rosamond Community Services District.

Ashburn is perhaps best known to the Antelope Valley for leading a legal battle in the 1990s to try to remove the Mohave ground squirrel's listing by the state as a threatened species. Ashburn contended that the creature was more plentiful than some researchers believed and that the protections for the squirrel were onerous.

The animal was removed from the list but reinstated after court rulings stated the squirrel could not be removed without an environmental review.

He is wrapping up his third term as the representative of the 32nd Assembly District. Prior to that, Ashburn served 12 years as a Kern County supervisor.

During his campaign, Ashburn said he planned to focus on legislation to expedite the building of water storage and water transport systems, new energy plants, transportation and school issues.

Maze listed water issues as his first priority in the Assembly. Maze said he wanted to see additional water storage capacity developed and was opposed to more strict standards for nitrates in well water, saying raising the standards would dramatically hurt water districts' ability to provide water.

Maze said he also wanted to see the state enterprise zones and federal trade zones established in the High Desert to promote economic growth. Such zones provide tax credits and reduce or eliminate federal trade tariffs for companies.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) WIMBISH

(2) MABEN