Peter Coe Verbica
November 14, 2022
sanjoseinside.com

Pull up a chair and I’ll tell you a story.  It’s not about little red riding hood or houses built out of straw.  But there are pigs and wolves.

I’m a fifth-generation Californian who grew up on a cattle ranch and went to MIT.  So, I’ve looked back at the old and looked ahead to the new. I have training in real estate, law and finance.  I work as an investment advisor and an investment banker.  I have four daughters and am a baptized Episcopalian.  I have served on many non-profit boards, though I prefer being on horseback.  This year, I bucked the advice of many friends and ran as a Republican for the Board of Equalization (“BOE”).  I’m in District 2 which covers 19 counties that cling to the coast from the Oregon border down to Ventura County.

What’s the BOE?  It was created in 1879 to ensure that counties charged property taxes uniformly.  It collects alcohol and pipeline taxes.  Perhaps most unique to the Board is its Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate Office.  Some want the BOE folded under the governor’s office.  Those wary of consolidating power have argued otherwise.

As a Top Two candidate, I made it to the General Election.  To my surprise, I beat one of Gavin Newsom’s former hand-picked replacements.   (He appointed her to the SF Board of Supervisors when he jumped to his next gig.)  The good news?  Our campaign bumped up the district’s CAGOP percentage of votes by over 13% versus the last election cycle.  They’re still counting the votes.  So far, 584,090 voted for yours truly – more than 2.5 times the number of Republicans in the State of Wyoming!  The bad news?  I still lost decisively to a hard-Left progressive.  It makes you scratch your head and take stock.

Here’s what I learned, running as a commonsense Republican in California…

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