an unsuccessful election campaign in 2018 <\/a>by four San Francisco public defenders against Superior Court judges who had been appointed by Republican governors. And in 1986, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird and Justices Cruz Reyoso and Joseph Grodin were denied new terms by the voters in a campaign that focused on their rulings that overturned death sentences, the only justices to be voted out of office since California established yes-or-no retention elections for its top courts in 1934.<\/p>\nThose elections involved substantial fundraising and campaign advertising. For the Contra Costa County election, Hsieh said he\u2019s raised about $20,000, mostly to pay for his public campaign statements. Polyakov said he\u2019s relied on his salary and other personal funds, and hasn\u2019t gotten any outside endorsements yet but expects to find some before the June 2 vote.<\/p>\n
Hsieh, 40, whose parents were immigrants from Taiwan, attended UCLA Law School, then worked at the East Bay Community Law Center from 2009 to 2012 and at public defenders\u2019 offices in Contra Costa County and San Francisco before his judicial appointment. He is also a former member of the Oakland Police Commission, which reviews complaints against officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought about being a judge,\u201d he told the Chronicle, until one day \u201csomeone on the bench pulled me into (the judge\u2019s) chambers, and, out of the blue, said, \u2018You should think about being a judge. You have the quality and the temperament.\u2019 \u2018<\/p>\n
He waited another two years before applying to Newsom, who appointed him in April 2024. Regarding the election challenge, Hsieh said he\u2019s \u201ctaking it seriously\u201d but hasn\u2019t hired a campaign manager or consultant or sought any endorsements except from his fellow judges and the Asian American Bar Association, which hasn\u2019t made an announcement yet.<\/p>\n
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Polyakov, 63, was born in Ukraine, where he earned a doctoral degree in chemistry before immigrating to the United States at age 31. After working as a researcher and a pharmaceutical industry chemist, he earned a law degree in 2015 and represented private clients, including some criminal defendants, before joining the Stanislaus County prosecutors\u2019 office a year and a half ago. He lives in the Alameda County community of Oakley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have significant life experience,\u201d which \u201callows me to approach cases with balance, fairness, and an appreciation for the practical realities faced by all parties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Polyakov said he doesn\u2019t recall why he decided to run against Hsieh rather than another incumbent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m running for judge, not running for mayor of some city. \u2026 I don\u2019t want to disparage my opponent,\u201d he told the Chronicle. \u201cI don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to be a better judge,\u201d but \u201cI believe voters deserve the choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Said Hsieh, \u201cI look forward to another six years serving the people of Contra Costa County,\u201d but \u201cif that\u2019s not the case, it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oakland Police Commissioner Jesse Hsieh comments during meeting at City Hall on Oct. 26, 2023. Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[184,120616,7,9,8,392,204,13],"class_list":{"0":"post-280115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-califiornia","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-contra-costa-county","14":"tag-election","15":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}