Is There a Congressman Carrillo in Our Future?

Earlier this week when that she would not be running for re-election, my first thought was, I wonder if Efren Carrillo will make a move?

Serving the geographically large and economically diverse Fifth District, Carrillo is chairman of the ; three years into his first four-year term. He is also the very first Latino member of the board.

Want to know how busy Carrillo is? Be one of his nearly 4,000 friends on Facebook. He attends so many functions he makes the late James Brown “The Hardest Working Man in America,” look like a slacker.

“People think I have staff that cover all those meetings, people who travel to Sacramento, or attend community events,” he said stifling a laugh. “Ever notice that there’s never a photo of me on my Facebook updates? That’s because I’m taking all those pictures with my cell phone.”

The morning after Woolsey’s announcement, he put up this post: “Thank you Representative Woolsey for your tireless commitment to public service! All the best in the years to come.”

I first met Carrillo back in 2005 when I wrote about his family and their humble origins. At that time his dad was a school custodian respected in his Roseland neighborhood for peacefully pushing back against gang activity. His mom worked as a teacher’s aide and playground monitor.

The Carrillos were the very first Sonoma County family to receive a Habitat for Humanity house in 1990. Having a safe home freed the paraents to concentrate on raising their children. Efren Carrillo, Jr. and his sister Susana were kept busy with school and karate lessons, each attaining their black belts. Their younger brother Abraham hardly remembers life before they got their house. All the siblings loved playing soccer, too, often with their dad.

A graduate of U.C. Berkeley in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Economics and Policy, Carrillo interned with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Back home in Santa Rosa he worked with the Sonoma County Economic Development Board, Sonoma County Business Environmental Alliance, the Office of Assemblyman Joe Nation, and was Education and Government Relations Manager at .

“I always thought I would work hard at something while I was young and then maybe when I was 40, I’d try running for office,” he said.

But a wide open Supes race was too good to pass up. The night before he announced his candidacy for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in 2008, he sat down with a long list of names and numbers and started dialing.

I received one of those calls. I remember I had just parked my car. It was late, maybe about 10 p.m. and pitch dark out.

All Carrillo said was that he wanted me to know that he was running. He didn’t ask for any support. He just wanted to tell people that he was excited about running. Maybe he wouldn’t win, but he’d work hard and hope for the best. I kept waiting for him to ask me for a favor, something. He never did. That little two-minute phone call stuck with me because it was just – nice.

“A lot of the things that I do are driven by intuition. I think about them very diligently sometimes. If it feels like the right thing to do, I just do it,” he told me Wednesday.

When Woolsey made her announcement on Monday, Carrillo was in Sacramento fighting for SB 104, which would make it easier for farmworkers to organize. Governor Brown vetoed the bill just before midnight Tuesday.

Tired, his voice shredded, Carrillo’s Tuesday was made more hectic when Facebook friends immediately started encouraging him to run for Congress.

Barbara Klein posted on Carrillo's page: “How about running for Lynn Woolsey’s seat providing the district doesn’t change. You would be great!

Then Chris Matson chimed in: “How about running for Lynn’s seat? You would be a great help." Beth Moise pleaded: “Please run, Efren. I can’t think of a better candidate!”

Later that evening Marsha Roberts kept it simple: “Run, Run, Run Efren!”

So, I gave Carrillo a call. I wondered if he might be a candidate for the Sixth District when Woolsey vacates the seat in 2012.

Who could run? Looks like State Assemblyman Jared Huffman D-San Rafael is in as are political activist Norman Solomon. Others are tossing around Shirlee Zane's name from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. And then former Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt seems like a possibility.

After my conversation with Carrillo, I have to say I feel it’s not likely he will run. The timing is a little off. He feels like he’s just getting started.

“Is higher office in my future?” he said as if the thought rarely occurred to him. “It’s not out of my future.”

Could he see himself serving in Congress? Living in D.C.?

“Do I feel I could do a good job? I do feel I could do a good job,” he offered. But then he snapped out of daydreaming and spoke about his job in the Wine Country.

“Right now I’m focused on being the chair of the board here, I hope for at least another term,” he said.

Wait a minute!

Was that an announcement of his intention to run for a second Sonoma County Board of Supervisors term? Not really, he insisted. After all, those kind of announcements usually come out at the end of summer or in the early fall, don’t they…?

But if I’m not mistaken Carrillo’s annual fiesta out in Guerneville, which happens each September, is being planned by a “Friends of” committee; a re-election committee.

So, stay tuned. Maybe we’ll have an interesting formal announcement from the Carrillo camp soon. I’ll leave my ringer on just in case.