North Fresno is nice – containing the wealthiest zip codes in the San Joaquin Valley, waterfront property on the San Joaquin River and most of the region’s best parks, libraries and shopping malls.
But in the race for the seat of Fresno County’s District 2, this quiet suburban quarter is putting nationwide culture wars on the local ballot. This fall, two candidates are facing off with radically divergent views of what conservatism should look like at Fresno’s Board of Supervisors.
“Garry wants everyone to bend to his will. It’s really not even old-school conservatism,” said the incumbent, Steve Brandau, about his challenger, Fresno City Councilmember Garry Bredefeld.
“It’s Reagan vs. Trump.”
Click to jump to:
Brandau is fighting to survive a run-off election this November against a fierce campaign run by Bredefeld, a firebrand Fresno City Councilmember who promises to shake up what he calls the board’s “retirement club” mentality.
Brandau, 60, is a local businessman from Selma who in his first term as supervisor has spearheaded efforts to build a 3,000-acre industrial park in south Fresno – likely Fresno County’s most ambitious infrastructure project in a half-century. “That’s the one thing I want to see pulled off,” Brandau said about the project if he gets re-elected to a second term.
But a different set of issues came hurtling towards Brandau’s re-election campaign this spring. In the lead-up to the March primary, Bredefeld campaigned by saying Dr. Rais Vohra, a UCSF professor and the county’s public health director, “should have been fired” due to his roll-out of Covid safety precautions. If elected, Bredefeld plans to end the county’s program that provides basic preventative care to drug addicts.
“That program needs to come to an end,” he said this March. “I’m going to fight that program, real hard.”
Bredefeld beat Brandau in a crowded five-man race in this year’s March primary. Bredefeld fell short of getting the majority needed to avoid a November run-off, but Brandau found himself trailing by 10 points to Bredefeld’s 38% vote shares.
“The primary results showed that … 72% of his constituents believe that there should be a change,” Bredefeld said.
The race highlights a growing rift in local conservative politics. In Brandau’s first term, home values in Fresno increased 50%, according to federal data, while unemployment rates fell to levels not seen in any period since the federal tracking started in 1990. In a different era, conventional wisdom would suggest these economic tailwinds would translate to a run-away second term for Brandau, an ambitious business-oriented conservative. Not today.
Brandau criticizes Bredefeld’s approach as dealing in “headlines, platitudes and fear,” while Bredefeld argues the board has become complacent and ineffective.
Bredefeld, 64, is a native New Yorker who has served two stints at the Fresno City Council, one from 1997 to 2001 and another starting in 2017. While the Board of Supervisors has taken on culture war topics in the past few years, ranging from an attempt to keep Native American slurs on road signs to Brandau’s potential book oversight committee last year, Bredefeld differentiates himself by saying he is willing to buck any traditions that stand in his way from stopping policies he disagrees with.
“I’m not a go-along, get-along guy,” he said. “Most politicians are feckless, cowardly people who put their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. That is not me – and that’s why I’ve had the incredible support that I have.”
Bredefeld, buoyed by his primary performance, is confident that his hard-line stance against county policies has struck a chord with north Fresno’s electorate. The councilman believes his March momentum will propel him to victory in November’s runoff.
“It’s a bunch of hogwash. It doesn’t sound reasonable to a normal person,” said Brandau.
Bredefeld’s ground game: 20,000 doors and five pairs of shoes
In his bid to unseat incumbent Brandau, Bredefeld has embarked on an aggressive ground campaign that spans the breadth of District 2.
Since March of last year, Bredefeld says he’s traversed up to 35 miles a week of north Fresno’s sun-baked sidewalks, burning through five pairs of tennis shoes in the process. From the leafy streets of Old Fig Garden to the suburban expanse of Clovis, he estimates he’s single-handedly knocked on 20,000 doors.
Bredefeld dismisses the existence of human-caused climate change, and the punishing heat waves gripping Fresno this summer, he insists, haven’t dampened his grassroots fervor.
“I’ve walked nearly all of it,” Bredefeld said. “I think it’s necessary when you’re trying to seek the support of people that you go out and meet as many people as you possibly can.”
Bredefeld has turned recent county scandals into campaign ammunition. He cites incidents of foster children sleeping on office desks and the discovery of an illegal laboratory in Reedley as evidence of county mismanagement, though neither incident occurred in District 2. Bredefeld says the county has been caught backfooted on too many issues – and that’s why his relentless energy is needed.
“They think that they’re somehow superior to the city of Fresno,” Bredefeld said about the Board of Supervisors. “That’s the way they conduct themselves.”
For Bredefeld, the county’s failings extend beyond headline-grabbing scandals to the very fabric of its day-to-day operations. He takes issue with what he sees as the supervisors’ detached approach to governance, criticizing an air of complacency that he claims pervades even routine county business. In recent years, the county has approved $5 billion budgets in 15 minutes and restricted the public’s opportunity to speak on the board’s most controversial votes.
“It’s become a retirement club. That is going to change when I get there,” Bredefeld said. “Everyone knows it’s going to change when I get there.”
While Bredefeld’s relentless campaigning has dominated headlines, Brandau offers a markedly different vision for District 2’s future. He maintains that decisions to limit public comment were not made by him, and instead points to what he sees as concrete achievements during his tenure.
As evidence, Brandau highlights his efforts to create a new public park along the San Joaquin River at Palm and Nees avenues while he was on the San Joaquin River Conservancy board. Looking ahead, Brandau aims to complete the park, and as former chair of the Conservancy, he takes credit for building consensus around the project.
“I made a passionate appeal to get this done,” Brandau said.
And for addressing homelessness, Brandau also said at a Fresno Bee voter forum in early October that he would support opening an inpatient mental health facility with Prop 1 funds.
Both have been fierce proponents of anti-camping bans, targeting homeless encampments. Bredefeld recently announced a push for drug treatment for those in violation of the ban, as an alternative to jail time, but the details have been vague.
Bredefeld, meanwhile, promises to smooth over relations between the city and county. “No longer will Mayor Jerry Dyer be disrespected by the Board,” Bredefeld said.
Who is endorsing the candidates?
Steve Brandau
- Fresno County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association
- Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp
- Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni
- Former Fresno County Supervisor Susan Anderson
- Former Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims
Garry Bredefeld
- Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 2015
- Fresno City Firefighters
- Fresno City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell
- Former Fresno Mayor Alan Autry
- Fresno City Employees Association
- Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux
- Fresno California Republican Assembly
- Fresno County Republican National Hispanic Assembly
- Fresno Central Labor Council
- Northern California Carpenters Union
Who is funding the candidates’ campaigns?
Campaign finance reports show Bredefeld with a fundraising edge, having raised $238,000 through September, including a significant $25,000 contribution from SEIU Local 2015. Brandau trails with about $150,000 raised.
Brandau’s notable donors include Richard Spencer, a major developer, who contributed $35,000.
Click on the graphic below to explore donations to the candidates’ campaigns.
