1970: Political whirlwinds

For The Madera Tribune

Councilman John Wells replaced Al Barsotti as mayor of Madera in the  election of 1970.

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In 1970, Madera had a population of 16,000. Its citizens made steady progress toward moving the city toward the next century. They built a new county hospital; they built a new library and tried to build a junior college on Avenue 12. As historically meaningful as these accomplishments were, however, once again the spotlight was thrown on local politics. The city council race had an unprecedented appeal for the electorate

The City Council race

An unprecedented crowd of ten candidates filed for three open places on the Madera City Council in April 1970. With Councilmen D.R. (Bud) Stephenson and Al Barsotti declining to run for another term, only Bruno Lattanzio was left to represent the incumbents in the spring election.

On April 7, 1970, all ten candidates attended a candidate’s night in the Madera Theater.  The order in which the candidates delivered their platforms was decided by lot, and Lattanzio spoke first. He cited industrial development as one of his accomplishments, saying there were then 18 industrial prospects for Madera where four years ago there were none. He also talked about the fact that the city had taken out its parking meters and had drilled three new wells.