Candidates for county DA, sheriff to address voters in upcoming election forum

April 13, 2022

This article originally produced and appeared on Danville San Ramon Express.

DanvilleSanRamon.com publisher, editor co-moderating event at DVC on May 3

Candidates in this June’s elections for Contra Costa County district attorney and sheriff-coroner are set to share more information about their positions and take questions in a public event next month.

The two incumbents will be joined by their respective challengers on May 3 at the “Contra Costa County Public Safety Candidates’ Forum,” which is being held in-person and livestreamed, with DanvilleSanRamon.com staff moderating.

Sheriff David Livingston is being challenged for the first time since his successful campaign in 2010 — after running unopposed in 2014 and 2018 — by a lone opponent, Richmond Police Officers Association President Benjamin Therriault.

Therriault is an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq before beginning his career with the Richmond Police Department in 2009.

Livingston previously worked as police chief in Pleasant Hill and Concord before his time as sheriff, during a long law enforcement career that also included time with the Fremont Police Department.

Incumbent DA Diana Becton, who was appointed in 2017 and then elected to a full term the next year, is being challenged by Mary Knox, a 37-year prosecutor in the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office who is also a Walnut Creek native. Becton came into her position not long into retirement after 22 years as a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge.

The forum will be moderated by publisher Gina Channell Wilcox and editor Jeremy Walsh of Embarcadero Media’s East Bay Division. The event is sponsored by the San Ramon, Danville Area, Brentwood, Walnut Creek, Lafayette and Concord chambers of commerce. The East Bay Division publishes the award-winning DanvilleSanRamon.com, PleasantonWeekly.com, LivermoreVine.com and the Pleasanton Weekly newspaper.

Candidates will address questions and share their views with voters starting at 6 p.m. on May 3 at Diablo Valley College’s Pleasant Hill Campus, as well as being livestreamed on Facebook.

Registration is not necessary. The forum will be held in the Diablo Room, which is on the top floor of the “HSF” building on the DVC, 321 Golf Club Road, Pleasant Hill. A campus map shows Parking Lot 8 as the closest to the HSF building.

The public is invited to submit questions for consideration to gchannell@danvillesanramon.com.