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Popular Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Oakland, weighed in on Berkeley’s hotly contested District 8 council race last week and confirmed rumors that her support is not with the same camp she supported four years ago. 

Aroner is endorsing 22-year-old student activist Andy Katz in the November election. The endorsement goes against the stake of the more conservative incumbent Councilmember Polly Armstrong, who had the assemblywoman’s endorsement in the 1998 council race. Although Armstrong is not seeking re-election this year, she is advocating candidate Gordon Wosniak as her replacement. 

“I supported Polly [in 1998] because I felt that she was the better candidate. I’m supporting Andy [now] because I feel he is the best candidate,” Aroner said Tuesday. 

While Armstrong has enjoyed widespread support from the relatively conservative base of her west Berkeley district and aligns herself with City Council’s more moderate faction, the younger Katz is identified with the district’s more liberal student population. 

Katz won’t admit to siding with the council’s progressive faction, but his long list of endorsements, which includes Councilmember Dona Spring and Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn, suggests that many progressives are behind him. 

Meanwhile, Wozniak, who could not be reached Tuesday, is on track to pick up Armstong’s more moderate supporters. 

“I want someone with a little history to represent me,” said Martha Jones, a homeowner in Berkeley for 45 years and board member of the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association. “I’m supporting Wozniak.” 

Katz, though, insists that he can win enough of the moderate vote to triumph in the November election. 

“I don’t fit the typical profile of a student,” he said, noting his four years of involvement in the community. Katz currently sits on the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board and has also served on the city’s Housing Advisory Commission. 

Assemblywoman Aroner agreed that neither Katz’s age nor his politics would work against him. 

“I don’t think older people are afraid of students or anybody,” she said. 

Aroner explained that her endorsement was based upon Katz’s record of working on UC Berkeley issues as well as on housing and traffic problems. 

Wozniak, who sits on the city’s Planning Commission, has put forth plans for housing and traffic as well, making a recent campaign pledge to slow down incoming traffic on Highway 13 and Highway 24, which both feed into the district. 

Also in the race are Anne Wagley, who sits on the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, Housing Commissioner Jay Vega and campaign newcomer Carlos Estrada. 

Wagley, on top of fighting for more housing and less traffic, is positioning herself outside the factional fray of City Council. 

Vega and Estrada also hope to pick up votes from residents tired of traditional Berkeley politics.