Tweak power

Jim Lohse is not homeless in the traditional sense. He has a car and a roof over his head. (He is a caretaker for his sick mother, and sleeps at her home in Cupertino). Also, as he points out, "I don't stink."

Why then does he still want to run for Mountain View City Council as the homeless candidate, when he has never, at least technically, lived in the city?

Irked over Nick Galiotto's description of pot clubs as crime centers and Police Chief Scott Vermeer's decision to invite DEA agents to a city council study session, Lohse kept coming to council meetings long after the city rejected Jonathan Lustig's proposal to open a dispensary. Lohse even played back Galiotto's comments on microcassette during a public hearing.

Lohse continues to maintain that the city's policy on medical marijuana remains unclear and appears to prohibit caretakers like him from meeting with more than one patient at a time. Over time, he has gradually become more and more interested in Mountain View politics, and decided to register to vote here. In order to better make the case that he lives in Mountain View, he also receives his mail at the downtown post office and lists his DMV address as 500 Castro Street, which happens to be City Hall.

The filing period for council candidates doesn't start until July 17, so the city attorney and city clerk have a few weeks to decide whether to let him run. I hope they do, if only because it will spice up the campaign to have a candidate who -- in an essay about his dealings with the city -- includes a chapter entitled, "Other People With Whom I Have a Bone To Pick."