The Presidential Nominating Conventions and the Electoral College

DICK SPOTSWOOD is the politics and government columnist for The Marin Independent Journal. His IJ columns appear very Sunday and Wednesday. He is the senior political correspondent for KRCB-TV (PBS, Channel 22 in Cotati/Rohnert Park). He's been part of KRCB’s award winning national and state election coverage for twenty-two years.

Dick is a former council member (1980-1992) and three-term Mayor of the City of Mill Valley. He served for ten years (1982-1992) as a Director of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District representing Marin’s eleven cities and towns. In 1992-1993 he served as chair of the Doyle Drive Commission and previously served on the 101 Corridor Committee. In government, his specialty was transportation.

A San Francisco native (born in 1947), he is a graduate of St. Ignatius College Preparatory, the University of San Francisco and its School of Law.  He is a personal injury attorney with Jacobs & Spotswood in Mill Valley representing the injured party. Dick Spotswood is the former president of the Rotary Club of Mill Valley, Mountain Play Association, Marin Forum and College of Marin Foundation (1991).   He's a member of the Order of Malta and a past director Calif. Planning & Conservation League. He's the current chair of the San Francisco political salon, The Sacramento Seminar.

In the political spectrum, Dick is a registered independent. He has been described as a “militant centrist” which, not surprisingly, is the name of his blog on MarinIJ.com.