ESCONDIDO -- Two men with high community profiles and strong personalities are breathing life into what historically has been one of the area's sleepier races.

The two men, Jerry Kaufman and Lee Thibadeau, are vying for a two-year seat on Palomar Pomerado Health's board of trustees.

Kaufman and Thibadeau are well-known around North County because both have played prominent roles in local government. They're the only candidates in the race for the two-year seat being vacated by current board member Linda Bailey; a race for three open seats with four-year terms has attracted six candidates.

Thibadeau said in a recent interview that he and Kaufman know each other.

"I'm glad he's running," Thibadeau said. "He and I won't fight 'cause I think he's a good guy."

A 67-year-old physical therapist who lives in Escondido, Kaufman was appointed in December 1998 to finish Lori Holt Pfeiler's council term after she was elected mayor. He lost his bid for a four-year term in 2000.

Kaufman has a long history of community involvement, including serving on several nonprofit organizations' boards of directors and organizing golf tournament fundraisers for the Escondido Chamber of Commerce.

The 63-year-old Thibadeau, the director of a Los Angeles-area petroleum manufacturer, was elected to a regular San Marcos City Council term in 1980 and served until 1986. He served as the city's mayor from 1986 to 1994.

He was elected to the council again in 2000 and served until 2004 before losing his seat to Jim Desmond.

A public health care district, Palomar Pomerado owns and operates Palomar Medical Center in Escondido and Pomerado Hospital in Poway. The board oversees and sets policies for the district, which broke ground on a third hospital on the west side of Escondido late last year.

The project is part of a $1 billion expansion of the district's facilities. Voters agreed to help pay for the expansion in 2004 when they approved a $496 million bond measure.

District critics have expressed concern about construction delays and cost overruns on the new hospital since then. They also have questioned the district's commitment to renovating and expanding Palomar Medical Center, as hospital officials have promised.

Kaufman helped campaign for the bond measure, and he serves on a president's council that advises Palomar Pomerado President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Covert on matters related to the district. Kaufman's involvement with the district didn't help him, though, when he applied for the short-term seat earlier this year, when the board appointed Bailey to fill a vacancy created when then-board member Gary Powers moved out of state.

On Wednesday, Kaufman said no one asked him to run for the hospital board and that he believes Covert and the district are generally doing a good job

He said he's running because he wants to make sure the district fulfills its pledge to rebuild Palomar Medical Center and other promises made to the city.

"As (the district) moves along in that direction, there's going to be a lot of negotiation between the public and private entities to help build out some of the facilities in (Escondido's) downtown area," Kaufman said. "I've been doing this for 40 years -- I'm a physical therapist and a businessman. I've had my own practices that I developed and sold. So I have a pretty good idea of how to build businesses and keep projects going until they're successful."

He said he also thinks his experience as a councilman and as a member of a state physical therapists board could be used to help the hospital district modernize and do a better job of coordinating its efforts with other health care providers, such as community clinics.

Thibadeau said various friends and acquaintances urged him to make another bid for a San Marcos council seat or run for various other elected positions. News reports about the hospital district's financial challenges -- including allegations by critics that the hospital district's expansion project is $300 million over budget -- prompted him to enter the hospital race, he said.

"They're not meeting some of their goals to voters," Thibadeau said. "So I thought it'd be kind of fun to help get them back in the right direction."

His business experience can help him do that, he said.

"They're all medical professionals," Thibadeau said, referring to current board members. "And that's great, especially for the hospital district. On the other hand, they don't have the business acumen that they really need to deal with what they have in the immediate future."

No surprise

Local community leaders said they were not surprised to hear that Kaufman and Thibadeau had decided to run for the hospital board.

"These guys are public servants," said Harvey Mitchell, executive director of the Escondido Chamber of Commerce. "That's their whole background."

Escondido City Councilman Dick Daniels said Kaufman and Thibadeau may have simply seen an opportunity in running for a two-year seat.

"It's hard to run against an incumbent when the four-year seats are open," he said.

Frequent hospital district critic Wally Gutierrez said he has been encouraging "everybody" to run for the hospital board because he thinks its needs a major change, but he said he did not recruit anybody in particular. While he knows Kaufman casually, Gutierrez said he might be more inclined to support Thibadeau because of his concern about the district's finances.

Hospital board Chairman Bruce Krider said he wasn't surprised to see Kaufman enter the race, given his history in health care and with the district. Although Thibadeau's motives for running are more of a mystery, he apparently was successful as a councilman, Krider said.

"So, fine," he said. "The process is generating some interesting candidates."

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.