The leading candidates in local races were guardedly pleased
with results reported so far in Morgan Hill’s mayoral and city
council election Tuesday night.
The leading candidates in local races were guardedly pleased with results reported so far in Morgan Hill’s mayoral and city council election Tuesday night.
Mayor Steve Tate, who led the three-way mayoral race by about 22 percentage points about 11 p.m., said the results so far prove that his campaign was “right on.”
“If you’re not in the position (of mayor), you have to say how bad things are, and things aren’t that bad (in Morgan Hill),” Tate said.
The mayor added that he was glad he had opposition in the race, because the dialogue produced by the competing campaigns allowed him to learn how he can improve some aspects of his service as mayor.
Trailing Tate in the race are Art College, with 1,600 or 30 percent of the vote; followed by Councilwoman Marby Lee with 905 or about 17 percent of the votes counted so far.
The results as of late Tuesday night included only five of 30 precincts in the city reporting results.
In the eight-way race for two seats on the city council – an election in which no incumbent was on the ballot – Rich Constantine and Gordon Siebert were in the lead with the same number of ballots counted.
Constantine led with 2,028 or 23 percent of votes counted. Like the mayor, Constantine, a city of San Jose firefighter, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about his lead, but the results so far show that voters are satisfied with the status quo in Morgan Hill.
“I don’t think the Morgan Hill residents are upset with the direction the city is going in, and that’s what I ran on,” Constantine said at a post-election party at Rosy’s at the Beach Tuesday night.
And Siebert, an engineer employed by Monterey County, added that an endorsement for him by the Morgan Hill Times editorial board helped push him into second place so far.
“The voters were confused because there were so many people running,” Siebert said.
As of 11 p.m., Siebert had received 1,466 or about 17 percent of votes counted.
Also running in the packed field for the two seats are businessman Lee Schmidt, computer company project manager Ken Galloway, restaurateur Rick Moreno, retired business owner Michael Castelan, private school director David Mounteer and handyman Joseph Carrillo.
The mayor added that he was disappointed so far with the early count on Measure P, a city-sponsored measure to make the city clerk’s and city treasurer’s positions appointive. The seats are currently elected, and the mayor supported the measure because it would ensure that qualified people are selected to fill those positions, he said prior to the election.
As of 11 p.m., with votes from five of 30 precincts in the city counted, Measure P was being defeated with 2,798 or about 53 percent of voters casting “No” votes.
Updated results for all races will be posted early Wednesday morning.
Two newcomers, two incumbents win in school board race
Longtime educator Ron Woolf led the way with 5,528 votes, stay-at-home mother Claudia Rossi came in second with 5,267 votes, incumbent Shelle Thomas finished third with 4,574 votes and her fellow boardmember Don Moody secured 4,520 votes for the final spot, based on reports at 5 a.m. by the county registrar of voters.
The top four vote-getters will have a seat on the board. All precincts, 62, were counted by 5:03 a.m. this morning. Another update is expected at 5 p.m. today.
Trailing the top four were incumbent Bart Fisher with 9.9 percent (3,190); Bob Benevento, who pulled out of the race last month though his name still appeared on the ballot, has 8.7 percent (2,814); Kirsten Francis Carr has gained 8.4 percent (2,717); Armando Benavides garnered 6.8 percent (2,195); and Brenda Cayme is in last place with 4.8 percent (1,549 votes).
