Grzan joins City Council; Sullivan, Mandel, Hover-Smoot become
School Board trustees
The final, official tally is expected to be announced today, but, when Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Jesse Durazo finished counting votes last week, he uncovered no surprises in Morgan Hill races and only one result that was in any way – slightly – unexpected.
Durazo said he would certify the election results by today, the state-mandated deadline, at which point newly elected official can be installed in their new jobs.
Mark Grzan will become an official councilman on Dec. 1 and Kathleen Sullivan, Peter Mandel and Julia Hover-Smoot will be sworn in as school board trustees at the Dec. 6 meeting.
The one campaign that was somewhat in question was for the third position on the Morgan Hill School Board. Sullivan and Mandel both won handily with 26.74 (11,020 votes) and 20.45 percent (8,430 votes) of the votes respectively out of a field of six candidates.
Hover-Smoot was third with 17,93 percent and 7,390 votes, followed closely by Harlan Warthen with 15.01 percent and 6,186 votes. When the final vote was counted Hover-Smoot was still in the lead and will take her seat, along with Sullivan and Mandel, on Dec. 6.
The slightly unexpected result was in Congressional District 11, which includes Morgan Hill but not San Martin or Gilroy. Incumbent Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, was challenged by newcomer Gerald McNerney, a Democrat from Pleasanton who ran as a write-in candidate in March and barely made it onto the November ballot.
The distance between the two vote-getters caused comment Saturday at a meeting of the South County Democratic Club.
“McNerney did better than any other candidate running against a (California) incumbent Congress member who kept their seat,” said Alex Kennett, president of the club.
McNerney said in an e-mail that he was pleased with the results, though he would have been more pleased to win. Kennett said another run for the 11th district seat is not out of the question for McNerney.
Still, Pombo won handily throughout the district.
Districtwide, in the 649 precincts, Pombo won by 22.8 percent or 56,043 votes out of 250,111 voting. He received 61.3 percent of the votes, or 153,105; McNerney received 38.7 percent or 97,062.
Of a total of 15,552 votes in the Santa Clara County portion of the 11th district – 37 precincts – Pombo was ahead by only 5.24 percent and 800 votes.
Pombo, who is far better known in the Central Valley, did not campaign much in Morgan Hill or the other newly added cities. Congress was in session for much of the traditional campaign period.
The 11th District mainly covers the agricultural, rural Central Valley; suburban and urban areas of Morgan Hill, Danville and Pleasanton were added during the 2001 redistricting that is done after ever census. The theory is to reshuffle district boundaries so each district contains about the same number of residents. However, after every redistricting, the legislators who set the boundaries are accused of keeping seats safe for incumbents.
Taking issue with being lumped in with a heavily Republican rural district with vastly different concerns and opinions, the Morgan Hill City Council, and other cities, sued to be stabled with cities with similar concerns, such as Gilroy, San Martin or San Jose. The lawsuits were rejected. The next redistricting will occur in 2011 and already plans are afoot in Sacramento to find a more neutral, unbiased method of drawing the lines, possibly by a panel of retired judges.
Santa Clara County gained 25,800 newly registered Republican voters and 57,800 more Democratic voters or 17.2 percent, more than in 2002. The number of voters registered “Decline to State” has increased too, increasing 38 percent in the past two years and now making up 28 percent of registered voters in the county.
All told, Durazo’s teams of poll workers counted 610,099 votes – he had estimated 610,000. Because the touch-screen electronic voting machines were so new and because they do not leave a paper trail of voting preferences behind, many voters were hesitant to use them. About 25,000 county voters chose paper ballots.
The registrar also had to contend with about 185,000 absentee ballots and 20,000 provisional ballots that take time to verify.
The Morgan Hill mayor’s race was also decided on Nov. 2, with incumbent, long-time mayor Dennis Kennedy defeating challenger, Councilman Greg Sellers, by 19 percent.
Councilman Larry Carr was re-elected to a second term, with 33.44 percent out of a field of five. Newcomer Mark Grzan will take his seat on the council Wednesday, Dec. 1, after winning 32.14 percent of the vote. He replaces Councilwoman Hedy Chang, who declined to run for a third term.
Three other candidates for council, Julia Starling, Kelly Bell Kubica and Allan Abrams earned 12.35 percent (2,452 votes), 11.6 percent (2,303 votes) and 10.48 percent (2,081 votes) respectively.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@*************es.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
