The incumbent Contra Costa County district attorney, sheriff and longtime assessor appeared to be hanging onto their seats in early results Tuesday, as two candidates jumped ahead of the pack in one supervisor race and a longtime incumbent appeared on the way to victory in another.
District Attorney Diana Becton, a progressive prosecutor with backing from billionaire George Soros, steadily led a challenge from conservative Deputy District Attorney Mary Knox, who has supported bolstering law enforcement’s response to mob retail thefts in the Bay Area.
In the sheriff’s race, incumbent David Livingston held an early two-to-one lead against 13-year Richmond police Officer Ben Therriault, a union leader who opposed Livingston’s more conservative approach to criminal justice.
Among Therriault’s criticisms was Livingston’s vocal support for a former Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy sentenced to six years in prison for fatally shooting a man in 2018. After Knox backed Livingston’s stance, law enforcement groups contributed and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to support her district attorney campaign.
Assessor Gus Kramer held an early lead over challenger Floy Andrews. The incumbent has faced a long list of controversies over nearly three decades in office, including accusations of workplace misconduct, investigations for questionable property assessments and thousands of dollars in fines for failing to disclose campaign contributions or all the real estate he owns.
He has denied the misconduct accusations and maintains that county employees were out to get him after being denied job promotions. A civil trial in 2020 over whether Kramer created a hostile environment for his employees ended in a mistrial.
The accusations against him were a campaign focus of Andrews, a Richmond resident with a background in law and real estate and experience on the county’s Assessment Appeals Board. All five county supervisors endorsed Andrews for assessor.
Elsewhere in the county, an election to replace retiring Supervisor Karen Mitchoff saw Pleasant Hill City Councilman Ken Carlson and BART Director Debora Allen held a small lead over Concord Councilwoman Carlyn Obringer in the early goings for a two-candidate runoff race.
Healthcare advocate Roxanne Garza and Concord Councilman Edi Birsan trailed far behind the other three candidates in early results.
Mitchoff, whose district covers largely suburban cities, including Concord, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill and Clayton, will retire after serving since 2011.
The candidates for her District 4 seat had seen varied financial support, with Carlson’s campaign fueled by individual donors, Obringer drawing heavy union support and Allen receiving a large influx of cash from law enforcement.
“It was grassroots,” Carlson said of his campaign in an interview following the early results. “We did not have the support of organized labor or a major party. It came from the work that I’ve done for over a decade on the Pleasant Hill City Council, working with elected leaders across the region.”
Birsan, who personally contributed $17,000 to his own campaign, had been a vocal proponent of selecting development companies linked with local Seeno family to build 13,000 new homes at the Concord Naval Weapons Station.
If none of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will head to a runoff election in November.
Meanwhile, longtime Supervisor John Gioia had a massive early lead over schoolteacher Hulan Barnett in a bid to represent Contra Costa County’s western region, including Richmond, El Cerrito and San Pablo.
Gioia, a champion of progressive values, had been the target of vitriol and even physical threats by Barnett, who described on Facebook the longtime incumbent’s tenure as “the 24 year term of THE RAT.”
In campaign messaging and interviews, Barnett regularly conflated COVID-19 vaccine mandates in public schools with the policies of Nazi Germany.
And in another Facebook comment, Barnett called on the public to “raise HELL” at public events and added “Hopefully, the Supervisor is there. We won’t hurt women and children.” The choice of words prompted Gioia to ask not to appear in person with Barnett at election forums for fear of violence.
Source: www.mercurynews.com