The race to represent District 4 on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors will carry into the November general election, but which two candidates will be facing each other remains unclear as election officials continue to count ballots.
With 30,000 votes tallied, Pleasant Hill Councilman Ken Carlson is the early frontrunner, having picked up 27% of the votes Tuesday night. But he’s followed closely by BART Director Debora Allen, who got 25.6%, and Concord Councilwoman Carlyn Obringer, with 24.1%.
There are still plenty of votes to be counted, however. Deputy Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong estimated that 70,000 new mail ballots and 25,000 ballots from polling places arrived during election night. How many of those ballots are strictly for the District 4 race isn’t known.
The winner will replace retiring Supervisor Karen Mitchoff to represent a district that includes Concord, Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek.
Carlson, a retired police officer, won support and contributions from law enforcement groups as well as individual donors. He’s portraying himself as a moderate who would reach across the aisle to work with other supervisors.
“I’m kind of in the middle, and I’m very thoughtful of having a balance,” he said.
There are stark contrasts between Allen and Obringer’s campaigns. As a BART board director, Allen has proposed that the agency cut jobs and slash spending, putting her at odds with six of her nine fellow board members. In an earlier interview, she criticized what she sees as the “labor unions’ control over BART.”
Obringer, on the other hand, received major campaign contributions from a wide range of unions. She voted with the Concord City Council to end ties with a former master developer of the Concord Naval Weapons Station — where the city wants to build 13,000 new homes — over its refusal to hire local union labor.
More recently, she voted against giving the project’s current tentative developer a time extension over concerns it would waffle on a promise to provide affordable housing.
In statements, the two candidates expressed optimism for their chances ahead of a final vote count.
Another Concord council member, Edi Birsan, fell far behind the top three by the end of election night with only 9% of the vote. The small businessman is well known in Concord, having been a self-described gadfly at council meetings for years before winning a seat.
Birsan blamed his apparent loss on low voter turnout and the other candidates’ ability to raise large amounts of money, including healthcare advocate Roxanne Garza, who received donations from a coalition of progressive groups and ultimately won 13% of the vote.
He suggested that Carlson’s designation as a retired police officer on the ballot won him a large number of votes, adding that he will support Carlson’s election in November.
“The low turnout really messes everything up,” Birsan said. “Angry people vote and then you get the hardcore (voters) swinging one way or another.”
Neither a low turnout rate nor past controversies involving alleged workplace misconduct appear to have hurt County Assessor Gus Kramer, who collected 57% of the 126,000 votes cast so far in the countywide contest.
Kramer, who couldn’t be reached for an interview, previously said this next four-year term will be his last in elected office.
Floy Andrews, a political newcomer who challenged Kramer, won big-name endorsements but couldn’t sway enough voters to defeat the incumbent. She hinted Wednesday that another run for public office in Contra Costa County could be in the cards.
“I’m so focused on ways to improve our local political scene and democracy in general,” she said. “I feel like running for office is one way you can put a pin in that and make a splash.”
Supervisor John Gioia easily defeated political novice Hulan Barnett, who had personally insulted and even threatened him with violence in Facebook comments and strongly criticized the supervisor’s support for COVID-19 vaccines.
Gioia, first elected in 1998, received 84% of the vote and says he will again champion progressive values for West County cities such as Richmond, El Cerrito and San Pablo and surrounding communities.
“To me this was about running on my record and establishing a record upon which people can judge me,” Gioia said. “My campaign was mostly about doing my job. I didn’t do anything differently.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com