With the latest election results giving them a combined mandate of over 50 percent of voters in the City of SLO, Andy Pease and Aaron Gomez will join the City Council.
Out of a field of six, the pair ran as a block with incumbent Mayor Jan Marx, who successfully defended her post for a final term against fellow Democrat, Heidi Harmon.
While early counts showed that Marx received over 52 percent of the vote, the tally ahead of the Nov. 16 counting session at the SLO County Clerk-Recorder’s office had narrowed that to 51.13 percent. As of 2:30 p.m. Nov. 16 there were 4,464 ballots for the City of SLO left to be counted.
Throughout the election season the nonpartisan nature of municipal offices led to some candidates with overall shared values squaring off over the details of local housing and urban development policy.
As national election results were tabulated late into the evening Nov. 8 many of the evening’s political parties shared the same somber tone whether the hosting candidates won or lost. Nearly half of San Luis Obispo County voters cast in for Hillary Clinton at 49.93 percent to Donald Trump’s 41.54 percent locally.
The in the County overall 70.29 percent of registered voters returned a ballot.
Inside the City of SLO that number dropped to 66 percent. As well, the number of voters who chose to cast a ballot but leave the race blank, 1,834, dwarfed the margin for victory in the mayoral election, 461 votes.
As of press time all numbers are unofficial until the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office can certify the election. And it was theoretically possible, while statistically unlikely, that the late returns of students with mail in ballots could swing the mayoral election in late counting.
With that in mind, for mayor Marx bested Harmon with 51.13 percent to 48.48 percent.
In the Council race Pease received 27.21 percent; Gomez, 24.12 percent; Mila Vujovich-La Barre, 17.31 percent; Mike Clark, 14.51 percent; Brett Strickland, 9.21 percent and Christopher Lopez, 7.48 percent.
It was Vujovich-La Barre’s first attempt at elected office and Clark’s second run for the Council. The pair and supporters watched elections results come in together at a party in Downtown SLO.
Strickland was current councilman Dan Carpenter’s choice to replace him on council as he made a bid for SLO County District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill’s seat on the board.
Although easily one of the most hotly contested of the campaigns, Hill retained the position with 56.43 percent of the vote to Carpenter’s 43.35 percent.
As dejected members of the SLO County Democratic Party left their election night get together at The Graduate bar in SLO, Hill remained behind to speak with reporters adding that he was glad to have the race behind him as the kind of division that had been stoked was bad for the community.
“Regardless of the national election,” he said, “[The Board of Supervisors] aren’t impacted in the work we do. The fact that nothing we do is partisan is a truism we’ve maintained…. my view is that I represent everyone in the district and we should go into the holidays remembering what really matters.”
The closest call on the local ballot wasn’t a candidate at all, but the Measure J, local sales tax increase that would have raised rates to 8 percent in the unincorporated areas of the county and 8.5 percent in SLO, Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Grover Beach, Morro Bay, Paso Robles, and Pismo Beach. The measure required a clear two-thirds vote to be approved, but stalled at 65.54 percent.
Of all the races listed, the percentage margin of on Measure J is the most likely to edge across the finish line, progressively climbing in standing with 21,563 votes remaining to be counted Nov. 16.
