As it stands, only 57 votes separate third place Kari Birdseye from second place in Benicia’s City Council election, a 5-way contest where the top two vote-getters win a seat on Council.
Solano County Registrar of Voters office reports that there are 51,757 outstanding vote by mail ballots and another 1,671 provisional ballots yet to be counted.
Note that these are not Benicia ballots, but countywide. I’m working on a method of estimating the percentage of the 53,000 outstanding ballots that are Benicia voters.
It does seem to me completely possible to gain 57 votes out of over 53,000 county-wide.
Solano County Registrar John Gardner stated in an email that the County “will update totals at end of business day each day until complete, and will update these outstanding ballot numbers” daily at https://www.solanocounty.com/depts/rov/November_8_2022_Election_Results/election_results.asp. “The County is scheduled to certify our results on November 30th,” Gardner said.
In an earlier post, I was too quick to presume the outcome of the election, bemoaning that we would likely have an all-male Council when the vote was finalized.
Benicia City Council race too close to call as incumbents surge in Election Day results
Benicia City Council candidates Christina Strawbridge, Lionel Largaespada, William Innes, Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye appeared at a candidates forum at the Benicia Senior Center on Wednesday. Photo: Scott Morris.
BENICIA – Early results for the Benicia City Council election show a tight race with two challengers leading in early vote by mail results, but the two incumbents led in Election Day results.
Challengers Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye took the lead early in the evening, with Scott and Birdseye in first and second place. But incumbents Lionel Largaespada and Christina Strawbridge gained in Election Day results and Largaespada surged into second place late Tuesday.
Click image to enlarge. Read TOTALS at right in green.
By 10:28 p.m., the last results released by the Solano County Registrar of Voters on Tuesday, Scott still led with 25% of the vote, followed by Largaespada with 23.4%, Birdseye with 23%, and Strawbridge with 21%. Retired teacher William Innes — who said during a candidate forum he intended to vote for Scott and Birdseye — had 7% of the vote. The county said it will release further results late Wednesday.
Benicia’s council members are elected by the entire city and the top two vote-getters will be on the council for the next four years.
The race was hotly contested, particularly because of the influence of oil manufacturer Valero, the city’s largest employer that spent tens of thousands of dollars campaigning for the incumbents in the last days leading up to Election Day.
Valero previously campaigned for Largaespada and Strawbridge and against Birdseye in 2018. Birdseye narrowly lost that race. When Strawbridge ran for mayor two years later, Valero again supported her, but she lost badly to now-Mayor Steve Young.
This year, it appeared that Valero might sit out the race following a scandal when it was revealed that the refinery had allowed toxic gas to be released from a hydrogen vent for years. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District obtained an abatement order for Valero, but what penalties the refinery may face have yet to be determined.
Valero’s political meddling was a major issue at a candidates forum in October, where Scott and Birdseye called for greater oversight of the refinery in the wake of the emissions scandal.
But Valero did not take any action during the campaign until its final weeks, when a political action committee (PAC) receiving funding from Valero sent mailers on behalf of Largaespada and Strawbridge and spent $10,000 on Facebook ads. According to filings available by Tuesday’s election deadline, Valero had spent $89,507.71 supporting Largaespada and Strawbridge.
Largaespada and Strawbridge have both denounced Valero’s attempts to influence the city’s politics. By law, their campaigns cannot coordinate with the activities of Valero’s PAC.
Tax measure also falls behind
Measure R – which seeks to raise Benicia’s sales tax – also had an early lead in Tuesday night’s returns but fell behind in Election Day results. If passed, the measure would raise Bencia’s sales tax by three-quarters of a cent, to 9.125%.
As of 10:28 p.m., the measure was failing 48-52%.
The Benicia City Council voted 4-0 to place the tax measure on the ballot during its July 5 meeting. City manager Erik Upson argued the city needed the extra revenue as its infrastructure was aging and it lacked the funds to replace, repair or maintain it. Largaespada opposed it.
The council had originally considered making the ballot measure for a special tax that would only be for road repair, which would have required a two-thirds majority to pass. Measure R is a general tax that can be spent for any purpose and requires only a simple majority of voters.
Urban Growth Boundary measure passes by huge margin
Benicia also appeared to have voted to extend its Urban Growth Boundary — a historical decision that prevents the city from expanding into the hills north of the city. It’s a renewal of a 20-year stay that voters originally set in 2003.
It only needs a simple majority (50% and one more vote) to pass.
The overwhelming response from the community when Valero’s campaign contributions and deceptive practices are exposed is one of outrage.
By Jan Cox Golovich, November 1, 2022
Jan Cox Golovich, Benicia CA
I would like to express my appreciation to the many community people who have worked diligently to expose the corruption of our local city council elections with Valero’s efforts to buy council seats for Strawbridge and Largaespada during the last three election cycles (2018,2020,2022) Specifically, I would like to thank Lawrence Dutch with his Letters to the Editor, Andres Soto via his radio show on KPFA, leaders of the newly formed group Benicians for Clean Elections and Roger Straw, Editor and Publisher of the Benicia Independent.
Valero has poured massive amounts of money to secure these seats for their hand-picked candidates Strawbridge and Largaespada. In 2018 and 2020, they spent $445,000 buying ads, bombarding us with endless phone calls and smearing good, honest candidates. As far as I can tell in my research, this is an unprecedented amount for a small town of 28,000 people. Presently, Valero has a war chest of over $225,000 for the 2022 election. They have sent out deceptive mailers and conducted phone banks promoting their candidates disguised as a neutral “poll” These last minute maneuvers are difficult to counter, as they hide many of their expenditures until AFTER the election.
The overwhelming response from the community when Valero’s campaign contributions and deceptive practices are exposed is one of outrage. We cannot tolerate or accept this as the status quo in our town. The community displayed its intolerance in 2020 when Strawbridge was trounced in her bid for the Mayor’s seat, despite the massive financial backing of Valero. Yet, Valero has persisted in building its campaign coffers and coming up with even dirtier tactics.
Sadly, our elected officials have displayed an astonishing disconnect from its outraged electorate and rather than criticize Valero for corrupting our elections, they have turned on the very community people who have exposed it. The two beneficiaries of Valero’s campaign funds feign ignorance as to why Valero would support them with these massive amounts of money and complain that those exposing these “facts” are engaging in “negative campaigning”. Another elected official writes a letter to the editor calling the attacks on Valero “over-the-top”, ignoring the fact that the money Valero pours into our elections to buy council seats is much more egregious. Yet another councilmember writes a tone-deaf letter to the editor saying that Strawbridge and Largaespada would make good council members and calls for their detractors to “stop talking trash.” Strawbridge and Largaespada may make great council members for Valero, but their ability to do good for the community is completely compromised by Valero’s sponsorship.
I have lived in this town close to forty years and have always been proud of the strong voice of the community that comes together and stands up for what is right. Whether it’s preserving open space, cleaning up toxic waste, blocking petroleum coke domes on the waterfront or fighting against exploding Bakken oil trains, this community has ALWAYS won the fight; we have done this despite opposition from City Hall and powerful monied interests. I have no doubt that we will go back to having clean and honest elections one day very soon. Thanks to all that are making this happen.
Jan Cox-Golovich Former Benicia City Councilmember
By Roger Straw, November 09, 2022
You must be logged in to post a comment.