[Editor: The sweep of local elections by three candidates who strongly opposed Valero Crude By Rail is to be celebrated. Our next four years in Benicia will hopefully be witness to a new majority on Council, with a vision for progressive values. – RS]
The Solano County Registrar of Voters issued a day’s end report at 4:45pm Wednesday 11/23. Although 2,584 Provisional ballots remain to be counted, only 34 of those are from Benicia. Mayor Patterson has won re-election. Steve Young has been elected and Tom Campbell has been re-elected to the City Council. Patterson, Young and Campbell will be sworn in at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 6.
Mayor Elizabeth Patterson‘s lead increased by 14 votes after today’s counting. Her margin of victory over challenger Mark Hughes has nearly tripled, increasing from 109 votes early on Wednesday morning, to 329 as of today. Hughes phoned Mayor Patterson on the day after the election to concede.
City Councilmember-elect Steve Young‘s lead over Tom Campbell increased by 2 votes today and his lead over Christina Strawbridge increased by 9. Young remains the top vote-getter, now by a margin of 285 votes over Campbell and 808 votes over Strawbridge. Traditionally in Benicia, the Council candidate with the most votes becomes Vice Mayor until the next election cycle. Congratulations, Vice-mayor-elect Young!
Solano County Supervisor-elect Monica Brown also extended her lead over Mike Ioakimedes by 68 votes, increasing her margin of victory to 3697 votes (18662 Brown to 14965 Ioakimedes).
Here is a table showing Benicia details, taken from Steve Young’s website:
City Council (top two are elected)
| Candidate | Total votes | Vote % | Election day | Vote by mail | Pro-visional |
| Steve Young | 6704 | 26.81 | 2022 | 4472 | 210 |
| Tom Campbell | 6419 | 25.67 | 1788 | 4479 | 152 |
| Christina Strawbridge | 5896 | 23.60 | 1604 | 4134 | 158 |
| Lionel Largaespada | 4086 | 16.34 | 1233 | 2718 | 135 |
| George Oakes | 1800 | 7.20 | 565 | 1173 | 62 |
| Write-in | 96 | 0.38 | 33 | 59 | 4 |
| Over Votes | 16 | 2 | 14 | 0 | |
| Under Votes | 6281 | 2121 | 3733 | 427 |
Mayor
| Candidate | Total votes | Vote % | Election day | Vote by mail | Pro-visional |
| Elizabeth Patterson | 7529 | 50.95 | 2216 | 5056 | 257 |
| Mark Hughes | 7200 | 48.73 | 2202 | 4761 | 237 |
| Write In | 47 | 0.32 | 15 | 32 | 0 |
| Over Votes | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Under Votes | 872 | 250 | 542 | 80 |
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