Benicia elections, Kari Birdseye, Local measures, Terry Scott

Benicia Election: Solano County certifies final results

Scott and Birdseye elected to Council, Measure K Open Space passes, Measure R Funding for Local Road Repair & Infrastructure fails

By Roger Straw, November 30, 2022

Today, the Solano County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Tim Flanagan certified the final official results of our November 8 General Election. I will detail the Benicia results below. For the full Solano County report check out these official Solano links:
November 8, 2022 General Election

OFFICIAL RESULTS – 11/30/2022 – 1:11 p.m.
Vote by Mail Ballots Issued – 260,409
Vote by Mail Ballots Processed – 112,378
In-Person Ballots Cast – 18,141
Official Election Results – Summary
Official Election Results – Precinct Report
Official Election Results – District Report
Official Results Backup Site

Benicia City Council vote

Benicia voters elected Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye for City Council 4 year terms. Both had run for Council and lost by narrow margins in recent years, but mounted strong and positive campaigns with backing from a wide variety of electeds, community leaders and local groups. For more about our new Councilmembers, see TerryScottForBenicia2022.org and KariBirdseyeForBenicia.com.

The two incumbents, Christina Strawbridge and Lionel Largaespada, ran their own campaigns, but were independently backed by a massive outlay of spending by Valero’s Benicia Refinery and some local labor groups. That PAC interference in our local elections became an issue in the campaign, and may have contributed to the incumbents’ failure to win re-election.

Detailed breakdown of City Council voting:
Scott received 235 more votes than Birdseye, who received 152 more votes than Largaespada, who received 456 votes more than Strawbridge, who received 3,160 votes more than Innes.

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Percentages of total vote:
Scott 24.78%. Birdseye 23.75%. Largaespada 23.09%. Strawbridge 21.10%.  Innes 7.29%.

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Measure K – Overwhelming support
By an 82% to 18% margin, Benicia residents passed Measure K, renewing the City’s Urban Growth Boundary for another 20 years. The area beyond our UGB will now be protected from development for 20 years. This means that the hills north of Lake Herman Road will be protected from development until 2043!
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Measure R – Narrowly defeated
Measure R was the Benicia Local Road Repair & Infrastructure Measure, which would have provided the necessary funding to fix and maintain, our roads, increasing the sales tax on certain purchases made in Benicia by 3/4 of 1 cent. The measure failed by a 49% to 51% margin. Vote by mail voters approved Measure R by a narrow margin, but election day voters were strongly opposed.
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Previous election updates on the BenIndy: