A political newcomer bests two P.G. council incumbents; Nick Smith takes first in mayor’s race.

The lights went out for a big swath of Pacific Grove and Monterey during an outage on Election Night about an hour before the polls closed at 8pm, but thankfully power was still on downtown where two watch parties were happening, one at Pop and Hiss for P.G. City Council candidates Chaps Poduri and Tina Rau, the other at Hops & Fog for Councilmember Nick Smith, in his first run for mayor. 

As about 20 people at Pop and Hiss nervously watched national election results on MSNBC, someone yelled, “Keep hitting refresh! Give us some good news, Tina!” Just after 8pm, as Rau hit refresh on her phone and the initial Monterey County results were posted online, the news was good for fellow candidate and incumbent Poduri, who was in second place in the early results. 

It was more challenging for Rau, who found herself in fourth place amid a field of six candidates for three seats, just 42 votes behind incumbent Luke Coletti, who was in third place. She was holding out hope to catch up to Coletti in the next round of votes announced at 10pm, but she was still behind by 41 votes. This was the second time for her to be in this position: When Rau ran for council in 2022 she came in fourth behind Debby Beck by 52 votes, decided in a recount weeks after the election.

In first place in the early results was Paul Walkingstick, a newcomer to P.G. politics, with 2,578 votes, just slightly over 21 percent of the total on Tuesday night. Poduri followed with just under 20 percent of the vote, with 2,419 votes. Coletti had 19.4 percent with 2,373 votes and Rau was at 19 percent with 2,331 votes. The percentages held when the second round was announced just after 10pm. In fifth place was former P.G. mayor Carmelita Garcia with 1,775 votes. Chilla Kartalov was in sixth place with 729 votes. 

Walkingstick wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t around to celebrate. “I’m incredibly grateful for the broad community support,” he says via text. 

Down the street and around the corner at Hops & Fog, a jubilant Smith was celebrating with friends and family his first-place finish with nearly 44.5 percent of the vote. It was unlikely that his challengers Dan Miller (31 percent) and Dionne Ybarra (24.5 percent) would catch up. 

His friend and campaign manager, Seaside Councilmember Alex Miller, showed up to the pub a little before 9pm, his arms raised in victory and shouting congratulations to his friend. In the room were current Mayor Bill Peake and two former mayors, Bill Kampe and Jeanne Byrne.

“I had really strong support from former councilmembers and mayors, and people in the community with young kids,” Smith says, adding he plans on continuing progress Pacific Grove has made in repairing infrastructure, environmental stewardship, financial stability and youth recreation. He also plans on focusing on affordable housing, among other issues.

P.G.’s Measure Z to shrink the council from seven members to five was headed for defeat on Tuesday night for the second time. Results at 10pm showed no votes prevailing 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent. The same measure was narrowly defeated in 2022.