In a rare contest for county auditor, insider Enedina Garcia leads in early results.

Burcu Mousa was no longer nervous when Election Day, June 2, rolled around. “A sense of calmness has washed over me,” she says. 

The certified public accountant and former staffer in the Monterey County Auditor-Controller’s Office had spent the past few months getting a crash course in how to run a campaign and local politics. “I didn't necessarily have a mentor until I met with Jane Parker and she guided me,” Mousa says of the former county supervisor. 

That guidance helped connect Mousa through her campaign for auditor-controller to progressive figures in local politics like Salinas activists Demetrio Pruneda and Chris Barrera who attended her election night gathering at Stonies Taphouse in Salinas, where Mousa ordered a Manhattan but seemed barely able to find time to sip on it between conversations with supporters—her husband, Deputy Public Defender Shadee Mousa, ended up drinking her first attempt at a cocktail. 

On the other end of the political spectrum, she also drew support from the Monterey County Republican Central Committee, a rarity for a registered Democrat even though the position of auditor-controller is nonpartisan. “We endorsed her because of her authenticity,” says incoming chair Gregory Fuller. “She walked in and wowed everybody.” 

Despite an ability to wow supporters and outspending her opponent, Enedina Garcia, by about 35-to-1, early election returns showed Mousa trailing the assistant auditor-controller by about 3,500 votes, with just 46 percent of the vote.

Garcia did not respond to the Weekly’s interview requests leading up to and on Election Day, but ran with endorsements from retired Auditor Rupa Shah, and County Supervisor Luis Alejo. 

Mousa says that when the County Board of Supervisors twice discussed recruitment/appointment of an auditor-controller after Shah stepped away, she reached out to all of the supervisors to let them know the two-way election would be decided in June. She heard back from four, but not from Alejo, who then endorsed Garcia. 

“In my heart, I believe it's not a political position but the way certain things played out, I learned how it is viewed,” Mousa says. “That was really interesting.”

Current and former County of Monterey employees were among the nearly 50 supporters who gathered at Stonies. “I am invested in having positive energy,” says Emilie Espinosa, who used to work in the auditor’s office. 

She and Henry Espinosa, former Department of Social Services director, former assistant County Administrative Officer Manny González and Jaime Ayala from the county’s contracts and purchasing department all seem to agree it’s too early to call the election based on early results. “I’m a firm optimist,” Ayala says. “I never give into the negative.”