County Supervisor Jane Parker keeps a firm grasp on her seat.

In order to get into Dennis Donohue’s election night party, you had to ring the doorbell. 

After it was brought to Donohue’s attention that the planned location for his party—the Rodeo Room at Salinas Sports Complex—was actually in District 1, the party’s location was changed to his Salinas home. 

Donohue, a radicchio agribusinessman and former Salinas mayor, who ran against incumbent Jane Parker for the District 4 county supervisor seat, is all smiles just before 8pm on election night, before the first results come in. 

Guests continue to arrive, making their way onto Donohue’s patio, where heat lamps take the chill out of the evening fog. They include Rev. H.H. Lusk of Seaside, Pastor Kenneth Murray of Monterey, and later, Carlos Ramos, a local political fixer and active member of Seaside’s Greater Victory Temple. 

Donohue isn’t interested in talking about the campaign, saying he doesn’t want to be a “Monday morning quarterback,” but he does say, “It’s been a long personal journey.” 

He also hopes for closure. 

“I would prefer, one way or another, to have an outcome,” he says.

At about 8:15pm, the outcome crystallizes when the first results come in: Parker has 58 percent of the votes to Donohue’s 36 percent, with 21 percent of the votes counted. 

When the numbers come across the TV in Donohue’s living room, a collective “oomph” comes from the room, then mostly silence. Ramos sits on the couch, shaking his head silently, while Donohue quickly exits the room to confer with campaign manager Steve Thomas. 

When he re-emerges, sweat beads down his face. 

“This is the beginning of a long evening,” he says. “There is a lot of information yet to come in.”

At Parker’s party at the Press Club in Seaside, two of the most popular juices on the menu—B-RAD and RAD Booster–are both listed as sold out. But they’re not: It’s just that they both contain radicchio.

The acoustics at the Press Club reverberate the cheer in the room, and relief: Donohue outspent Parker by almost 2-to-1 ($428,000 to $257,000, and counting). Marina homeowner Hans Ongchua had trouble sleeping Monday night as a result of those numbers, and was doubly encouraged by the presumed outcome of the District 5 race, where Mary Adams is carrying a sizable lead against longtime incumbent Dave Potter. 

“I feel both of them coming on the board will tip the balance,” he says. 

After the first round of results, Parker is expectedly cheerful. 

“I think we ran a really good campaign,” she says. “The voters seem to value the issues I’ve been championing.”