Incumbent Sheriff Scott Miller and Deputy Steve Bernal take the race to November.

As the first round of results came in just after 8pm June 3, the four-man race for Monterey County Sheriff quickly boiled down to two. Incumbent Scott Miller and South County-based Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Bernal will face off in the November general election.

As of 11am June 4, as the Weekly went to press, Miller held 42 percent of the votes, Bernal 31 percent. The other challengers in the four-way primary, former Sheriff’’s Cmdr. Mike Richards and former Cmdr. Fred Garcia, trailed with 14 and 12 percent of the votes, respectively.

Miller and Bernal’s election night parties were a study in contrasts. Miller and his supporters gathered at the Moose Lodge in Del Rey Oaks amid balloons and a buffet, while Bernal and his contingent celebrated under heat lamps with servers offering appetizers on the swanky rooftop of Vesuvio restaurant in Carmel.  

As of their last campaign filings, Bernal has raised about $178,000, $53,000 of which came from San Ardo rancher Margaret Duflock, the mother-in-law of Bernal’s brother. Miller, by contrast, has raised $26,500, plus a $172,000 loan from himself.

Miller remained guarded about his prospects before the first round of results came in, acknowledging the campaign has been tough of late. He said $2,500 worth of campaign signs had been stolen or defaced in recent weeks.

He was the target of a mailer sent out by a recently formed group, Californians for Law and Order. As of the Weekly’s deadline, the Hollister-based group had not filed campaign disclosure forms with the San Benito County Elections Department. The mailer highlighted the criminal activity of Miller’s son, Jacob, who’s currently in jail for drug offenses.

Bernal, a King City-based deputy who has strong support in South Monterey County, has campaigned as the ag-friendly candidate, vowing to crack down on crimes like equipment theft. Bernal and his wife, Leslie, gathered in front of a television for the first set of results. Bernal had 31 percent of the vote to Miller’s 43, and both he and Leslie lit up with the news. 

“We’ve worked hard the past two and half years, and we’re going to keep working hard the next four or five months and keep doing what we’re doing and get our message out,” Bernal said, naming staffing and morale as the two things he’d address in the department if elected. “As a working deputy, I can tell you morale is at an all-time low.”

Back at the Moose Lodge, Miller felt good about his standing. “I think the people that voted for me are the people who looked at my qualifications and my performance as sheriff,” he said. He maintained Bernal’s claim about low morale is baseless. “I know in the last two-plus years, not one deputy has left to go work somewhere else in the county.”

In a recent endorsement vote by the Monterey County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, Miller received 36 percent of the vote, compared to 20 percent for Garcia, 16 percent for Bernal and 9 percent for Richards. Seventeen percent voted for “none of the above.” Miller also noted he’s hired 40 new deputies in the last year and a half.

“[Bernal] is flat-out wrong,” Miller said. “Morale has never been higher.”