Marina Police Chief Tina Nieto takes a big lead in a four-way primary for sheriff.

The election night party for Jeff Hoyne, at Portabella Restaurant in Carmel, was as low-key as his attitude toward the campaign. “Win, lose or draw, I’m pretty stoic about it,” he said before the election.

Early returns showed Hoyne, the chief of police in Del Rey Oaks and Monterey Regional Airport, trailing in fourth place with 7.8 percent of the vote.

The vibe was different in Marina, where Marina Police Chief Tina Nieto was celebrating at the Carpenters Union in a festive environment with a drawing for prizes. Barbecue and Hawaiian bread were on the menu. (The food was prepared by the Monterey/Santa Cruz Counties Building & Construction Trades Council, which supported her campaign.)

Local politicians and Democratic Party leaders were also at Nieto’s event, including County Supervisor Luis Alejo. “Tina is the right leader to make the right changes,” he says.

There was also a big presence of Marina locals, including City Councilmember Cristina Medina Dirksen and Tony Raffoul, who has lived in Marina since 2015 and owns the cannabis dispensary Element 7. “Tina is part of the community,” he says. “Everybody here knows Tina. That’s why I support her.”

That support translated to strong early election returns that put Nieto in a leading position, with 48.6 percent vote as of midnight on Wednesday morning, June 8.

If Nieto does not cross a 50-percent threshold to win the primary outright, she will go to a runoff with the second-place finisher, Joe Moses, a captain in the Sheriff’s Office. As of June 8, he was 6,677 votes behind Nieto.

Moses celebrated with about 100 supporters – also over barbecue – at Spreckels Memorial Hall. Outgoing Sheriff Steve Bernal, who endorsed Moses, was among the guests. “He’s really led me through this campaign – thank you so much, sir,” Moses said to Bernal.

Even if he doesn’t win, Moses hopes to stay on in the Sheriff’s Office, where he is responsible for running the jail, to try to address the mental health and substance abuse issues prevalent among inmates. “My intention is to get a behavioral health center started,” he says. “I believe very strongly we need that in this county.”

Justin Patterson, a deputy with 22 years of experience in the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, was in the third-place position. Win or lose, he says he’s met great people through the campaign and that his law-and-order message resonated: “The thing I learned the most is that people want law and order again,” Patterson says.