Primary election results (so far) have carried some interesting storylines.

Christopher Neely here, waiting for Monterey County to give the public an official final tally of the votes from the primary election that happened over a week ago. 

This election and its results (so far) have carried some interesting storylines. Among them, a clear rejection of the status quo from voters in the race for sheriff and District 2 county supervisor. Incumbent Sheriff Steve Bernal’s pick for the post, Capt. Joe Moses, finds himself in second place but more than 20 points behind Marina Police Chief Tina Nieto. Moses still has time to galvanize voters ahead of the all but certain runoff election against Nieto in November. 

Incumbent District 2 Supervisor John Phillip’s pick to succeed him, Salinas Mayor Kimbley Craig, appeared poised for a November runoff against Glenn Church, who has remained in the lead in the six-candidate race. However, a dump of roughly 12,600 ballots at 4:05pm on Tuesday, June 14—almost a full seven days after polls closed on the primary race—narrowly knocked Craig back into third place, where she now sits behind Regina Gage by 23 votes. 

Gage has not responded to the Weekly’s several requests for comment, but Craig says she remains optimistic that she can edge her way into second place. 

“I’m assured there are ballots left to count, so my campaign team is headed down to the elections department to ensure provisional ballots and signature verifications are reviewed,” Craig says via text. “I am optimistic with the process of counting ballots all the way through the certification of the election.” 

Although it wasn’t as clear a rejection of the status quo, there is also something interesting happening in the U.S. House of Representatives District 18 race, which, thanks to once-in-a-decade redistricting changes last year, now stretches from downtown San Jose, across all of San Benito County and through the entire Salinas Valley. On the surface, incumbent Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren welcomed a decisive victory over her two opponents, with 56.4 percent of the vote, a full 25 points ahead of her next closest challenger, San Benito Supervisor Pete Hernández. 

However, a closer look reveals it is not so simple. Over the last six months, Lofgen had to sell her platform to a new rural and agricultural constituency, where Zoe wasn’t the same household name as it has become in Silicon Valley. Since Lofgren’s first successful congressional win in 1994, she has only ever garnered less than 62 percent of the popular vote in the primary one time—that first 1994 run. In eight of the 14 primaries she’s competed in since, she’s eclipsed 70 percent of the popular vote, even gaining 99 percent of the vote in 2018.

Lofgren did not eclipse 50 percent of the popular vote in Monterey and San Benito counties, but saw 62 percent and 55 percent of the votes in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Despite the district stretching in the agriculture areas south, Santa Clara County remains the center of power in District 18. Still, Hernández put up a better fight than Lofgren has seen since that inaugural run in 1994. The two are poised to face off in a November general election and Jeff Larivee, Lofgren’s campaign aide, says they are preparing to “run a full-fledged campaign for November.” 

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission, in their effort to redraw voting district maps last fall, set out to make District 18 a congressional seat carried by Latino voices. Yet, Lofgren is one of the more senior members of Congress, where seniority means a whole lot. As I write this, she is one of nine House members on the Jan. 6th Committee, investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She enjoys backing from the established Democratic Party machine. In other words, she is a force to be reckoned with on the ballot, no matter what her district’s new boundaries encompass. 

District 1 Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo tells me that as long as Lofgren wants the seat, she is likely to receive support from Democrats in the Salinas Valley. However, she is 74 years old, and will not be there forever. Alejo’s name has been tossed around, along with Assemblymember Robert Rivas’, as early picks to run for the seat. 

“Many people respect and acknowledge the leadership Zoe has provided and there is no reason to not continue to support her,” Alejo says, emphasizing Lofgren worked to build relationships with leaders in the Salinas Valley during the primary campaign. “But when she does decide it’s time to pass it on to someone else, the makeup of the district does provide an opportunity in the future for a Latino or Latina representative in that seat.”

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